The Society Diaries

www.thesocietymagazine.com4· The SOCIETY diaries

travel

Words: Lance Avery Morgan

Images courtesy of Capella Pedregal Resort

The Capella Pedregal in Los Cabos Mexico is the destination of the rich, celebrated and also,

to those who understand the value of understated luxury at it’s finest.

Capella Pedregal in Cabo San LucasA World Away

5fall 2011

First, we all know there ara more luxurious resorts in Cabo than just about anywhere else. That`s what makes it such a popular destination with high-flying Texans. It is close, conveniente since Cabo is really Baja Cali-

fornia, about anywhere else. That’s what makes it such a popular destina¬tion with high-flying Tex-ans. It is close, convenient since Cabo is really Baja California, plus the warm and inviting of Mexican resorts is irresistible. The glam strip of beach land connects the towns of San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas.

Opened in 2009 at the very end of the area’s pen¬insula, Pedregal ascribes to Los Cabos’ luxe point of view. Pedregal, nestled in the hills, is both a ro¬mantic rendezvous and family-friendly prop-erty with spacious 66 casitas and suites on 24 pris-tine acres, while some of the private residences are available for stays, too. “The service and the overall ambience, along the people who work here, is what make this resort so special,” says Peter Bowling, the resort’s general manager.

Once you land in Cabo, a 40 minute drive along the area gets you directly to the resort. When I was picked up by the resort, a cold water bottle and fin¬ger towel awaited me in the resort’s car ser-vice. Those small details set the exemplary six star stan¬dard for the rest of the trip.

The Sea of Cortez, on the Pacific side, is the body of water that captures your attention from any van¬tage point. A long tunnel, dug from the mountain that sep-arates the town of Cabo San Lucas, high¬lights the journey that lands at the resort. Lighted like a James Bond film location, the 900-foot long cavern ends at the bright daylight of the hotel and then, just beyond that, you take in the full majestic ocean view.

A modern yet traditional perspective of Mexico is the resorts signature vibe. That mix helps to create an authentic ambiance to make every guest feel at home, yet be ready to play. The suites and rooms are

“When guests arrive here, it doesn’t feel like a new and modern hotel,” further explains Bowling. “It has the soul and feel that is loving, caring and welcom¬ing.” Before you arrive, you’ll be contact-ed by email by your personal assistant (your espe-cially dedicated concierge) at the resort to take care of any advance needs you might have. A majordomo is also available should you require a full time atten-dant at the prop¬erty. Service with a smile is putting it lightly with the friendly staff that is always within eyesight for anything you desire from the hotel.

The resort is within a five minute walking distance of the town’s marina where you can take in the flair of Old Mexico with the wares of the local artisans. Near¬by, jaunt over to Capella Pedregal’s private yacht club in the heart of the Cabo Marina, where you can board Carina, the resort’s private Viking sport cruiser, as the sun sets over Pedregal Mountain.

Several pools, all with ocean views, await you. A spe¬cial poolside kiddie area accommodates the family minded, too. You can sun, then take a dip into the pool and swim over to the poolside bar, plus the servers can bring you anything you want, too.

Hungry yet? You won’t be after you choose one of the resort’s three onsite restaurants; Don Miguel’s, El Farallon, or the Beach Club (for lighter poolside fare). I learned to cook authentic Baja cuisine with Per Se -trained Executive Chef Marco Bustamanto, the resort’s resident expert in all things culinary. Don Manuel’s features Mexican contemporary cuisine; light cuisine is served at the poolside Beach Club and then there’s the Ocean Grill Farallon, with sea-food specialties in an alfresco setting at the ocean’s cliff. The background roar of the waves


travel

7fall 2011

The background roar of the wavesand the candlelight makes for a

romantic evening.


