The InterContinental pours an awfully strong Benicio del Toro

If you’re a mere mortal camped outside the revolving doors at theInterContinental, you may be wondering what it’s like inside. Well, we’re not gonna lie (even if the most famous person we saw there this afternoon was Rick Campanelli): it’s pretty great. The staff is polite, the floors are shiny and it smells like lavender.

We wanted to know what stars and their entourages will be chowing down on between interviews at the InterCon this week, so we spoke with Asad Hameed, manager of the hotel’s patio restaurant SkyLounge, who gave us the details on the special festival menu.

There’s the light and quickly devoured buffalo mozzarella–tomato salad ($14), butter-poached jumbo shrimp on risotto, or as chef Christopher Perera calls them, the jumbo, jumbo shrimp ($32), and the popular lobster salad with tofu and alfalfa ($32).

The Leading Man cucumber martini (tall, dark and good looking), with Peruvian pisco liqueur, is so strong we were calling it our Benicio del Toro by the time we had polished it off.

And, finally, the tray of apples, chocolate and popcorn served to every room made us so envious, we’ll never get excited about a mint on our pillow again.—Melita Kuburas