It’s ‘girl’s weekend’ at my house, (3 women + their 7 daughters under 5!) , so I got greenlit to get a hotel for the weekend and chill! I booked the Stamford Plaza Hotel on Summer St., a former Sheraton now under new management.

I didn’t want to go far or pay alot of money, I just wanted a decent place to stay close to home where I could work and relax. After scanning Expedia and almost booking the Stamford Marriott ($109/night), I decided for once I was going to roll the dice and try one of those ‘unpublished rates’ – you know, where they offer you a super-low rate IF you book without knowing what hotel it is first (like Priceline).

Frankly, I would normally *never* do this, unless, say, it was for an overnight stay on a road trip and they promised me a 3-star and the next option was twice as much. But I was intrigued, and convinced I could figure out which hotel it was before booking.

It was described as a 3.5 star hotel, and I used the other amenity clues they gave me to narrow down the list of their ‘published rate’ hotels to about 4. The giveaway was an amenity ‘tennis nearby’ – that had to be unique – it was – unique to The Stamford Plaza, which had good reviews. I was sure of it, so I booked it, and was rewarded with a $59/night rate – $50 less a night than the Stamford Marriott. Nice!

The first thing you notice walking into the Stamford Plaza is that it is big. The atrium reminded me of the Las Vegas Luxor – while it obviously was not that big, the size is impressive. It is also meticulously clean, and rather quiet. I suspect the hotel is largely supported by traveling staff and events for their next-door neighbors, GE Asset Management, which is how they could afford keeping their superdomish atrium air conditioned.

The Plaza is also very clean, without exception, and check-in was quick and staff helpful and polite.

The one issue I had was with parking – you have to check-in before you park, as you need your room key to get into the parking garage. No big deal, but the street to the parking garage has several gratuitously huge speed bumps which scratched the bottom of my car – and from the looks of the tops of them, many other cars as well. They are just too high and too many. I am glad I would not be going to and from the hotel frequently.

I did, however, get a spot right next to the elevator, as the massive parking garage was barely populated. Parking is $10/day for guests (The Stamford Marriott is $12).

Although it seemed the hotel was lightly booked, they assigned me a room as far from the elevator as possible, which was really annoying and puzzling – because, again, the hotel is pretty big.

While I knew from the atrium that I was going to be fine staying at the Stamford Plaza, I was still taken aback with how nice the room was. It was very standard-sized – the bathroom a little smaller than most, but very tastefully decorated. The couch and coffee table were a plus.

My only complaint was the 20-inch CRT TV – although most hotels have been very slow on the upgrade to flat screens, so this was no surprise.

Although I had a very strong wireless signal, the speed was disappointing, about .3 Mbps. I couldn’t get the wired ethernet connection to work, but didn’t care enough to call the desk for help either.

Regardless, overall, this place was a lot better than I expected and I can heartily recommend the Stamford Plaza as a super value hotel (even the published rate was only $89/night). I don’t know how to describe it, but it has that atmosphere of ‘chain buyout’ – there are giveaways, like the canvas sign on the front with the logo that looks kinda-like-but-not-really Sheraton’s – but that’s not a negative, the owner is towing the line well and in exchange you get a great room at a great price.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Stamford Plaza Hotel Review

He was on his hands and knees for hours helping me pull carpet staples out of my soaking wet basement floor yesterday, and once tore my car door apart and repaired my power window perfectly without new parts IN MY DRIVEWAY.

Thanks to him I am all set with my post-storm repairs, but I know alot of people could use his help right now, so PLEASE don’t hesitate to send me an email at the contact form and I will hook you up.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: My Greenwich/Stamford Handyman/Mechanic Kicks Ass, Has Availability Now

I have never seen the Fox show “Kitchen Nightmares”, but I had to watch most of this episode to see them rehabilitate a local Italian steakhouse Sabatiello’s..

I personally have never eaten there, but from watching the show, it seems like the food was pretty lousy, with 3-day-old soup, microwaved frozen lasagna, and cheap cuts of meat.

This is where host Chef Ramsey stepped in, and wrestled with the hot-headed owner who was not all that amiable to criticism.

Long story short, Ramsey schools the restaurant on how to make better food and hopefully its all better now blah blah.

If anyone has any before and after opinions, leave a comment!

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: “Kitchen Nightmares” Puts Stamford’s Sabatiello’s Back On Track

Fellow Fairfield blogger Stamford Talk was dining on the set of “Kitchen Nightmares” when it shot at Stamford’s Sabatiello’s Restaurant last February.

Show teaser: Sabatiello’s is over $1 million in debt and the hot-tempered owner isn’t helping.

Check it out tonight at 8 PM on Fox.

Just a reminder also that Top Chef: New York premiered last night. The chefs seemed impressed with the first round of dishes from all the contestants, and Chef Tom Colicchio seems to think its going to be a great season.

BTW, there is now a Top Chef videogame. I just tried the demo, my verdict: “laughable”.

However, I do like the sound bites in the game when Padma Lakshmi orders me around the kitchen….I’m sorry Gail Simmons, but your low-cut tops can’t compete with Padma’s hot superpowers…

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: “Kitchen Nightmares” Stamford Episode Airs Tonight

My fellow Stamford area bloggers couldnt care less about all my techie talk, so I figured I would help round out today’s AppleFest with a traditional rant about something local – Stamford Town Center.

I hate it.

