We have stayed at the St Regis on many occasions over the years and have many fond memories of our time in the Big Apple, one of my favourite cities. However, the best was on the occasion of one of my good friends, Bob Gallagher’s 50^th birthday in 2015. Having spent lunch time, at an old haunt of mine called Felix, at the bottom of West Broadway in the village, the ladies, as is their wont, went shopping but the men decided to continue their inebriation which was in full flow, and we ‘agreed’ to meet up later for the surprise dinner.

With dinner booked at Gallagher’s, Bob’s namesake, an iconic New York Steakhouse for 8.00pm, Bob and I arrived back at the hotel around 7ish and decided to have a little gin & tonic in the King Cole bar before our obligatory shower and change. The problem is, if you’ve ever been is there is no such thing as a little gin & tonic in ‘Nat’s Bar’. The shower, as you probably guessed, never materialised and much to the disgust of our wives, we decided we would go out to dinner in our lunch attire! It was a mess, and no sooner had we arrived, than we were duly escorted out. The highlight being, Bob doing his W.C Fields impression of pretending to read the menu, not realising it was upside down. We eventually got a taxi that would take us back to the hotel and I apparently did a starfish impression on the red carpet of the hotel steps. We were in bed by 8.30pm. Location wise, it’s great for Upper East Side shops and a stone’s throw from Central Park and Fifth Avenue.