Home Is Where The Peninsula Is

by Natasha Wolff | October 20, 2026 2:32 pm

To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Peninsula Beverly Hills[1], at the end of afternoon tea service, guests are given a special coin bearing the emblem of the Flight to Infinity fountain, which lies just outside the doors of the hotel’s Living Room.

It’s a ritual. After tea, make a wish, then toss the coin into the fountain, and, apparently, your wish will come true.

I can’t speak to the veracity of this little ceremony, mostly because I’m still waiting for my wish to become a reality. Then again, it was a bit of an open-ended one without a timeline or expiration date.

I wished I could live at the Peninsula Beverly Hills[2].

I probably should have included some caveats: i.e. how long I wanted to live there, that it needed to be in a hotel room, and that I would also accept living arrangements at the Peninsula Chicago[3], which happens to be celebrating its 25th birthday this year, too.

The term “luxury travel” gets thrown around a lot these days. So many hotels—chains and boutique properties alike—are labeled as such. But when it comes to understated elegance mixed with a kind of matchless comfort as well as service that strives for quiet perfection, the Peninsula is pretty much the tippy top, at least as exemplified by the Beverly Hills and Chicago properties. (I’ve only otherwise stayed at the Peninsula in Paris for a few nights and poked my head into the New York outpost to say hi to a friend for lunch.)

People often forget that Chicago is a world-class destination in and of itself. It has thriving theater and food scenes. On my recent trip, I took an excursion to see Theater of the Mind, a neat immersive piece conceived by David Byrne and his wife Mala Gaonkar and produced by the Goodman Theatre. Beforehand, I went on a little food crawl: a breakfast sandwich on the perfect English muffin at Doma Cafe followed almost immediately by fusilli con ragu at Monteverde in the West Loop.

But it’s worth traveling to Chicago to stay at the Peninsula on its own, if only just to have a few meals at Pierrot Gourmet, a Joan’s on Third-meets-Polo Bar throwback that feels like a place my mom would have taken me when I was growing up and also presses my favorite breakfast and lunch buttons. Other great food moments you can have on property: the perfect club sandwich delivered to your room; dim sum from Chef Elmo at Shanghai Terrace; and, if you book ahead, a special chocolate slash wellness slash Tarot session with Katrina Markoff, the founder of the new chocolate brand Violet Flame.

I should say that the Peninsula Chicago is the only hotel I’ve stayed at in years that a) had a shower that was actually simple to use and b) asked if I wanted the newspapers delivered in the morning. The Financial Times and the New York Times at my door to accompany my breakfast? What an unbelievable treat.

You really haven’t lived until you’ve driven up to Erewhon on South Beverly Drive in a Rolls-Royce[4]. You can do that at the Peninsula Beverly Hills. Erewhon is one of the things I miss most about my time living in Los Angeles. Since I moved away, the gourmet grocery store has expanded like crazy. In the process, it’s become a pretentious, ridiculous scene. But I still love it, and it seems highly appropriate to venture there via chauffeur in the ne plus ultra of luxury vehicles. Just ask the concierge if the house car is available, and you’ll have a $19 breakfast burrito in hand in no time. That is, if you’re willing to forgo breakfast on property. May we recommend the divine choco-charcoal acai bowl at the Belvedere along with an iced Hojicha Latte?

If Hollywood is a place where dreams come true, the Peninsula Beverly Hills is certainly the kind of place where I’d like to see mine come to fruition. Hence, the aforementioned wish I made after some mint tea one afternoon during my stay. What makes it special isn’t cutting-edge technology but the impeccable service and genuinely warm human interaction. Throughout my stay, someone kept replenishing the fruit plate in my room, replacing the grapes and other little things I’d eaten. In all my years staying in hotels, I’d never experienced that. That’s what staying at the Peninsula Beverly Hills is like: constant new experiences that feel like home.

Which is why I didn’t want to leave, and why I hope that wish still comes true. Though maybe I should throw another commemorative coin in the fountain, just in case.

Source URL: https://dujour.com/travel/peninsula-hotels/