Nomen est Omen
Nomen est omen, a popular Latin expression courtesy of Plautus’s Persian Man, meaning “the name speaks for itself,” is the motto of Ukraine’s first Premier Palace Hotel. It is a well-chosen one, because Kyiv is, after all, a European capital. With time, there will be many such hotels, but the first will remain the first, and it is already a paragon.
Apart from the required set of amenities, world-class service, convenient location, plush suites, air conditioning, satellite and interactive television, Internet, wall safes, limousines, swimming pools, gyms, solaria, beauty parlors, ever-present yet unobtrusive and discreet floor managers, chambermaids, bellboys, waiters, etc., there is also the overall atmosphere. In a word, it is a real five-star hotel.
The management is lucky with the premises. The building dates from 1909 and combines the most modern style with the reserved elegance of the early twentieth century, in contrast with most Kyiv mansions of the time, whose architecture betrays a varying degree of provincialism. The interior is kept in a gentle variation of French Empire style, aptly incorporating academic landscapes and still lifes by Ukrainian classics with the invariable baguettes. And, of course, there is the atmosphere.
The management worked hard to create and uphold it. The recent presentation of the hotel’s Empire Restaurant was staged not just as a reception for wealthy customers, but as festive event timed to the premiere of the next theatrical season. Kyiv has always been a theatrical city. It still is, despite all economic upheavals; love of the theater is still a trait bringing us close to Europe. And there is a new tradition; from now on the beginning of a new drama season will be celebrated at the hotel. The first such occasion gathered an audience graphically demonstrating devotion to Schopenhauer’s 200-year-old concept of three types of nobility stemming from birth, money, and spirit, and of their mutual respect. It is anyone’s guess whether the reception was attended by noblemen by birth (quite possible, considering the number of foreign diplomats present), but the dinner jackets worn by cultural figures looked as flawless as those worn by businesspeople. One of the most elegant gentlemen was the legendary Ukrainian filmmaker Yury Illienko in the company of two flamboyant femmes, his wife and that of Bohdan Stupka. The celebrated actor and ex-minister of culture (perhaps less celebrated) also joined the guests, but toward the end of the party, as he had played in the premiere at his home Ivan Franko Ukrainian Drama Theater.
Famed singer Dmytro Hnatiuk performed several patriotic and folk songs. On the strength of seniority and accolades, he opened a parade of Ukrainian operatic stars likely to patronize the Premier Palace’s Music Salon. Iryna Skazina bewitched the audience not only with her romances, but also her dazzling attire complete with a hat that would have made tsar Nicholas II’s favorite Varia Panina, the queen of romance, green with envy. Guests were waltzing rather than eating and drinking, listening to the songs, although the table was a strong temptation courtesy of the Premier Palace’s French chef Michel Coler from Paris. The latter is already a living legend in Kyiv. He prepared a special dish for the celebration, chicken roasted with pineapple and stuffed with seafood. It was sold at an improvised auction for a sum in hryvnias equivalent to $225.
The ladies were happy to explore Aina Gase’s fashion autumn- winter collection.
The hostess, actress and television star Olha Sumska, was traditionally showered with compliments, but toward the end of the party she got lost in a conversation with Kyiv’s most widely read critic, Oleh Verhelis, with the duo leaving together, contrary to etiquette.
