Many years ago, I attended a wedding reception at the St. Paul Hotel. As the party wound down, I was reclining on a couch in the lobby with the groom as we smoked cigars.
(The fact that we could smoke in the lobby tells you how long ago this happened.) Suddenly actor Jack Lemmon walked by us with a black standard poodle on a leash. He was in town filming one of the “Grumpy Old Men” movies.
“Jack, Jack!” I shouted, perhaps a little drunkenly. “Loved you in ‘The Apartment,’ Jack!” Lemmon and the elegant dog walked on, pretending not to hear me. I remembered thinking, “Wow, if you’re a movie star, you can bring your dog to the best hotels.
” But it turns out that even ordinary people — and ordinary dogs — can have a luxury, five-star hotel experience right in Minneapolis. And that’s how Jenny and I ended up spending a night in the Four Seasons. Jenny is my dog, a canine of unknown mixed parentage with asymmetrically drooping ears and one wonky eye.
She also sheds like crazy. When I happened to hear that dogs can stay at Minneapolis’ fanciest hotel without an extra charge, I started wondering what it would it be like to spend a night there with her. Dogs of up to 35 pounds are welcome at the Four Seasons Hotel Minneapolis.
(Jenny actually might be about 40 pounds, but who doesn’t lie a bit about their weight?) Plus there’s no extra charge to bring your dog, though much of the rest of the experience is unsurprisingly spendy. (For example: $60 to va.