The Pfister Crossroads

I come from a very small town. Pick just about any country music ditty and the lyrics describe something I grew up with. What’s inevitable about a small town is the odds of bumping into someone you know anywhere you go. My luck was always just after I’d thrown on grubby, weekend clothes, I’d run into people in the grocery store.

When I first moved to Milwaukee, however, I longed for these moments of happenstance—it’s a sign you’ve lived and circulated somewhere long enough to actually have people to bump into.

The Pfister Hotel…

Picture Perfect

When I travel somewhere, I take endless photographs, but that typical scenic shot—the Grand Canyon, Big Ben, anything in Yellowstone—I don’t even try to capture. I know someone before me has put a lot of time and energy into crystallizing the feeling of the place in perfect lighting, at just the right moment, with all the pieces falling in line with the close of the aperture. I buy their postcard.

The Pfister Hotel at the lunch hour is just such a postcard. I’ve tried to understand the place at all hours of the day, and have…

Strangers on a Bar Stool

Here’s what I like about Mason Street Grill…the vibe. It’s not just the cool jazz in the corner or the hushed lighting at the bar. It’s the eagerness of the patrons. They don’t have the “whew, it’s over” aura of other happy hour revelers. In fact, I watched as businessmen gathered for a meeting as late as 7 p.m. As one trench-coated executive was mentioning his flight had just arrived and his colleagues greeted him quickly as a matter of task,  I said to the man sitting next to me “Wow, they…

Postponing Monday

I read as much as I write. Books invade how I see the world and lately, I’ve been reading authors who describe characters writing letters or the letters being read. I often join my literary world with my visceral world at the Pfister, each time I sit down, I feel as though I should pen a letter.

The setting is perfect for it, of course. I’ve told you before about the endless soft chairs and nooks and crannies. Yet, in my travels through the hotel, I’ve only met one woman so far who was writing in a…

Playing Dress Up

We’re having tea again this weekend. I am on a mission to expose everyone I know to this amazing day out. I was told yesterday, however, that I am to dress up. One of the friends has bought a new dress just for the tea outing.

It’s important for me to tell you, I see all kinds in the Pfister—and that’s the best part. All are welcome. While the hotel is always dressed in its best (which is impressive) and the staff are impeccable in their uniforms, guests and patrons don garb that ranges from jeans…

Going Live...

I promised endless gushing about the Business Journal’s Book of Lists event, and I will deliver. As I mentioned before, a number of things resonated for me in that transformed ballroom, but the importance of human interactions ranks highest.

In my professional and personal life, I spend my time managing a number of social media accounts and projects. I tell friends to email or text me because I hate talking on the phone. What’s worse, something about the technology or the design leaves me completely unable to hear on a cell phone. By canceling my land line and…

Coordinating Careers with Confucius

My favorite movie of all time is Working Girl. I remember how charmed my mom was by Harrison Ford (especially the scene where he changes shirts in his office) and personally, I love the sage bits of wisdom that fall, in full Jersey accent, out of Melanie Griffith and Joan Cusack’s mouths. This more than 20-year old movie has always been my guide and vision for the cutthroat world of business. I often toast, like Griffith does under her breath at a social function, “here’s to the little people” trying to get to the top.

I don…

Everything Old is New Again

The Pfister Hotel is never the same place twice…and that’s the best part. Since I have been named the Narrator, I try to bring  different friends into the Pfister to sit and watch and enjoy with me.

There are different kinds of reactions. Some have known the hotel much longer than I (I am only just beginning my fourth year as a Milwaukeean) and their Milwaukee origin stories revolve around the hotel. “I remember we used to…” begin their narratives.

Others are related to the hotel through me. “What will you write about him? Oh! What about her…

The Morse Twins on Proper Pfister Behavior

The Pfister is always in motion. One evening this week, the lobby was punctuated by business travelers all in their black wool coats, deftly rolling their carry on luggage behind them like disobedient children as they purposefully walked to the desk to check in. Crossing past the late arrivals were those already nestled into the hotel returning to the lobby with laptops and papers in hand to sit among those clicking furiously on smart phones, seemingly conducting essential business transactions.

