SEEN: Dignitaries come out to fete Brown Palace
A weekend-long celebration marking the Brown Palace Hotel’s 125th year was launched when approximately 150 civic leaders and former hotel executives gathered for a deluxe cocktail reception in the iconic atrium lobby.
Managing director Steve Haley and his wife, Maggie, joined Tony Farris, principal in Quorum Hotel Advisors, in welcoming such VIP guests as Gov. John Hickenlooper; Denver Mayor Michael Hancock; former Gov. Dick Lamm and his wife, Dottie; Denver City Council President Albus Brooks; Richard Scharf, president/CEO of Visit Denver; Rich Grant, who in 2014 retired after spending 35 years as Visit Denver’s communications director; historian Tom Noel; and Peter and Margrit Aeby.
Peter Aeby was the hotel’s managing director from 1987 to 2001, and now works as an independent travel agent. He also devotes considerable time to his longtime hobby of building and flying model airplanes.
His friendship with the Haleys, Aeby noted, dates back to 1988, when Steve Haley began a five-year stint as the hotel’s sales and marketing director while Aeby was at the helm. Haley left in 1993 to take executive positions at properties in Florida and Texas that were part of the Brown’s parent company, Quorum Hotels and Resorts. He returned to Denver in June, 2016, to succeed Marcel Pitton as the Brown’s managing director.
The anniversary celebration, Haley said, “Is such an important event for us” and could not take place without the men and women who work there. “When you’re a hotel that hosts presidents, royalty and rock stars you have to have an amazing staff, and we do.”
A highlight of the reception came when the fatherson team of master swordsmen, Mathew and Dennis Dismore of Fort Collins, sabered bottles of Champagne and then invited Hickenlooper and Hancock to try their hands at this harder-than-it-looks spectacle.
For 29 years the Dismores have presided at the hotel’s annual Champagne Cascade that helps launch the holiday season.
We won’t say how many tries it took the governor to sever the top of the bottle — OK, here’s a hint: it was more than one and less than 20 — but it’s not inaccurate to say that Hancock had better luck, sending a stream of bubbles up into the air after three attempts.
Guests were treated to an array of hors d’oeuvres, signature cocktails and the opportunity to sample a single barrel, 94-proof whiskey that was made to commemorate the hotel anniversary by Denverbased Stranahan’s. Head distiller Rob Dietrich said that one barrel is equal to 245 bottles and “When it’s gone, it’s gone.
Others helping to kick off the anniversary weekend were Mary Hawley, who has retired after 44 years as the hotel’s senior catering sales manager; attorney Scott Eldredge and his wife, Ginnie; Doug Friednash, the governor’s chief of staff, and Amy Venturi, the deputy chief; artist Barbara Froula; Michael Bearup, Denver office managing partner for KPMG, and his wife, Julie; Roger Hutson, president/ CEO of HRM Resources; William and Megan Mutch; Dean Singleton; Adam Vela, assistant general counsel at Cimarex Energy; and Linda and Michael Savage.