“We always look forward to welcoming Americans – they are our number-one percentage of guests. They arrive as first-time guests, then leave as friends and come back again.”
-Vincent Castronovo, general manager – Red Carnation’s Rubens at the Palace Hotel
High tea; James Bond 007; Wimbledon Tennis Tournament; The Beatles; Paddington Bear; Big Ben; Burberry; the stiff upper lip; Rolls Royce; Saville Row suits; fish and chips, gin and tonic…all cultural, popular, English icons. And though there are others, the chart-topper is always the British Royal Family.
How do you join the peerage party and stay in a royal residence if you haven’t been bestowed a title and are not in the line of succession?
The closest thing is…literally…the closest thing to Buckingham Palace: The Red Carnation Rubens at the Palace Hotel is right on Buckingham Palace Road and a cricket wicket away from the royal residence.
Getting There is Half the Fun
Emerging into London’s Paddington Station after a 15-minute, non-stop trip from the airport on the affordable and accessible Heathrow Express train is an exciting moment.
“Take a stroll to a Palace,” read the royal purple sign directing me to the Heathrow Express. Though signage for the train was consistent and creative, there were also uniformed attendants along the way to answer questions.
Paddington, a bright, stylish station, with all the Brits bustling about it, boosts your sleepy senses after an overnight, transatlantic flight from the States. There is no mistaking you are in “Jolly Old” when you spot the traditional London black cabs lined up like limos.
Arriving at the Palace
My morning excitement went over the moon when the cab driving me to my hotel seemed to be dropping me off at Buckingham Palace.
“The King lives across the street, which is useful when we run out of sugar or milk,” joked Vincent Castronovo, general manager of Rubens at the Palace – a Red Carnation brand Hotel – as we sipped, of course, tea.
“We are the closest hotel property to the Palace. Since the 1700’s, our building here catered to the servants of Buckingham Palace. Dignitaries attending events at the Palace would stay here. Now, our hotel guests get to see and feel it all. During afternoon tea its immersive – they enjoy a better than 4k view of the Palace.”
Indeed, the Rubens front entrance and dining room window are not more than 40 feet from functioning portions of Buckingham Palace including a working entrance; The King’s Gallery; and the Royal Mews.
“The Royal Mews is the original horse stables, circa 1764, and the carriages for the monarch are kept there on display. They were in use for the jubilee and the coronation and we have rooms that look right over and into the Mews,” Castronovo explained.
The black and gold Diamond Jubilee State Coach, created for Queen Elizabeth II in Australia, is the newest coach in the Royal Mews. Though looking like it should be in the pages of a medieval storybook, it featured hydraulic stabilizers and spring suspension.
“The Mews is a fabulous tour that sometimes gets overlooked. The tea on your lips is still warm as you cross the street from the hotel and enter,” added Malcom Hendry, who has been managing director of the Red Carnation Rubens at the Palace Hotel for 23 years.
“And the Kings Gallery allows you to view beautiful artwork and see what’s inside the Palace,” Castronovo countered. “When dignitaries are going to the Palace receive their OBE’s and Knighthoods from the King, they use that back entrance to Buckingham Palace just across from The Rubens.”
Royal Horses, Carriages, Artwork and Souvenirs
I simply had to see the King’s beautiful white stallions, carriages and cars, so I bought a ticket to The Royal Mews and The King’s Gallery.
I was surprised and delighted to discover the mews is also home to the official motorcars of the royal family. All state cars are painted maroon and black, by the way: three Rolls-Royces (including a 1950 Phantom IV), two Bentleys, and, for less formal occasions, two British Racing green Jaguar stretched limousines.
The Bentleys have specially engineered doors to allow a more dignified exit. The King’s car flies the Royal Standard from the roof and a silver figure of St. George killing the dragon adorns the hood.
I walked right in, without even a reservation, and through the elegant Buckingham Palace gift shop between them, for which one does not need a ticket.