The background roar of the wavesand the candlelight makes for a

romantic evening.

fully Art Mexico City


travel

Mexico City’s cultural scene is on fire now. Posi-tioned to make the city the hottest destination for trophy travelers, the new Museo Soumaya dazzles visitors upon arrival with its asymmetrical alumi-num exterior, as well as with the world-class art housed inside. A generous helping of Old Masters, Impressionists, Mexican stars like Diego Rivera, plus the second-largest collection of Rodin sculp-tures in the world, has helped this become a world class venue.

It¹s easy to find: the museum is located on Plaza Carso, just north of the fashionable Polanco neigh-borhood at Presa Falcón 245, Colonia Amplición Granada; soumaya.com.mx. While in Mexico City, taking in its world- famous National Muse-um of Anthropology is a must; it has the greatest collection of pre-Columbian art on the planet.

Then there’s the Museum of the Templo Mayor, next to the city’s spectacular cathedral on the Zó-calo (main square) in downtown Mexico City.

Here, you will experience a network of steps and walkways among the ongoing excavation of the great Aztec temple (discovered in 1978 by electrical workers laying underground cable) that once graced the site.

You can also view the artifacts like statues, jewelry, pottery‹unearthed from the temple, which are now housed within the modern museum building at the side of the site.

In addition to the great Diego Rivera’s massive murals decorating the Palacio Nacional, the lesser-known murals of José Clemente Orozco and Jean Charlot found in the eighteenth-century College of San Ildefonso are well worth the short walk to Calle Justo Sierra 16, too.

Fans of decorative arts and design should also visit the often-overlooked Franz Mayer Museum at Hi-dalgo 45, across from Alameda Park, where you¹ll find beautifully displayed antique European and New World furniture, silver, and ceramics, as well as a breezy terrace café.

The museum also mounts fascinating temporary exhibitions such as the current (through May 8) “Bijoux: Fantasias en Moda y Joyeria” show, fea-turing 400 pieces of vintage 20th-century jewelry and couture amassed by well-known local collec-tor Barbara Berger; franzmayer.org.mx. When in Mexico City, experience the best the city has to of-fer, starting with the museums. See you there.

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1. New museo Soumaya2. Franz MayerMuseum3. Museum of theTemplo Mayor4. Palacio Nacional5. College of San Idelfonso6. National Museum of Anthropology

11fall 2011

The Society DiplomatA View From The Top

The party to celebrate the endeavor was a beacon of

Mid-Century chic when guests from around Texas,

L.A. and N.Y. arrived on the patio of the new W

Austin. The Vueve Champagne cocktails infused

with berries, the Belvedere vodka martinis and the

Terrazas wine toasted the evening’s success while

party-goers enjoyed the W’s passed hor d’oeuvres

were serenaded to the Bossa Nova sounds like The

Girl From Ipanema, and Desifinado before pop per-

former Larissa Ness took the stage to perform a

few hit songs. DJ Johnny Bravo took the reign and

spun disco tracks for non-stop dancing until the eve-

ning’s end when cake pops were passed out the Palm

Springs-attired attendees. Everyone was invited to

take a tour of the new W residences as well as learn

more about the Make A Wish organization, both of

whom had a presence. Some of the event’s invited

guests were unable to attend due to the Royal Wed-

ding and Las Vegas tycoon Steve Wynn’s wedding

that same day.

people



Rachel Schultz, Diana Siminski, Chanel Dror and Kat Reagan

Lance Avery Morgan, Natalie Bond and Rob Giardinelli Adrienne and Shane Albregts

people

Karen Lee Zachry and Suzanne Dabbous

people


Shanghai SurpriseGala-goers Enthralled by Chinese-Inspired Fundraiser

It was a grand night to be in San Antonio recent-ly. The Texas Biomed Forum (formerly South-west Foundation Forum) held their sold-out an-nual gala at the chic Argyle Club and it will be remembered for many years to come. The event’s red-hot Shanghai Affair was the theme that dazzled partygoers from their mo-ment of arrival, thanks to Trinity Flowers’ Danny Cueller. Guests were surrounded by massive red lanterns, vases, Fu dogs, Asian-infused cuisine and, even traditional Chinese lion dancers. In fact, many guests dressed in festive Chinese-in-spired attire to further the mood of the evening. During the cocktail hour, guests sipped on gin-gered champagne cocktails while entertained by dancing lions and martial arts displays by the San Antonio Lion Dance Association. At dinner, the guests were treated to a fabulous meal pre-pared by the Argyle which included an Asian sal-

