Taste Of Luxury

December 22, 2007

The other night was one of the best nights I have ever spent in Buenos Aires. My friend Eugenia and I went to Rojo Tango at Faena Hotel + Universe. The Faena is one of the most exclusive places in all of Buenos Aires catering to the rich and famous. It is located in the lush Puerto Madero neighborhood of Buenos Aires. How did I get to enjoy such a luxuries experience? Well it was a gift from my wonderful friends at Absolute Travel. Absolute Travel is a Luxury travel tour operator I use to work for, and when they send their clients to Buenos Aires. Rojo Tango is one of the experiences they have. So before I left the job this was their gift to me. It was the sweetest thing!!!! The night started out with a private car coming to pick Eugenia and I up from my apartment. A man with grey hair and glasses waited across the street for us while holding the back door to the car open. On our way to the Faena traffic was heavy but I was too excited to let that bother me. About half hour later we pulled up in front of the Faena. Two body guard like bouncers in suits stood on opposite sides of the split brick wall entrance. Before we left the car our driver asked us how would we like to pay for our ride. Eugenia and I looked at each other confused because we knew everything was paid for. We pulled out our voucher to show the driver that we had proof but he refused to listen and insisted that we had to pay for our ride. I wasn’t about to give him anything. There was another man outside dressed in a suit. He had an earpiece in his ear and chart in his hand. Eugenia told me to hold tight while she asked the man with an earpiece if we had to pay our driver. Eugenia returned and told me that we did not need to pay our driver because indeed everything was covered. The man with the earpiece then told the driver we owed him nothing and the driver began to act all innocent like he did not know this information before. The man with the earpiece then politely told us we may enter. We walked through a long hall with tall brick walls on either side of us. Long leather benches sat on top of a red carpet stretching about the hall. A pretty girl dressed in a black dress greeted us. She wore a huge smile and was at our service. When we told her we were here for a tango show and dinner she politely escorted us to the reservationists standing outside the cabaret room were the dinner and show would take place. While she escorted us down the hall Eugenia and I caught a glance of some of the other areas in the hotel. One I noticed was a brightly lit fancy boutique. The girl left us with the reservationists and they asked how could they help us. I then said

“Tengo una reserva para Jennifer Poe”.

The woman Reservationists pulled up my name. She then grabbed two menus wrapped in red velvet and led us inside the cabaret room which glowed a crimson red. She sat us at a one of the round tables that filled the room, placed our menus down and then parted. Not to long after, a male waiter walking up straight with one hand behind his back and the other holding champagne came over to us. He asked us if we would like champagne and began to pour some in our glasses. Another waiter came over and asked what we would like for our starter and principal meal. I chose caramelized onion sprinkled over goat cheese with thyme for my starter. And for my principal I had duck. Our starters came five minuets later and Eugenia and I began to eat while we continued to scope out the room. While we were enjoying our food another group came in and sat at the table in front of us. When the older woman from the table looked over into our direction I noticed she looked extremely familiar to me. I leaned over to Eugenia and whispered

“That woman in front of us is famous and from the states. I can’t think of who she is right now, but I will get it later.”

The woman was there with what looked like her family and husband. Her son looked familiar to me too, and was there with what appeared to be his wife. When we finished our starters the waiters came and cleared our plates. Soon came my duck and Eugenia’s lomo. Whenever our champagne glasses were low they were quickly filled back up to the top. In the middle of enjoying my duck (which was moist and flavored well) I had a realization. I turned toward Eugenia and said

“That’s who the woman looks like to me Jane Fonda.”

“Really.”

Eugenia replied. After we finished dinner desert came on a plate. Three different deserts sat neatly in front of us, which included frozen lime cake with coconut sauce, Dulce De Leche cream with coca crispys and chocolate cooked cream with caramelized almonds. It truly was fine dining. After we finished eating our desert the show began to start. Musicians in white suits filed into the room. There faces were serious as they made their way to the back of the room. One sat at the piano and the other two sat to the right of the pianist. I found the pianist cute and he reminded me of a tall skinny Christian Bale. The serious mug he wore made him even more attractive to me. The lights dimmed and the musicians began to play their instruments. One on the piano, one playing the accordion and the other playing a violin. The curtains lifted and two tango dancers began to do fancy footwork. Before the curtains fell again the male tango dancer began to spin the female dancer in circles above his head as she lay horizontally. I am not going to describe all of the show just in case any of my readers plan to see it in the future, but I will say I enjoyed watching the male dancers with there slick back jet black hair and olive skin. I wanted almost all the dresses the female tango dancers wore. I particularly loved watching the dancers expressions. Especially one of the male dancers who seemed to have a permanently arched eyebrow painted across his brow. The show was so sensual (including one of the scenes were there was partial nudity) that it made me want to reacquaint myself with the Argentine male. I almost forgot how good of lovers they could be. My favorite act was the performance of El Tango de Roxanne. I believe the one they performed at Rojo Tango was the version from Moulin Rouge. However the male singer in the show had such an amazing voice. The music started and the room became a little darker and smokier. Three female tango dancers dressed in old period clothing danced around the male singer. Two of them helped him out of his blazer revealing a white tank top under his suspender trousers. He stood in the middle of the stage as three male tango dancers dressed similar to him took the stage along with the female dancers and they all began to dance around him. The male singer than began to belt out

“Rooooooxanne you don’t have to turn on the red light.”

My skin filled with goose bumps towards the end as the Roxanne performance grew more intense and the male singers voice began to echo through out the room as his Roxanne bounced of the walls. Not too long after that the tango show ended. Then an announcer informed the room that Ms. Jane Fonda was in attendance celebrating her birthday. They presented her with a gift and a cake. I then patted my self on the back for being right about it being Jane Fonda. Eugenia and I clapped for her and then took more pictures of ourselves. We then headed back to the hall to look for the bathroom. The bathroom was beautiful. The doors to the stalls were mirrors with floral patterns carved into them. The sink faucets were birds made of silver. While in the bathroom Eugenia ran into two Argentine celebrities. We left the bathroom and walked slowly down the hall peeping into other areas of the hotel. My favorite room was one of all white with two huge unicorn heads with glowing eyes. It was like something out of a fairy tale. I felt like Alice in wonderland being exposed to a whole new world.
As we headed for the front a guy walking with his friend spotted us and his eyes lit up. It was the familiar look in his eyes that the men here get when they see a Morocha. He offered us a seat as his guests at his private table in one of the other luxuries parts of the hotel. He was sweet but Eugenia and I were tired. Besides our private car was waiting for us outside. So we declined his offer and thanked him. The hotel was beginning to buzz with important rich and beautiful people. On my way out I spotted a girl on the phone. What caught my eye was that she had a beautiful dress on; similar to one a celebrity might wear to an important celebrity event. I thought to myself she must be famous. Eugenia and I were escorted to our private car, which I noticed was more nice than the first one, and shiny and black. We headed home with memories of a good night I will never forget.

If anyone wants to check out the beautiful Faena + Universe on the web, here is the link:

http://www.faenahotelanduniverse.com/

Also I discovered the son of Jane Fonda that was with her at Rojo Tango looked familiar to me because he is an actor. He played the character of the white barber in Barbershop. The character that the black guys did not want to cut their hair. I also noticed his wife there that night was black. I thought that was cool. She was real pretty too.