I met a friend for lunch the other day at the Oak Long Bar + Kitchen, the recently reimagined dining room at The Fairmont Copley Plaza, Boston featured in the January 2013 issue of Global Traveler magazine.

Almost everyone who knows me (including my lunch buddy, Suzanne Wenz) also knows The Fairmont Copley Plaza, Boston ranks among my favorite hotels in the world. 

When I was a college student working summers at the nearby John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co.  — my Dad hooked me up with a great summer job — I’d often spend my lunch hour soaking up rays in Copley Square surrounded by the shops of Boylston Street, the Boston Public Library, Trinity Church and the grand façade of the Copley Plaza Hotel. 

My husband, Kevin, and I spent our wedding night at the hotel, surprised when the bellman escorted us to an ornate three-room suite. It was 1983, and we had booked what I can only imagine was a tiny room for the bargain rate of $89 per night. We had no idea the hotel, knowing it was our wedding night, would offer the complimentary upgrade.

Throughout the years, I’ve dined in the hotel’s venerable Oak Room and sipped Champagne in the Oak Bar. One of my most memorable visits involved an almost-encounter with Robert B. Parker. The Boston-based bestselling author and creator of the Spenser series, who died almost three years ago on Jan. 20, 2010, passed within touching distance of our seats in the Oak Bar en route to his table in the Oak Room. A huge fan of his Spenser novels, I heroically resisted the temptation to jump out of my chair and beg for his autograph.

Why all this background? I’m a fan of tradition. I still enjoy a touch of old-world elegance in today’s pack-it-and-go reality. I have fond memories of the Fairmont Copley Plaza’s clubby Oak Bar and its familiar, albeit stodgy-in-a-good-way, Oak Room.

So, when I met a friend for lunch the other day at the Oak Long Bar + Kitchen, I was thrilled to discover the designers had successfully created a 21st-century space that honors its early-20th-century heritage.

— Lisa Matte, editor in chief