Is Sir Rod Stewart feeling quite himself? I only ask as lately the rocker has shown a little uncharacteristic generosity. I don’t mean the signed bottle of whisky he sent me for Christmas — although let’s be clear, I absolutely want you to know that Sir Rod sent me a signed bottle of whisky for Christmas — but the £10,000 tip he gave staff at Gleneagles hotel, after spending Hogmanay there with Penny and the kids.
Granted, Sir Rod’s advice to put the lot on Scotland winning the Euros may have been less welcome — 80/1 odds? Come off it. Still, for a man once dubbed “tight as two coats of paint” by best mate Ronnie Wood, it’s a surprise. Not a total one, admittedly, given 2023 also saw the 78-year-old pay for a day’s worth of MRI scans for patients stuck on NHS waiting lists. But come on, he used to charge Britt Ekland for bed and board.
Ah, but Sir Rod had his reasons. “I’ve been lucky enough to stay in some of the top hotels in the world and the service at Gleneagles is second to none,” he told the Daily Record. “It’s Scottish hospitality at its very best.”
Having been up to Gleneagles lately myself — not with Sir Rod, I’m not some secret love-child — he’s on the money, all 10 grand of it. The service is beyond good — and notably Scottish, too. I’ve seen it in Rothes’ Station Hotel, and at Eagle Brae in Struy. It was even there in Edinburgh’s Cafe Royal. Scottish hospitality has a particular timbre. It’s friendly rather than fawning, obliging without being obsequious. And it might be attentive, but it’s not intrusive. Have you counted the number of interruptions that come with a meal out in London these days? You’d think the service was charged by the word.
I’m being grumpy. London has plenty of hospitality masters — Emma Underwood (Midland Grand), Sujan Chowdhury (the Devonshire), Elin Hansen (Otto’s) and Benoit Provost (the Stafford) all spring to mind. There are others. But what binds them and those up at Gleneagles is the willingness to step back, to let guests dictate their own meal. I don’t need lectures on every ingredient, or PowerPoints on the wine. I suppose what I’m really saying is, to use the words of Sir Rod, I Don’t Want to Talk About It.
