High Tea for Peace 1

Markus Crouse, a longtime neighbor in San Francisco's Civic Center, moved to Los Angeles with his Sicilian lover Sebastiano about eight years ago, where they opened up an Italian coffeeshop in downtown Pasadena...



...while Markus continued his career as a high school history teacher at a Hollywood public school with a bewildering population of recently arrived Korean, Russian Jewish, and Mexican teenagers.



Markus and Sebastiano visited Palm Springs on Sunday the 22nd, so we took them to brunch at a fancy hipster hotel called "The Viceroy"...



...which has been designed within an inch of its life to be an amalgamated Midcentury Modern/French Regency look, which supposedly was a distinct Southern California style in the early 1960s.



We all kept expecting Pasty and Edina from "Absolutely Fabulous" to walk in at any moment.



The hotel has an enlightened young Australian manager who decided that brunch should be served everyday until 5PM. "If you're at a resort, and possibly staying up until all hours, why should you have to worry about getting up in time for breakfast?" he reasoned.



Another lovely touch is the issuance of 25% off "Viceroy" cards to anybody who actually lives in Palm Springs so the place isn't completely dependent upon hipster tourists.



After lunch, we walked a couple of blocks to a strip mall that housed Palm Spring's Gay Pride Center, which was featuring a "High Tea for Peace," where we wished the indubitably gay designers of The Viceroy had been consulted on the art and decoration.