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Campton Place is luxury "boutique" hotel located at 340 Stockton street, adjacent the historic Union Square district of San Francisco, California. Its main building is 17 stories, with a 7 story annex, and at its current configuration offers 110 rooms. In addition to the rooms, Campton Place boasts a Michelin starred restaurant bearing the same name, as well as a "1980's New York style" bar and bistro. It is one of the cities oldest existent hotels having been first built in the early Twentieth century by the Campton family.
History
[edit]Campton Place has undergone numerous transformations including: ownership, style, and even the physical structures themselves. Records of the hotel's earliest history are scarce but indicate that a hotel was first built on that plot in the early 1900's by the Campton family [1]. This building, a structure of unknown size, was razed in the great earthquake and conflagration that destroyed most of San Francisco in 1907. The Campton's rebuilt the property as a 12 story hotel but sold it to new ownership prior to re-opening in 1909.
These owners rechristened the hotel as the "Drake-Wiltshire". In 1916 three stories were added and the décor was remodeled to a Spanish Colonial Revival style. Looking to expand further, the adjacent 7 story "Wilson Building" was purchased and channeled to integrate the structures. In 1942, a Kansas born lawyer, John Quigley purchased the property and oversaw it personally in acting as its GM for almost 30 years.
Subsequent decades saw a handful of further owners including the Hong Kong based Ayala corporation, Lufthansa, Southbourne Inc., and briefly the KOR corporation. A main focus of these various owners saw the number of rooms decreased from 250 to 110 (thus increasing room sizes) and rebranded the hotel as a luxury property under the original title of "Campton Place".
Finally, in 2007, the hotel was acquired by its current ownership, the India based Tata group. At the time the purchase was noted as a "record-smashing" deal of $58 million, or $527,000 per room by Tata's Taj hotel group. Of the deal hotel consultant Rick Swig stated that Taj hotels would be better suited to running the restaurant and hotel as they are known "for high service quality and a long-term commitment to their properties" [2].
Campton Place Dining
[edit]Campton Place is home to three restaurants. Two of which, Campton Place Dining Room and it's adjacent Bistro, are open to the public. A third eatery, "The Fables", is the employee canteen and has existed since the hotel's inception.
The dining room opened in its current incarnation in 1983. From its very beginnings the various ownerships have seemingly all held a knack with attracting up and coming culinary talent. Some of America's most innovative chef's launched their reputations at Campton Place. In the role of Executive Chef luminaries include Bradley Ogden (1983), Jan Birnbaum (1988), Todd Humphries (1994), Laurent Manrique (1998), and Daniel Humm (2003). One other contemporary notable – Dominique Crenn, passed through the kitchen as well, but not as executive chef. Campton Place’s current lead, Srijith Gopinathan has been at the helm since 2008. The restaurant earned its first Michelin star in 2010 under Chef Gopinathan's direction.