PUTTIN’ ON the Ritz : No detail was overlooked as staff rehearsed for reopening of grand hotel

The five women stood at attention like soldiers. Their clipboard-toting supervisor, clad in an antiseptic white coat, paced before them.

“Nails,” commanded Patricia Isla, and five pairs of hands thrust forward in unison. “Hair.” The women turned on their 1 1/4-inch heels to show off their properly tied-back tresses.

Nary a detail was overlooked last weekend as employees of the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena prepared to serve a dry-run tea to their first “real” customers. The dress rehearsal, for community leaders, representatives from the travel industry and other special guests, was part of a seven-day training program that led up to Monday’s official opening for the general public.

Before the gala opening--whose pomp and circumstance included a brass band to accompany the Rose Queen as she was chauffeurred into the courtyard in an antique motor car--employees held dress rehearsals of everything from luncheons to room service to a formal banquet.

The attention to the little things at the Ritz-Carlton may strike guests as something of an anachronism. In many ways, a stroll through the Huntington Hotel is like a trip through time.

It was built in 1906 as the Hotel Wentworth. It changed ownership a number of times before closing in 1985 after it was determined that the structure couldn’t survive an earthquake. The Ritz-Carlton’s $100-million renovation, which razed much of the old building, has tried to be faithful to the hotel’s history.

The Grill restaurant, for instance, is in the same spot as the old Ship Room, and though it has been completely rebuilt, it’s still filled with nautical paintings and model vessels carved from wood. “This was a favorite watering hole for this community,” said restaurant manager Richard Walker.

One thing that is not old-fashioned at the Ritz-Carlton, however, is the price of checking in. Guests pay rates ranging from $145 to $2,500, although a special preview price of $129 is being offered through Labor Day. In turn, staff members--of which there are about two for every one patron--promise impeccable service.

Isla, the assistant lounge and bar manager, made sure nothing was overlooked last weekend as she scrutinized her staff: earring size, nylons, uniform length, makeup--she checked it all. She even made sure that the tearoom servers, as they’re called, were wearing their Ritz-Carlton-issued strand of “genuine simulated” pearls.

“The Ritz-Carlton has a set way of doing things,” said Stephanie Moffett, 28, a waitress who had been training for the past week. “You have to learn to do it their way if you want to work here.”

In fact, some 600 new employees spent the last week learning, or actually relearning, everything from how to park a car to open a door, answer a phone, make a bed and serve a meal. Each day before work, employees are even supposed to recite the Ritz-Carlton’s 64-word credo, which encourages the “genuine care and comfort” of every guest and the fulfilling of their “unexpressed wishes and needs.”

“I’ve been telling my family about the training and they think it sounds a bit like the military,” Moffett said. “But the hotel just wants to instill a high standard of service in its employees.”

The managers of the Ritz-Carlton are even sticklers for proper grammar: “You have to say, ‘May I bring you something?’ and not ‘Can I get you something?’ ” explained waitress Beverly Belletich, 36, who worked previously at The Raymond restaurant in Pasadena.

“It’s like Disneyland,” said Charles Livingstone Fels , referring to the theme park’s notoriously tight control of its employees’ dress and behavior. Fels, a Malibu resident, was enjoying a dress-rehearsal lunch Saturday at The Grill, which overlooks the hotel’s horseshoe-shaped garden.

“We were guinea pigs,” said Eve Helms, director of sales for the Pasadena Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“Actually, we were just pigs,” she said about the shrimp cocktail with tomato-horseradish sauce, grilled swordfish with citrus butter sauce, cappuccino and fresh berries that she consumed for lunch.

And the service? “Incredible, really great,” Helms said. “No mistakes at all. Everything went smoothly. It certainly didn’t seem like a test.”

Perhaps not to her. But for the waiters, waitresses and busboys who were doing the serving, there were plenty of first-day jitters. “I had nightmares last night I was so nervous,” Belletich said. “I’ve worked at lots of nice restaurants before, but I’ve never seen the type of training they have here. The standards are very high.”

Waiter Stephen Kane, 28, was just happy to serve real patrons, as opposed to the in-house employees who were his first customers early last week. The employees were prompted to ask tough questions concerning ingredients, wines and styles of cooking.

And some instigated awkward moments, such as joining a party after it had already placed its order. “They really tried to set up situations where things could go wrong,” Kane said. “The trainers looked over our shoulders every minute and were very critical.

“It was like boot camp,” he added. “It’s tough while it’s going on, but prepares you for just about everything. It made today seem like a breeze.”

THE RITZ-CARLTON HUNTINGTON HOTEL

Address: 1401 S. Oak Knoll Ave., Pasadena

History: Built as the Hotel Wentworth in 1906; reopened as the Huntington Hotel in 1914; closed in 1985 after it was determined the hotel could not survive a major earthquake.

Reopening date: March 18, 1991

Famous former guests: Bing Crosby, Albert Einstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Teddy Roosevelt, Richard M. Nixon, Princess Anne

Restoration cost: About $100 million

Number of rooms: 383, including six cottages and one Presidential Suite

Bargain: Preview rate of $129 being offered through Labor Day; lowest-priced room will be $145 after that

Top of the line: $2,500 a night for the Presidential Suite

Just dropping by: At The Bar, one of the hotel’s six eateries, a Courvoisier by the fireplace is $7; high tea, served daily from 2:30 to 5 p.m. in the Lobby Lounge, runs $11.50

Honor bar contents in guest rooms: Heineken beer, Grand Marnier, macadamia nuts, Jelly Bellies, chocolate truffles

Don’t miss: Restored Japanese and horseshoe gardens, originally designed between 1911 and 1914 by William Hetrich, the landscape architect of the The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens.