Easter at the Alvear

We waited until the 11th hour to figure out our Easter plans this year, and it worked out pretty fantastically!  Our friends asked us to join their reservation for brunch at the Alvear Palace Hotel, and we happily accepted.

Beautiful chocolate egg centerpiece

I have been to the Alvear before for their famous high-tea but Jon had never been, and since it has been almost a year since we enjoyed the Four Seasons brunch spread, we were really excited to see how this one measured up.  To start with, we knew that it was going to be amazing, these upscale hotels really go out of their way to make things incredibly nice, and with the addition of the Easter holiday, they had lots of little extras that made it even more special.

The brunch itself is a flat cost meal that includes all you can eat food items (though it's much less cheesy than that phrase makes it seem) and beverages including wine and champagne.  It may include beer too, but I have never once seen a beer at the restaurant.  Reservations are mandatory, and ours was for the first time slot of the day, 12:30pm.

Now for the main event: The Food:

A cheese and meat display that makes any mouth water:

A seafood display of shrimp, oysters, clams, salmon and caviar - prepared in just about every way you could imagine:

There was an entire buffet dedicated to hot food as well, beef, quail, chicken, pasta, vegetables wrapped in phyllo dough, couscous, bean salad, I could go on and on.  This buffet was not nearly as photogenic due to the lids being on all of the serving dishes, so I omitted those pics.

 A sushi chef that takes requests, standing next to a crepe chef that also creates things made-to-order.  

The amazing topping assortment for your crepes/ice cream sundaes:

The completely separate room filled with incredible desserts.  Truffles, creme brûlée, baklava, fruit and chocolate fondue... not the way to start a diet... 

 And here is our beautifully set table with some good looking folks enjoying their meals.  There are a couple of chicos missing though....you may ask where our adorable daughter was through this feast....

 She was having the time of her life at their FREE (well, included in the cost of your meal) babysitting service!  I was so nervous about this, especially since Gretchen has been a little more mommy-attached as of late.  Little did I know she was going to RUN, not walk, to the room once she saw the incredible spread of toy stations that they had.  Not only that, there were no less than 6 employees there to watch the kids and I never saw more than 5 children in the room - including Gretchen and our friend's son Trey.  I came to check on her a few times and even when she saw me, she just kept on playing, not running to me while crying like I feared.  Here she is playing one-on-one with some sort of ball game and one of the sitters.

Near the end of our meal, we picked up the kiddos to join us at the table for the last little bit.  This is Trey, eating one of the decorative eggs on our table and realizing that inside the egg there is more candy!  I am not sure I have ever seen this much joy.

Stunned realization that there is candy inside the candy...

The happiest guy on Earth

 And here is our one family shot from the day with our dazed and exhausted baby girl.  

 Felices Pascuas everyone!  We hope you had a fun, and memorable Easter!

Gretchen, wearing one of my childhood dresses that my mom saved for me.
Isn't she super cute in yellow?!