Panama Real Estate Investment Travel Information


Quintessentially in Panama

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Written by Matt Landau

Monday, June 02 2008

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Aside from the fact that their web domain is incredibly hard to spell, Quintessentially, the luxury lifestyle group has arrived on Panama's stage, front and center: bringing select beads of beluga caviar and rare sets of mahjong tiles to the small, yet tres chic masses that follow glamorously in its wake.

I sat down recently with the team from Quintessentially who, going along with the nature of their business, occupy a snazzy office and wear absurdly hip clothing to work. They had contacted us because of a project I'm involved in was up for consideration in their new luxury hotel database in Panama City, how flashy!

Much to their chagrin, I had only recently heard of the Quintessentially club when a wealthy friend of mine, a member, recalled a story in which his personal concierge team was able to find a Kobe cow for him to ride in Tokyo.

"So I was in Japan one afternoon...and I wanted to ride a bull. So I had them find me a Kobe beef cow. That's the best to eat, so I figured it's gotta be the best to ride, right?"

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" I asked. "You were in Japan and wanted to ride a bull?" As silly as I thought the request seemed, it's not terribly far off (as I would soon find out) from those of Quintessentially's members around the world: nothing appears too ostentatious.

"We acquire hard-to-find theater tickets all the time" I remember one of the reps saying during our meeting. "Tough restaurant reservations, luxury car rentals, VIP passes. These are things we do on a regular basis. If you're a Q member, the world is your oyster." I imagined them pulling out a tray of oysters from the desk and offering me one right there on the spot.

Q is what insiders refer to it for short. Besides being quite nice to save the breath of pronunciation, calling Quintessentially "Q" also comes off sounding stealthy and secret agent-like: a fitting symbol of international exclusivity.

Upon hearing the capabilities of the organization my mind slipped into imaginative bliss, thinking of all the possibilities and implications such a service might have in my life. While I continued to nod and smile, I had stopped listening very early on in the meeting, imagining the amount of lifetime fantasies I could fulfill now that "Q" was on my side.

"So let me get this straight, "I interrupted, during one of their slideshows. "If I was in the middle of, I don't know, say Russia, in a desert with no food or water, you guys could get me a Gatorade and a plasma TV?" Around the expensive conference table, the team shook their head with concurrent approval. How they would find me or get the request in the first place was not a detail I was concerned with, drunk on the power of personal butlers.

From the moment the popular On-Star system came onto the market, I'd always wanted a round-the-clock concierge service of my own. On-Star is good for unlocking your doors when you've lost your keys and helping you at the scene of an accident, but can they really secure you front row seats at the Lakers game? Can they really fly you around the world on a private jet in search of the finest locks of saffron, stopping only in countries that start with the letters La? Were such a request to be made to an On-Star agent, I'd imagine her studying the handset of her telephone saying, "You want me to do what? Fuck that!"

According to their website, the newly-opened Quintessentially branch in Panama City, Panama, "is a passport to the very best that life has to offer." And while I had always been under the impression that sort of claim to fame only arrived only written on the inside of a diamond ring box, it now appears that just about anyone can purchase this extravagance practically over the phone.

I began to reveal the splendors of a Quintessentially membership to some of my friends, and they too took comfort in conjuring up various scenarios benefiting from this new service. "What about taking a private submarine down to the lake at Summit Golf Course?" one of them hypothesized. "You know how many golf balls we'd find down there? Gotta be hundreds, even thousands! We'd be rich! "

It was at this point that I leaned back in my chair and allowed the group to mull over the possibilities. "It's a passport to the very best," I yawned with pleasure. "I once even requested to ride a Kobe cow."

Comments (1)

Nat: When Q goes wrong....

My cousin ownes Q along with Ben, I can assure you that when things go wrong you will be to blame and not them, they have no time for anyone that does not spend money or are complaining............. Keep your money in your pockets people dont give to tossers...........

September 06, 2008

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