However, I was not given the same access to the adjacent Palace private entrance as Hendry.
“I have been in the Palace on a few occasions and to garden parties. It is a real privilege to go behind the scenes and see the residences. I met Prince Charles and his father and his mother, Her Majesty. When you run the hotel across the road from Buckingham Palace you get opportunities like that which come along,” Hendry, with gratitude, allowed.
King Charles has now launched an initiative to make Buckingham Palace more accessible to his subjects and visitors.
“The Palace has opened its doors for years now, but King Charles, last year, opened the State Rooms and the iconic East Wing – the part of the palace with the famous central balcony – which allows people to enter the front gates facing the Royal Mall and walk across the iconic forecourt where you see the Changing of the Guard and the bands.”
Easy access to the festive and colorful Changing of the Guard is another benefit of staying at Rubens. People pile in after trekking to the palace hours early on mornings the event is staged.
However, at the suggestion of the concierge, I just walked out of the hotel along the palace wall for two blocks directly to the front gates 10 minutes before showtime.
The marching bands and music made the Changing of the Guard much more fun and festive than I had expected, as did the doormen and the smiling staff members of Rubens, a traditional, posh hotel.
There is no “stiff upper lip” for the Rubens team – they are engaging, funny, accommodating, and helpful. The tall, red-coated, top-hatted doorman named Pascal greeted me with literally open arms.
Brits Welcome Yanks With Style and Smiles
“We always look forward to welcoming Americans – they are our number-one percentage of guests. They arrive as first-time guests, then leave as friends and come back again,” said Castronovo, whose mother and grandparents worked in the hotel and hospitality industry. He started his hotel career in housekeeping.
By this point, we had moved our conversation and libation from tea to beer in the hotel’s New York Bar adjacent to its Curry Room Indian restaurant – by chef Arun Kumar.
Castronovo said he feels welcomed when visiting America, as the King and Queen are expected to do in 2026 for, ironically, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
“America is a lovely story tell: grand and exciting. Americans don’t do things by half. There is history everywhere on a big scale: Detroit is the Motor City…Memphis has music. It’s on my bucket list to go to all 50 states.”
If London is on your wander list, Red Carnation operates six exciting luxury hotel options in historic, stately buildings throughout London. These include The Milestone, which is nearly adjacent to Royal Albert Hall and Kensington Palace and close to the epic Harrod’s department store.
Yes, there are red carnations in the lobbies, and the company boasts other hotels on three continents. The sun never sets on the Red Carnation’s empire and its welcoming philosophy and hospitality standards.
Rubens Welcome Guests As If They’re Royalty
“We want our guests to feel like royalty. On your way from the airport, when you see Buckingham Palace, you will know you are here,” said Castronovo.
I told him that is exactly how I felt when I was driven between the royal residence and Rubens and, at the curb, welcomed by a red coated, top-hatted doorman named Pascal as if I were the Monarch of Michigan or the Prince of Pennsylvania or the Duke of Dubuque.
“We greet the guests by name – arrival is when the ‘theater’ starts. The check-in process is personal so that our guests feel unique. When someone books, we look at their Instagram, for instance, and if we see they like beer or negronis. And then how nice is it for that to be delivered to you, by surprise, 10 minutes after you check into your room? Does the guest like pistachios? We notice if they have been eaten – and refill the dish,” Castronovo revealed.
I found, in my room, a dish of macaroons and chocolate tarts emblazoned with my company logo and golf symbols. The slate plate had artistic images of Westminster Abbey, Tower Bridge and the London Eye in powdered sugar.
Castronovo was tracking toward an IT career, but with his mother, grandmother and grandfather in the hospitality and culinary business, Castronovo entered the family business cleaning hotel rooms.
“Housekeeping is the heart of a hotel – you are in the thick of things getting the rooms ready. You experience the thread count of the imported linens, the beauty of it, and even the importance of the toiletries,” he waxed.
