Resort Casual Dress

The Hotel Hershey's Circular Dining Room sheds its formal dress code

In a sign of more casual dining times, the resort restaurant in Derry Township has shed its formal dress code. Sport jackets for men are now optional and resort casual attire, including stylish jeans, are acceptable.
    
The policy went into effect Memorial Day weekend in time for the summer tourist season.
    
“It kind of happened naturally,” said John Daly, the hotel’s food and beverage director. “We were turning away a lot of people without jackets. The people chose to walk away because they didn’t want to wear a jacket.”
    
So diners are settling into a grand dining experience clad in the standard uniform seen at most casual midstate restaurants: polo or dress shirts and khakis or designer jeans for men, and capri pants and casual dresses or skirts for women.
    
For many, the shift marks the end of a dining era. The elegant Circular Dining Room, designed by Milton S. Hershey and known for its circular shape and expansive windows, was among the last restaurants, if not the only one, in central Pennsylvania with a formal dress code.
    
Part of the allure of eating in the grand dining room, with its linen covered tables, colored lead glass windows and impeccable service, was dressing up for the occasion.
    
“It’s sad,” said Richard Andries, a Camp Hill clothing designer. “If you are at the hotel and paying that kind of price for a five-star hotel, and you take that away, it’s like taking the prom dress out of the prom.”
    
When The Hotel Hershey opened in 1933, men were required to wear jackets and ties in all public areas of the hotel, including the restaurant, said Albert Rossi of Derry Twp., who is a resident historian of the hotel.
    
“It just maintained a certain standard,” he said.
    
Through the years, the dress code relaxed in the hotel. But the dress code remained in the dining room, and it was strict.
    
No jeans or sneakers were permitted, and men were asked to wear jackets for dinner and Sunday brunch only. (Resort casual was acceptable for breakfast and lunch.) Any man who entered the restaurant without a sport coat was handed a jacket to wear during their meal.

Bacon Peanut Brittle recipe | Eat the Love

I wrote about our first day at the Pebble Beach Food and Wine already, and the food that made me feel like I was a rich sophisticated person. I’m so NOT a rich sophisticated person. But I can pretend can’t I? Sabrina and I got dressed in our “Resort Casual” wear (this was what Pebble Beach recommended we dress in, and when I consulted with my friend Peter , the fanciest friend I know, he explained that it was what one would wear to a fancy hotel in Hawaii, so now you know). Day two was packed for us, including two fantastic breakout sessions and the legendary Tasting Pavilion. It was at the Tasting Pavilion that I got my inspiration for my plated dessert, which included the strawberry marshmallow that I previously posted about, as well as this garnish for the dessert, a Bacon Peanut Brittle that is incredibly addictive all on it’s own.

I’m going to be honest here and tell you wasn’t completely convinced by the idea of waking up early to drive over to the Pebble Beach resort (and to try and navigate the windy roads) to eat grill cheese and drink wine at 10am. But I knew that all you readers of this blog would want to hear the blow-by-blow details, and I’m a giver that way, so I dragged myself out of bed and hopped in the car with Sabrina to go and eat cheese and drink wine for breakfast.

However, Laura Werlin , author of Grilled Cheese, Please! , made it all worth the effort of waking up. This is her second book on Grilled Cheese (with rumors that she’s working on a third book in the Lord of the Grilled Cheese trilogy) and I can truly say that these were the fanciest, best grilled cheese sandwiches that I’ve ever had at 10 am in the morning at a food festival. Actually, I jest, but they were darn good, and surprisingly different from each other. Starting with sampling plate of the cheeses that were in the grilled cheese, Sabrina and I couldn’t help but grin every time we took a bite of the cheese, and a sip of the wine. How can you not love cheese and wine, any time of the day?

I had a pretty wonderful time with Laura guiding us through each of the grilled cheese sandwiches, telling us a little bit about how to build your own grill cheese and what makes a grilled cheese sandwich good. Laura was approachable, humorous and fun, leading us our morning grilled cheese journey and giving us sage advice on how to pair wine with cheese. For instance lighter cheeses go with light wine, cow milk goes well with Chardonnay, semi hard goes well with reds and salty cheese balances well with sweet wines.

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