Once you get to Stamford Town Center, you are met with a horrifically complex and poorly signed parking garage which can only be described as ‘maze-like’ labyrinthine. I have no idea which way to go, or where to park – there are plenty of options, but not all of them are a good idea.

Once you do pick a space, you are met with – a parking meter???! Most of us like going to Malls to avoid parking meters – but this one’s got em! Why they decided to install a few hundred parking meters, rather than a handful of exit booths like Westchester, is beyond me.

On the plus side, $.50 for 3 hours is a pretty good deal – but I don’t dislike parking meters because of the price, I dislike them because I never have any change.

Ed. – I hate coins. I just as soon voluntarily walk around with a pocketful of bolts and screws and barter with them. Probably the worst country in terms of coins I have visited is Spain (probably not anymore now that they have the Euro). Buy a cup of coffee in Spain, and you will likely get a heaping handful of different sized coins with the combined weight of a cueball in return.

Next, we enter the mall. If you didn’t get vertigo in the parking garage, it will hit you in the mall. Again, its a maze which is difficult to spatially comprehend – standing in the carpeted center court of stairs, you might feel it had been designed by MC Escher. It reminds me of the endless serpentine underground malls in Montreal, or the winding intercasino corridors of Vegas.

The first thing you will want to do is find a map, which, curiously, are NOT posted at each entrance. Indeed, you must get lost before you can find yourself.

Yesterday me and another guy were standing next to each other staring at the map – for a long time. Finally he said ‘I have no f***ing idea where we are!’. I laughed and confirmed that, if there was indeed a ‘you are here’ icon on the map, I sure as hell couldn’t find it. We attempted to triangulate our position by determining the stores we were standing next to. This helped with location but not direction. We both wished each other luck and went our separate ways.

Luckily, I was headed for Macy’s – an anchor store – and I could just see the distant Macy’s sign from where I was standing. On my way there, I passed my map buddy, who was still lost. He scribbled a note and handed it to me, asking if I could pass it on to his loved ones in case he never returned.

This was actually a good day, compared to the first time my wife and I attempted to find the mall’s movie theatre which, at best, is ‘theoretically possible to get to without going outside’ of Stamford Town Center. In order to find it, you take a left at Macy’s and wander around the business offices for the mall realtor – hopefully following others who have traveled the path before.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Lost In Stamford Town Center

When I originally got it, very few people had aftermarket GPS systems – now I see them stuck on windshields all over Fairfield County. Starting with the Nuvi, GPS systems got a hell of a lot easier to use, and are now about half the price I paid for mine.

Know who else likes GPS units? Thieves! According to the Stamford Police, over 50 units a month are now being reported stolen in Stamford alone.

This week, my wife found this stuck under her wiper at the Metro-North station:

Police are advising that people not only remove or hide their GPS units when parked, but also wipe tell-tale suction cup marks from the windshield. All it takes is a few seconds for a burglar to smash in your windshield and grab your GPS – its just about the easiest crime going right now.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: GPS Thefts Out Of Control In Stamford, Greenwich

First off, the exit for the Stamford Metro-North station is the *first* exit where I-95 traffic officially comes to a screaming halt – and it can happen anytime, day or night. Similarly, Stamford’s horrific lack of signage on its streets and penchant for quirky frontage roads keeps me out of the city at large most of the time anyway.

But the real problem is the parking situation – its confusing, busy, and its a long walk to your train – so I have to add more time to compensate for all of that nonsense than an express train would save me anyway.

My favorite part of parking in Stamford is that there is this this paid lot which *preceeds* the train station lot, which is designed for use by the tenants of the office building there – but they will gladly take your money for train station parking, because they charge more. Plus, sometimes they are full, but it is designed so you cannot turn around and leave. I frequently see people visiting the station for the first time trying to back out of that garage in complete and utter confusion.

Similarly, if you get off the train after hours, good freaking luck trying to find your way back to your car in that lot! Every night there are, again, newbies who are wandering around the lobby of that office building wondering how the hell to get to their car.

OK, now what was I talking about? Oh yeah – the parking situation at Stamford MNR Station is about to turn into your worst nightmare, as in 2010, a project to rebuild the garage will remove 800 spots for TWO YEARS (plus all the spots the construction workers will take up with their personal vehicles).

In general, the theme of how Stamford commuters should prepare to deal with this situation was to look for parking at Greenwich and Glenbrook (!!?) (sorry that last line just made me spit-take coffee all over my keyboard!)

Other ideas that were tossed around at the Commuter Rail Council meeting last night:

- Use surface streets – RIGHT, because surface parking is so abundant and underused in that neighborhood, and I am sure no one would mind walking the neighborhood in back of the train station at night, because its so enchanting and safe. Everyone is familiar with this block, because, since there is no where to stop to pick up people at the train station, rides need to circle the block constantly until they see their meetup.

- Shuttle buses to remote lots – because no one minds an extra 20 minutes added to their commute every day – am I right?

- One commenter on the Advocate story predicted that the inevitable insolvency of the adjacent UBS would make their parking spaces available – now that’s the type of optimism this discussion was missing!

Oh, and by the way, parking passes for the existing garage are on a 1-3 year waiting list, and no word yet on how Stamford is going to decide which passholders will get the boot when construction starts.

Oh Stamford, no wonder Jim transferred back to Scranton – they have such great parking!

via The Stamford Advocate

(photo by flickr user ƒrancesca)

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Stamford Metro-North Station Losing 800 Parking Spaces (!)