THE HOTEL/THE RESTAURANT

The
Pier 66 Regency hotel sits at the northeast foot of the 17th street
causeway bridge--the 'crown' at the top is the rotating restaurant that
is op0en to the public only for the Sunday brunch buffet. It is used
Monday trough Saturday by the Spa members and the guests in the hotel.

You
take a glass enclosed elevator (the upper left hand corner) to the top
floor where the host/hostess stand is. The restaurant rotates 360
degrees a little over every hour.

The tables, chairs and trim are all in shiny steel and aluminum as are the place mats  and the heavy polished silverware. There are orchids all over the place as table center pieces, garnish for foods, mainly white, red, pink and fuchsia.
The uniform of all the help except the chefs and cooks are brown and
blue as is a highlight in the center of the roof over the buffet tables.

I fell in love
with the teaspoons which were in the shape if minature garden spades
and was very tempted to take it home but I didn't! :O)

The
food is served on glass, ceramic and/or fine China plates of all sizes
and shapes plus in various glasses with twisted stems. Each food
station has a burst of color mainly supplied by the foods themselves.

There is a chef's cooking station outside on a patio where they cook the family style dishes. This can be disastrous
in the Florida summer weather as storms can come abruptly as they did
this Sunday. They seem to have the evacuation down to a science as the
whole station was dismantled in a brief few moments.

One
of the drawbacks for the serving staff and, consequently, for the
customers is that the kitchen(s) are a flight down of stairs on the
next  level.

The
tables are spaced far enough that you aren't bothered by other parties
and it gives the restaurant an airy, floating in space feeling and with the rotation of the room constant changing scenes and showing why Fort Lauderdale is known as the Venice of America.

We were lucky in that the first hour we were there it was sunny with wide viewing horizons--and then the rains came!!