Amid all this dutiful work going on and the rhythm of arrival, check in, work in lobby; arrival, check in…

Until we Decorate Again...

I’m not ashamed to say I haven’t taken my Christmas decorations down yet. I just can’t get enough of the holiday and have been a little blue to see the Pfister returned to its pre-holiday state. It is still gorgeous, of course, sans tree, baubles and wreaths.  

I was there on one of the last days of holiday glamour and had to laugh at the mother whose little girl who had her mind dead set on touching the plaid scarf draped on the neck of one of the lions in the lobby. Watching the little one…

Friday Night Fever

I laugh at the character Charlotte on Sex in the City, the popular HBO television series. When she’s single, she grows frustrated when she doesn’t have plans on Saturday night. “But it’s date night!” she wails when others suggest things for her to do.

I don’t think date night is solely Saturday night in Milwaukee. Friday night in the Pfister is full of roaming young men, wrapped in cashmere scarves and the latest fashions and the slight hint of a few beers warming them to the evening. As the night grows late, a certain drive seems…

Mapping a Model For Us

There are so many songs about the open road, taking a trip, beginning a journey or getting lost on a deserted highway. The first sunny day of spring, I always choose an Indigo Girls’ song that directs me to “get out the map, get out the map and lay your finger anywhere down.”

Kit’s family instructed her that exact routine since she was a young girl. One of four daughters, Kit professed that she loved when folks would tease her father, “Oh, no, all those women in one house! Four daughters, how awful!” and he would shock the naysayers…

Ringing in the New

“What are you doing New Year’s, New Year’s Eve?” is, as the song dictates, easily the “jackpot question.” And though the Pfister offers an incredible package filled with celebrations and bands and cocktails, so, too, does Milwaukee.

Whenever I run into people at the Pfister (especially the notables with celebrity clout, and tell my friends about it) their first question is always “Why? Why were they here?”

I’m on a personal mission to change the question from “Why would they (person of note, importance, fame, celebrity, money, culture, etc.) be in Milwaukee?” to instead “Well, why wouldn…

A Pfister is Born

Here’s the thing about the Pfister: all of its history, its massive holiday decorations, its formally dressed staff and its exquisite service can be intimidating, but in fact, the opposite is true. This morning, while having breakfast in a near-deserted café, I  felt like I was at home. The relaxed feel of a staff that was perhaps overwhelmed leading up to the holiday felt just like the relief I saw in my mother after all the Christmas morning wrapping paper was picked up, the family fed and the naps started. The giant sigh of satisfaction and relaxation has…

Where Grandmas Get Noticed...

What I like the most about public places—the kind that allow for you to slow down and engage, not the shop-till-you-drop big box stores or the endlessly-in-motion malls—is who you see gathering together there.

I was one of the few (well, that’s a lie, there were many, as I’m sure retailers had hoped) who shopped a bit on Christmas Eve. People were friendly, in the spirit, but the lines were long and tedious. People moved through with their carts and packages without noticing one another—I saw three near accidents involving…

Everyday Celebrations

One of my favorite things to do is toast and clink glasses. A simple “cheers” makes every gathering with friends feel like a celebration.

During a time when finances are tight and jobs may be scarce, celebrating seems harder to come by, which is why I get excited when I see others reveling in simple traditions or routines.

This weekend, college degrees were awarded all across the city. At the Pfister, one law school graduate and her family (a group of 14 in all) gathered in the lobby bar in twos and threes and when all were present and the…

Seating for One

There are so many corners to lose yourself in at the Pfister Hotel. Just when I think I’ve found the perfect nook, I realize, there’s already a soft chair or couch there waiting for me—a clear demonstration that the staff at the Pfister know that cozy corners are a commodity.

The thing is, as part of my role, I am often at the Pfister alone. Many women may tell you they rarely go out alone. Maybe we go shopping, where it’s expected, or to a movie, where once the lights are down, it’s harder for…

Be a Part of History: Volunteer!