ad with hoisin duck breast first course, followed by the main course - a hondashi dusted petite filet mignon paired with sesame crusted ahi tuna on a bed of bokchoy, and for dessert, a Mandarin or-ange soufflé. After dinner, Shanghai After Dark (the after party) kicked off and people danced the night away to the music of Delta House in a sultry setting reminiscent of a night club in Shanghai in the 1930’s. Chocolate-dipped fortune cookies and other fun favors were passed, too.

It wasn’t all fun and games though, since the goal of raising $200,000 was rapidly met to create seed money for the scientists at Texas Biomedical Re-search Institute (formerly Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research). As we all know, the good folks at the Texas Biomed Forum supports Texas Biomed through community relations, vol-unteer services and fundraising. Good work, gala goers and to all the talented staff who created the event so flawlessly.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Marks Moore

17fall 2011fall 2011

Tracy Williams, Jeanette Longoria, Hutton Wilkinson and Sarah Moore

Mark and Sarah Moore Mark and Christy Meador, Peter and Julie Zacher, Josie and Clare Flesher


people

Placido Domingo Supreme Tenor

A significant concert event is happening this fall in San Antonio. The Alamo City has been chosen to perform a special concert by superstar tenor, Placido Domingo. His last appearance at the Alamodome in 2007 is still hailed as one of the greatest concerts ever for the city. Expressing his special warmth for the people of San Antonio, Domingo promised during his last concert to return soon. Sound inviting? Placido Domingo will perform a romantic concert of opera, zarzuela, tango and Mariachi favorites accompanied by guest artists and a full symphony orchestra. It will be another magical evening at the opera.

people


PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Greg Harr ison

Placido Domingo

Graciela and Francisco Cigarroa

Mayor Julian Castro and Erica Castro


people

Steve Late, Ava Late, FNL star Taylor Kitsch, Jennifer Welch

NBC’s Friday Night Light’s star Kyle Chandler and event chair Heather Page


people

Beyond The LightsIt was the perfect day recently for successfully rais-ing funds for the two vital charities; The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis and The Gridiron Heroes Spinal Cord Injury Foundation. Only in its fourth year, the event was sold out the celebrity golf tour-nament and evening for the second time a month before the event.

Created by NBC’s critically acclaimed television show, Friday Night Lights’ actors Kyle Chandler and Brad Leland, both decided years ago to create the tournament to raise funds for charities that help those with spinal cord injuries after shooting season one in which one of the characters sustains a spinal cord injury.

The celebrities were out in full force to support the charities. NBC’s Friday Night Lights actors were out to support their cast-mates and Beyond The Lights

hosts, Kyle Chandler and Brad Leland. Their cast mates like Scott Porter, Jeff Rosick, Derek Phillips, Danny Hunter, Stacey Oristano, Drew Waters, Jesse Plemons and Taylor Kitsch all appeared for the great event. Other celebrities in attendance included first timers, University of Texas coaches, Manny Diaz, Bryan Harsin and Stacy Searles, and STYX bass player, Ricky Phillips. At the golf tournament ear-lier in the day the Dallas Cowboys’ secondary coach Dave Campo, and cornerback Terence Newman, and as well as CBS’s CSI Miami’s Rex Linn.

Most of the attendees can’t wait until next year’s shindig and many have already begun to brush up on their golf strokes in preparation for it. We love to play golf with our favorite celebrities, don’t you?

Celebrity Gala in Austin Wows Guests

25fall 2011fall 2011

Dallas Cowboy secondary Coach Dave Campo, Marvin Kanter and Shelly Kanter.

