Word: elliots
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...cash to spare, you might try Ben Elliot, co-founder of Quintessentially, a London-based concierge business dedicated to satisfying even the most fanciful whim of its well-heeled clientele. Quintessentially, Elliot boasts, can get almost anything, anywhere. The company was once asked, for instance, to procure a dozen albino peacocks for Jennifer Lopez's birthday. When Madonna ran out of her favorite teabags in London, Quintessentially flew some in from Los Angeles. They've arranged luxury expeditions to the North Pole and to the Amazon jungle. When a client managed to get lost while trekking in the latter, Quintessentially...
...Service like that used to be the purview of upscale hotels, private bankers and credit-card companies. But concierge firms catering to what Elliot calls the "cash-rich, time-poor" are now springing up all over. Katharine Giovanni, chairwoman of the U.S.-based International Concierge and Errand Association, says membership in her organization has doubled in the last two years, to around 650 companies. And Giovanni says those firms are no longer catering exclusively to the leisure class. Many concierge clients these days are harried two-career families who simply need an extra hand planning a child's birthday party...
...Quintessentially's Elliot certainly doesn't cut the figure of a modern-day Jeeves. For one thing, he was born into the manor rather than the servant's quarters: his aunt is the Duchess of Cornwall, wife of the presumptive future King of England. (Though he wears his privilege lightly, Elliot, 32, is something of a British tabloid fixture himself, having dated a procession of beautiful celebrities). For another thing, Elliot is running an international business, not mixing martinis for the master. He won't say how profitable Quintessentially is. But since he started the company in 2000 with...
...Elliot's concierges, no request is beyond the pale. Well, almost no request: the company ran into trouble last year when an employee in France reportedly told a journalist posing as a client that he could procure prostitutes and cocaine. For the most part, though, Quintessentially's clients-or members, as the company calls them-simply want to know where to go, and how to get past the velvet rope when they get there. "If you think about the early 21st century, there's more very, very rich people on the planet than ever before who all want that access...
...excited, but Elliot was justly exhausted. I blurted, “Elliot! This is like Tocqueville, man! This is what it’s all about.” He looked at me, not quite believing I had actually said that. A volunteer said to Elliot, “He hasn’t been here long...