Milwaukee may be known as the City of Festivals, but they don’t just happen by themselves; many dedicated residents and volunteers preserve our culture and promote the heritage of the city annually. The Pfister Hotel hosted the United Ethnic Festivals board holiday party and the volunteer organizers of each of our summer festivals gathered to celebrate the season.

Early in the evening, I met the vice president of German Fest and his wife and while we talked, the celebration of heritage became more important than simply celebrating. The couple (Mr. and Mrs. Rudi Wolf) started to express their concern…

Learning From Tea Time

Let me make your weekend plans for you. One way or another, they should include a reservation for Victorian Tea at the Pfister. I’ve been to London a couple of times, but the last visit included an endless hunt for the perfect “high tea” with a friend. The hijinks that ensued made it a memorable experience and of course we ate all our little cakes, but it wasn’t the full, austere, formal experience we had always thought tea to be.

Making up for it, two friends and I recently had tea at the Pfister. My anglophile companions and…

Wedded Wisdom

Today’s network news ran a feature story about how Middle Americans have been losing faith in marriage. I had to laugh out loud as I thought of John and Kathy, an amazing couple who recently celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary at the Pfister. First of all, I think all wedding anniversaries are to be congratulated. Life is stressful enough, but to combine your energies with a partner and navigate tough financial terrain and cultural circumstances (in an age where another news story says we’ve increased our whining and complaining) can be as taxing as it is rewarding so…

Happy Hour as a Career High

Friday night happy hour is only an event because you were supposedly unhappy in the preceding hours at your work. Organizational theorists, business consulting gurus and all the Seth Godin’s of the world could supplement their next best seller with a happy hour at the Pfister.

Tonight’s crowd ran the gamut in examples of the intersection of work and life. John and Kathy (who you’ll meet again in another post) made a life together around job relocation. After I asked, “So you moved seven times for work?” Kathy eagerly reminded me, “Oh, no, honey, eight times!”

John…

The Things that Matter

I very comfortably sit in the camp that holiday music on the airwaves beginning on Thanksgiving Day is a Martha Stewart-style Good Thing. All of the kitcshy pieces of holiday spirit may, to some, seem commercial and not the point, but to many, they’re just a conduit to the real merry.  

I was at the Pfister when its holiday traditions kicked off, but apparently I was not first in line. Rebecca, harbinger of holiday spirit and antler-clad, held that coveted spot.  When asked about her antlers, Rebecca very politely informed me that they are not her only…

Happy Accidents Help Make Merry

Sometimes the best things that happen to you are accidents, which is why we say “happy accident” when talking of coincidences or other fortuitous events. Tonight was a fortuitous event for a number of people at the Pfister Hotel.

Its now traditional tree lighting ceremony began, for me anyway, in a crowded elevator where one patron had to simply defy all elevator expectation and turn to us all and say in awe, “are you all going to the tree lighting at the Pfister?” The entire group nodded. This tradition was new to her, but she didn’t realize, obviously, that…

Moved by Memories

The holidays often make people nostalgic. Smells, lighting, seasonal images…all of it can take you back to a specific moment in time. Making memories is a big part of who we are and even though we live in a world of saved images and digitally infinite Facebook messages and Gmail chats it’s comforting to know that our mind will always preserve the best and most important moments in our lives.

Roc, a long-time concierge at the Pfister, can tell you a million stories about memories. His are, of course, of guests and interactions and moments he’s…

Finding Yourself at the Pfister

Often, people aren’t used to being a tourist in their own town and in Milwaukee, I come across the phenomenon often. When was the last time you took the Miller Brewing tour? Or had lunch at the Safe House? Or, like the woman I met at the Pfister lobby bar, when was the last time you had a staycation in Milwaukee? Micki (not her real name, of course, but she was nervous to be written about, so I’ll change her name here and bear the pressure of giving her a name she’d like. I think of a…