SEPT 19 - 21, 2025 | SAN FRANCISCO
The morning fog may chill the air, I don’t care, my love waits there in San Francisco, crooned Tony Bennett in his signature song, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”
Tom Wolfe will attest to that. From his desk at the Fairmont, the Official Fan Hotel of Laver Cup 2025, the concierge pioneer has seen San Francisco reinvent itself time and again. His passion for the city remains a constant.
In 1974, having honed his skills at some of the finest hotels in Europe, Wolfe brought his services to the Fairmont San Francisco, the very first concierge in the U.S. And it’s at the iconic Fairmont that Bennett first performed what would become the city’s anthem.
“This city is like no other,” says Wolfe, who with matching polka dot bowtie and pocket square would be on point at a Wes Anderson casting call. “There are similarities, of course. You could compare San Francisco to, say, Lisbon. Lisbon’s got some hills, it’s got a bay, but does it have the magic that this city has? There’s an almost palpable sense of it in the air, the way people carry themselves, a unique way that is very San Francisco.”
As you might guess, Wolfe has crossed paths with a host of A-listers over the years, everyone from Joan Rivers and Ella Fitzgerald to Anthony Hopkins and the Kardashians. Wolfe even encountered former Team World captain John McEnroe back in his playing days.
“He was the ‘bad boy’ of tennis,” remembers Wolfe, not to be confused with either acclaimed author of the same name, Look Homeward, Angel novelist Thomas Wolfe and Tom Wolfe of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test fame. “His face, even in repose, had attitude. You just knew he was trouble. Much to my surprise, he was extremely grateful and polite.”
A Beaux-Arts beacon since the hotel first opened its doors atop Nob Hill a year to the day after the earthquake of 1906, the Fairmont has been the site of many a noteworthy event. In 1945, it hosted delegates from 40 nations as they crafted the UN Charter. The 1996 action thriller “The Rock” was filmed here. The hotel even makes an appearance in the Jean de Brunhoff children’s classic Babar Comes to America. This month, the Fairmont is serving as the Official Fan Hotel of Laver Cup 2025.
“It is one of the very last of the grand hotels in the world,” said Wolfe, 81. “So many important things have happened here. Name a president and they’ve been here in one capacity or another.” Wolfe is your man if you’re seeking help with a travel snafu or a restaurant reservation, or if you’re looking for tips on what to do/see during your stay in San Francisco. His recommendations for the Laver Cup competitors?
“I’d be inclined to send them out on San Francisco Bay,” he says. “Maybe put them on a sailboat. That’s something everyone should experience, when the wind hits and it heels over and you’re going along with the edge of the hull in the water. You’re seeing the streets rise up from the water, seeing Angel Island. That’s a really unique perspective.”
Despite his many brushes with greatness, Wolfe says it’s the everyday interactions that he cherishes most, like the ‘hellos’ and ‘good afternoons’ he exchanges with passersby on his walks to and from work.
“I love the fact that it’s a thriving city that still has a little bit of the small town about it,” he says.
San Francisco has been many things to many people: A center point for the California gold rush; host to the Summer of Love in Haight Ashbury; the emergence of the Castro as an LGBTQ sanctuary; a photo op on Lombard Street or the Golden Gate Bridge; home to sporting dynasties in the Giants, 49ers and Warriors, etc. Today, the city is the global tech hub, its rents soaring, its hilly streets abuzz with driverless cars. It’s San Francisco’s resiliency, its ability to reinvent itself time and again, that still draws Wolfe more than a half-century after he first arrived.
On a clear morning in July, Wolfe is standing in the cavernous Venetian Room at the Fairmont, where Bennett first performed his George Cory/Douglass Cross-penned hit in 1961. Years later, Wolfe would have the distinct pleasure of introducing Bennett in this same room before the renowned singer belted out the song once again. Wolfe’s eyes light up: “He was one of the sweetest people you’d ever meet in your life. Totally humble. He was probably one of the nicest showbiz celebrities I’ve ever had the honor of knowing.”
Like Bennett, who died in 2023 at age 96, whether he’s behind his familiar concierge desk at the Fairmont or somewhere traveling the world, Wolfe’s heart will always be here, in the City by the Bay.
