Waldorf Astoria Jumps On Beekeeping Bandwagon
New York's historic and ultra-posh Waldorf Astoria hotel has housed celebrities, heads of state, one-percenters, and — as of later this month — 45,000 honeybees.
The plan is being orchestrated by director of culinary operations David Garcelon, who says the hotel will be using its own bees to produce honey that will be used in the hotel's restaurants.
The hotel plans to move the first batch of bees into six hives on a 20th-floor roof garden later this month and hopes to have 300,000 bees by the end of this summer. The 20th-floor space also houses a chef's garden.
"We look forward to eventually housing enough bees to not only aid the environment but also supply fresh honey in the hotel's food and beverage outlets," said general manager Eric Long, according to Crain's New York.
In what is possibly the world's first fancy-hotel apiary race, the nearby and equally posh InterContinental New York Barclay would like to inform everybody that it will have even more beehives than the Waldorf. General manager Herve Houdre said his hotel's 15th-floor herb garden will host seven hives to the Waldorf's six, plus an extra for observation.
If the beekeeping one-upmanship keeps up at this rate, we expect to see nine beehives in the lobby of The Pierre by September.