La Famiglia and Home Sweet Hotel Suite
When I returned to my room from dinner at my beloved La Famiglia Ristorante in Chelsea – which I was able to walk to from Rubens at The Palace – I discovered I had been left a note with a sweet.
It was the hotel’s signature Red Carnation chocolate cake created by the director of chocolate and patisserie for the collection. The note was from guest experiences manager Giulie Castogni and, no doubt, the handwork of Castronovo. I was faced with this decadent cake after my satiating, savory Italian dinner.
The intimate, exquisite, and historic La Famiglia, a Tuscan-style restaurant founded by the late Chef Alvaro Maccione, celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2025. The tasteful, classic cucina is a pilgrimage-worthy dining experience for lunch or dinner.
I enjoyed a bowl of La Famiglia’s famed pasta e fagioli and a plate of wild boar ragu pappardelle, both of which could be eaten with only a fork. There are more sophisticated dishes on La Famiglia’s classic menu, but I think Alvaro would have approved of my comfort choices.
My digestive dessert at La Famiglia was homemade limoncello and a chef’s creation: an experimental pumpkin pie insisted sweetly upon by the proprietor, Alvaro’s dynamic daughter Marrietta, and her dashing, ascot-wearing partner Fabio Cozari, the operations manager.
So, what did I do when back at my room and faced with the cake?
I closed my eyes and thought of England and enjoyed every bite before bed.
Morning Glory British Breakfast by Bea
The next morning, I awakened, hoping that I would somehow be hungry. I knew Red Carnation Hotels present a full English breakfast – a tradition they take very seriously:
Free-range Clarence Court Burford Brown hen’s eggs; Cumberland sausage; smoked, maple cured bacon; Stornoway black pudding; English grill hash browns; flat mushroom; grilled plum tomato; and baked beans.
The menu also offered, among other items, a British Tattie Scone Stack; pistachio French toast; smashed avocado croissant; smoked salmon; British charcuterie which included wild venison pepperoni; and Bubble & Squeak potato hash.
Cook the Book – Bea Tollman’s
Trust me – you do not ever want me cooking for you. It’s part of why restauranteurs are stars to me. Nevertheless, the gorgeous Victoria Tollman autographed a copy of her mother, Bea Tollman’s recipe book “A Life in Food.”
Bea, a South African, is president and founder of Red Carnation Hotels and an innovative titan in the hospitality industry. She, along with her husband Stanley, a hotelier known for wearing a red carnation in his lapel, built and reimagined an empire of stately, significant worldwide hotels and Uniworld cruise ships upon which the sun never sets.
In reading the colorful anecdotes in her book it is evident that, whilst hosting and socializing with world leaders (Margaret Thatcher at her home, for instance), Bea feels best in her restaurant kitchens, where she says her staff members feel like family.
She writes of reverse engineering meals from Le Cirque in New York and the chopped salad from the 21 Club, for instance. And yet she notices the popularity of “unfussy, simple comfort food,” such as Duck cottage pie and chicken meatballs from the Leopard Lounge at The Chesterfield in Palm Beach. Did someone say Honeycomb ice cream?
For some of her recipes, this refined, elegant doyenne even writes practical notes such as “this freezes beautifully” or “this will keep in the fridge for a week.”
Dare I say a photo of the most beautiful dish of all – Bea Tollman herself – graces the cover of “A Life in Food.”
Epicurean Epilogue of Literary Luxury
When I left my room to depart Rubens at the Palace Hotel, I also noticed and kept a small card that had been placed on my nightstand. It read:
“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.”
-Ibn Battuta
Farewell from Rubens at the Palace
Battuta, born in Morocco in 1304, became the world’s first travel writer when he set out to complete the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca but ended up spending his life wandering and writing. If only he’d experienced the pleasure and comfort and inspiration of Red Carnation Hotels.
Read more of Michael Patrick’s work at The Travel Tattler and contact him at [email protected] Order his book Travel Tattler – Less Than Torrid Tales at https://amzn.to/3Qm9FjN
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