Toasting Puerto Rico’s recovery in beachside luxury
DORADO, PUERTO RICO—Screw you, Maria. That was the unspoken theme of the weekend-long party — a year and a bit after the ruthless hurricane — as a swirl of tastemakers touched down in Puerto Rico, adding their wattage to the island’s revival: everyone from Uma Thurman to Martha Stewart. “I wish my mother was here,” Marcia Gay Harden was telling me, as the tacos al pastor — and more — went around us at one lazy-fun brunch. We were both casting our eyes on the barefoot elegance that is Dorado Beach, a 14,000acre Ritz-Carlton Reserve sanctuary (once known as the Rockefeller Estate) that has just been painstakingly restored, and for which we had all turned out to mark its reopening. Having just written a wonderful book about her mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s, it was no wonder that she was on the mind of the Academy Awardwinning actress. Later that day, she planted a tree in her mom’s honour at a ceremony to further symbolize Puerto Rico’s rebirth, adding to the 300,000 new flora already planted at the wildly lush environs of the resort. It was not all tears and tree-planting, I promise. There was plenty of rambunctious frivolity too! I mean, how could there not be, when one finds oneself breakfasting next to Gideon Scott and Harper Grace, the Instagram-famous 8-year-old twins of Neil Patrick Harris and his husband, David Burtka? “I’m sorry,” mouthed Burtka when things got a little loud, and the twins started having a little too much fun, before my first coffee had arrived, and as Jane Krakowski’s little one, gingerheaded Bennett, also got caught up in the melee. It was just that kind of weekend. People-watching for sport. There’s Uma, yes, after a dinner: vaping.
There’s Alex Lundqvist, the Swedish male model, jumping in for a slo-mo swim in a stadium-sized infinity pool. There’s Mariska Hargitay, at brunch near the beach, holding up one of her kids’ legs to her ear, as she apes making a silly phone call — “Hello? Hello?” There is original Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr. melting hearts as he nails a set on the beach, accompanied by the entire Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, following a lavish sit-down supper.
There is Gayle King — the one and only — sitting by the aforementioned pool in a corner office of her own making, papers spread out everywhere and one book in particular covered in dozens of Post-its. Compelled to ask if she has a big interview coming up, she smiled and said, “Michelle Obama. Does that count?” We went on to talk amiably about the former First Lady’s new memoir.
There is, um — as Page Six already reported — Helena Christensen accidentally walking into the wrong oceanfront room from the water, only to find Benjamin Bratt there in his birthday suit. (Later, at dinner, Bratt was seen approaching Christensen, with the opening line, “I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced.”)
A ubiquitous presence during the weekend? Spanish-American celebrity chef José Andrés, who has a restaurant on site and has emerged as something of a guardian angel for Puerto Rico — helping feed millions after Hurricane Maria, then taking on President Trump on his insufficient recovery plans. Using the opportunity to take others to see the farm built to feed the island, he told us, “We are celebrating the resilience of the people of Puerto Rico and the best way to help them now is for everyone to come visit again.”
“It is like the new Bali,” Al Roker told me when we crossed paths, the weatherman clearly taken with the open-air enclave that is Dorado Beach, complete with the awardwinning Spa Botánico, a fiveacre oasis built on a pineapple field.
In many ways, though, everything old is just new again, given the history of the place. A conclave of coves hugging a coast once accessible only by a two-lane sugar-cane truck route, Dorado Beach became synonymous with the jet set when heir-to-the-max and lifelong conservationist Laurance Rockefeller turned it into his private playground during the 1950s. (“Rockefeller New Resort Carved Out of Tropical Jungle,” reads the headline in an old newspaper story I came across.)
John and Jackie came then. So did Liz and Dick. Ava Gardner once stayed for a month.
Amazingly — even before that — so, too, came Amelia Earhart, flying here to see her friend and fellow aviator Clara Livingston, shortly before taking off on her fated final journey. Guides at the hotel will alert you to the runway on which Earhart landed.
With history on the mind — both ancient and a year old — one of the most buoyant moments of the weekend came when a giant bonfire was lit on the beach, complete with marching band and an impromptu dance-party, with model Coco Rocha, in a flowy yellow gown, doing the honours with some non-stop twirling on the sand. The guests were asked to burn sprigs of dried sage and pray for good fortune.
I could not help but notice Chef Andrés get right in there. As the music played on, he took out a cigar and serenely lit it from the bonfire.