FNL’s Drew Waters, Shelly Kanter, and CSI Miami’s Rex Linn

Jim Wright and Tim Meadows

Meenu Gurnani, FNL’s Brad Leland and Payal Gurnani

Michelle and Clayton Johnson


people

Nothing conquers the summer heat like a frozen Nordic landscape, a sensually brooding detective, a dark deed, and a sprinkling of umlauts. It was Stieg Larsson who almost single-handedly reinvigorated the mystery genre that was once the domain of air-port bookstores, and now there are a host of pretend-ers to the Swedish throne making their American debuts: Lars Kepler’s compellingly grisly The Hypnotist (FSG), in which the lone survivor of a family massacre is the key to solving the crime; Ca-milla Läckberg’s frostily cinematic The Preacher (Pegasus), a follow-up to The Ice Princess, which continues the story of a feminist writer as she returns to the remote yet strangely crime-ridden fishing vil-lage of her childhood; and Arne Dahl’s taut Mis-terioso (Pantheon), in which the deaths of Swedish business leaders come accompanied by the music of Thelonious Monk— with a strong whiff of corrup-tion. Something is also rotten in the state of Norway: Jo Nesbø’s Oslo-set The Snowman (Knopf) features a Jim Beam–drinking detective named Harry Hole as he tracks a serial killer who leaves beady-eyed snow- men as his calling card. Skål!

South of Scandinavia, there are fewer icicles and se-rial killers, yet no lack of sinister intrigue. Pulitzer Prize finalist Lee Martin’s latest, Break the Skin (Crown), is a Lucinda Williams ballad of a small-town love affair of a teenage dropout and a name-less stranger gone terribly wrong; while Rosamund Lupton’s London-set Sister (Crown), which follows a young woman as she investigates the suicide of her more free-spirited younger sibling, is a psychologi- cal mystery with more than one poignant twist. It’s even harder to solve a mystery when you can’t re-member anything: a woman suffering from amnesia who wakes each morning to the considerable horror of finding herself 20 years older than she thought she was is the unwitting sleuth of S. J. Watson’s Memento-like Before I Go To Sleep (Harper). Then, an orthopedic surgeon suffering from dementia at-tempts to defend herself from the charge of killing her best friend in Alice LaPlante’s Turn of Mind (Atlantic Monthly).

Books

culture


Murder is almost an afterthought in Ruth Rendell’s ultra-readable latest, Tigerlily’s Orchids (Scribner), at the quirky heart of which is a North London apart-ment complex whose motley inhabitants include a botanically-inclined young Asian woman, a fatally lame-brained ladies’ man; and they all have some-thing to hide. But by far the most harrowingly sus-penseful of all is a tale we already know the ending to: Erik Larson’s incomparably vivid non-fiction In The Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an Ameri-can Family in Hitler’s Berlin (Crown), drawn from the journals of American ambassador William E. Dodd and his lusty daughter, Martha, whose eyewit-ness accounts of the Nazi rise to power in 1933 de-scribe an atmosphere of murder and mayhem that’s all too horrifically real. Dive into any of these page-turners to get your imagination running.

Whether you’re looking for a mystery set in the Nordic landscape, in the streets of London or perhaps one

set in Germany in the 30’s there are plenty of options you can choose from to read during these summer months,

choose one, two or maybe all the titles, the only thing you have to do is sit

back, relax and start reading all these recommendations that will surely have

you on the edge of your seat.

29fall 2011

The Society Diaries’Luxurious Real Estate

From blueprint to breathtaking, if there¹s ever been a dream house to represent the finer side of life, it¹s here

on these pages of gorgeous living


real estate

And what dream homes they are. Built by the best artisans in the area, these homes offer you a beautiful alternative to the more mainstream home.

They harken back to another era of superb style and craftsmanship – and a world of gracious living awaits you… so, step right in.

31fall 2011

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