Krug & Sushi at the Park Hyatt

The Park Hyatt Hotel celebrated it's $60M recent makeover with a swish party on Tuesday evening.

Amber Keating in Louis Vuitton

Nestled beneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge and directly opposite the Sydney Opera House, the Park Hyatt clearly has the premier location of any Sydney inn and it's the home away from home for most visiting celebrities.
But what was with the report in a Sydney tabloid newspaper today that implied that while the Star casino (possibly Australia's most ghastly looking building) served Krug champagne for it's glitzy launch last year, the Park Hyatt settled for photographs of the French tipple ?. Perhaps the journo was pre-occupied with the dramas about his newspaper's parent company unfolding in the Leveson Inquiry in the UK.

Not only was the Krug flowing freely at the Park Hyatt, it was '98 vintage which doesn't come cheap. There were buckets and buckets of the stuff and the Shuttle knows as we could only look on in sheer envy, reduced as we are to sipping mineral water because of a course of anti-biotics.

If the service at the Park Hyatt's launch party is anything to go by, it's position as the hotel of choice for superstars (and other mortals) will remain un-matched. The hotel had flown in chefs from around the world including two to prepare superb sushi, and with a series of rooms serving up various cuisines, this was one of Sydney's most memorable parties.

Bridget & Louise Abbott

Jo Ferguson & Catriona Rowntree

As for Star, which the Tele helpfully informs us attracted the likes of Leo DiCaprio, Stevie Wonder and others of that ilk to it's launch late last year, they forgot to mention the millions of dollars paid out to the slebs or in DiCaprio's case, the entire floor of it's hotel they laid on gratis for Leo's staff to live in while he filmed The Great Gatsby. Or of the Star's private jet that was laid on for DiCaprio's exclusive use during his stay. Even then he only turned up to the launch party for an hour or so and stood sullenly in a corner scowling at the media.

 Sipping Krug at the Park Hyatt : Hon Bruce Baird, Amber Keating, Kerri Anne Kennerley, gossip writers Jo Cassamento and Ros Reines, Catriona Rowntree, Sandra Sully and two new entrants to the social scene, Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's daughters Bridget and Louise Abbott.

                      the view from the Park Hyatt's bar