Alison O. Bender

Friday night, I attended Martis Camp’s Camp Lodge Grand Opening with Jason, Nora, Jason’s mom, Edie, and stepdad, Mark. It was spectacular! After worrying that parking was going to be chaos (there were some 800 people who had RSVPed), the valets took care of my car. As Jason got Nora out of the car, men in tuxedos, top hats and white gloves offered to escort Edie and me inside. I’d seen the conceptual renderings and Martis Camp’s Kelly Heapy had taken me, Sue (my editor) and Allison (TQ’s art director) on a tour while it was still under construction. Still, I was not prepared for how impressive it is! The building sits on a dramatic outcropping of rocks above the golf course’s 18th hole. You walk in to beautiful views and dual rock fireplaces. The Lodge was set up with a different bars and food stations to spread out the guests and showcase the entire building.

I ran into Allison while waiting for my first drink at the ice bar and she was raving about the food. The seafood line was pretty long, so we first ventured into the women’s locker room (which, the sign noted, was co-ed for the night), where we found big plates of sushi. I had intended to bring some back to Jason, but it was much too spicy for him so I finished off the plate myself. On the other side of the Lodge, we found the cheese and caviar room. We tried one cheese that has been made in the same style for 1,000 years (its name originates from some old word for “horse droppings”) and a delicious bleu cheese that was somehow orange.

Nora was getting fussy so Jason tracked me down and I fed her while my in-laws got me goodies from the taco station on the lawn. I switched over the Rombauer pinot noir and hit up the seafood station for oysters, prawns, crab legs and crab claws. We had a great spot on one of the decks, which was the perfect place to watch the surprise Scottish band that marched down the fairway. We went inside for a little while to watch the jazz band, met a magician and went on a search for the desserts, which we found on the Lodge’s first floor. We capped off the night by enjoying the stars and trying desperately to make friends with Martis Camp members who would invite us back.

Maybe I’m shallow, but the best thing about my job isn’t writing or seeing my name in print—it’s the free stuff. Such was my thinking last Friday, at least, when I attended the Lone Eagle Grille’s Wine Dinner in Incline Village as my editor’s date.

We started with an hour-long champagne cocktail hour before sitting down. The first course was a beet carpaccio. However, I read the menu wrong and so I spent most of the first course prodding my garnishes to determine which one was meat. Second course was poussin (baby chicken) with foie gras – filled morels and the entrée was Niman Ranch rack of lamb with a minted English pea puree, followed by a dessert tray. Each course was accompanied by a very generous pouring of Pahlmeyer wine. I had never heard it, but that’s probably I rarely venture into wines past the price of Yellowtail. The Pahlmeyer chardonnay was the thickest, oakiest white I’ve ever tried and the proprietary red (which retails for $105 a bottle from the winery) tasted like decadence in a bottle. If I hadn’t had to drive over the hill, I could have really done some damage.

Anyway, my next awesome media event is the July 1 grand opening of the Martis Camp Lodge—a luxury, invite-only party with plenty of champagne, music, hors d’oeuvres and, best of all, my very own designated driver!