Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Service fit for a king and queen

Atop a jagged heap of granite and basalt rising a few thousand feet above the Gulf of Aqaba, King Hussein and Queen Noor of Jordan played host to a lavish dinner.

Persian rugs covered the ground under a black, red, gold and orange Bedouin tent made of goatskin. Gold-leaf Limoges china and Baccarat crystal set a table for the royal couple and eight guests. Nearby, a lamb baked al-mandi style in a deep, covered hole. Fifty members of the royal staff tended to the formal event.

"Whoa," Patrick Littlejohn whispered at his first glimpse of the opulence from the military helicopter that shuttled everyone - and everything - up the steep cliffs.

A dairy farmer's son who grew up hunting rabbits in the Scottish Highlands, he had left Edinburgh that morning and was dropped into a royal daydream.

Littlejohn of Arabia.

Life inside Middle East palace walls forever changed Littlejohn, the 37-year-old general manager of the high-end Il Molina restaurant at Caesars Palace. In his snappy tux, he greets each patron. Faces and past conversations come easily to him.

He balances the books, executes advertising and marketing campaigns, scouts for new restaurant sites and occasionally helps out at the other five Il Molina restaurants around the country.

He also takes out the trash.

"You have to do everything," he said. "You can't be picky in telling someone to do something you aren't willing to do yourself."

The awe and privilege, and challenges, of working for the late king drive Littlejohn daily.

From early 1994 to late 1997, he mostly directed the food and beverage personnel - coordinating state dinners, official functions and family meals - of the four palaces of the king's Royal Court Compound. He learned to be much more tolerant of others and far less dictatorial in his manner. That happens when few others speak English.

"I was in their country; so I had to adapt," Littlejohn said. "And you have to be understanding when others don't do something right just because they don't understand you."

He came to appreciate that Hussein and Noor were simple people. When they dined in private, they ate meals from colorful but basic Jerash dinnerware. The Limoges and Baccarat, and $300 soup cups, were for show.

Littlejohn aims to treat everyone behind the scenes at Il Molina, and anyone who walks through those glass front doors, like kings and queens.

"That period was instrumental in my life, not just in my job," Littlejohn said. "If royalty can be common, everyday people, then the average person can be treated like royalty. Everyone wants to feel special. It had a lasting effect."

At Nadwa Palace, he turned his head toward a rear head-waiter's stairwell. But that isn't the head waiter; Hussein descended those last few steps, walked up to Littlejohn and welcomed him "into my family."

"I remember that to this day," Littlejohn said.

He hasn't forgotten the look on Prince Hamzah's face, either, when Littlejohn pulled into the compound in a midnight-blue Ford Expedition XLT, with a white-leather interior and big alloy wheels, provided by Hussein.

"How'd you get this? I don't have a car like this," the prince said.

"It's who you know," Littlejohn said, winking at the king's son.

The king surprised Littlejohn with a summons to Nadwa on March 13, 1996. Uh oh, Littlejohn thought, how did I mess up? Did the queen's tofu sour? Hussein was watching CNN report that a lunatic had shot 16 schoolchildren in Dunblane, Scotland. He asked Littlejohn if he knew anyone involved. We'll fly you home immediately if you need to comfort or console anyone.

Littlejohn hails from Golspie, almost at the opposite end of Scotland and 125 miles from Dunblane. He had no connection to the tragedy. Still, Littlejohn was moved by Hussein's gesture.

Hussein bin Talal gained control of the kingdom at the age of 18 in 1953, after seeing King Abdullah, his grandfather, assassinated during Friday prayers in Jerusalem. Hussein followed the gunman, escaping injury when the bullet the killer fired at him was deflected by a badge that Abdullah had implored him to wear.

Assassination and coup attempts were so common, Hussein wrote in his memoirs, that he sometimes felt like a character in a detective novel. Despite constant threats, the king had tremendous faith that he'd wade unarmed into bread riots among his subjects.

Littlejohn saw average citizens revere the man who introduced multiparty elections, political opposition and other concepts - democracy, pluralism and respect for human life.

Littlejohn also had his limits. He once said no to Noor, who was American.

She asked if it would be appropriate to move a 40-person birthday dinner for her father downstairs to the Arab Quarters, ornately adorned with antique guns and gold-handled swords. Pooped from getting only five hours of sleep in Aqaba the previous three days at the king's 60th birthday celebrations, Littlejohn said no.

Servants gasped. The queen asked if it would be appropriate, then, to hold the reception in the quarters. Your highness, that would be appropriate, Littlejohn said.

An avid tennis player, the queen asked Littlejohn for a flask of Bellini, a concoction of champagne and peach nectar made famous at Harry's Bar in Venice, Italy, before heading to the royal tennis courts one afternoon. She inquired a second time, when Littlejohn told her he thought she was kidding.

"I don't kid about my flask of Bellini," Noor said.

That's the only alcohol Littlejohn saw the king or queen consume.

Hussein did order nonalcoholic beer when he and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin relaxed on the balcony of the royal summer home in Aqaba in July 1994. Hussein and Rabin had just signed a peace treaty that formally ended 46 years of war between the two nations.

His majesty, however, never touched the beer. He just didn't want Rabin to think he was drinking his Johnnie Walker Black alone.

"The king wanted it to be like two guys enjoying a drink together," Littlejohn said.

Littlejohn often saw Hussein with his royal guard down. For instance, Hussein enjoyed Big Macs, obtained in secret runs to the nearest Golden Arches in Jericho, more than he appreciated Yasser Arafat. When the Palestine Liberation Organization leader left Hussein, he always kissed Hussein on his forehead. Once in Aqaba, after Arafat had departed, Littlejohn was coaxed by the royal chef into serving the king a hot white towel on a silver plate.

"What's this for?" the king asked.

"For your forehead, your highness." Littlejohn said.

Hussein howled.

Littlejohn, with a Serbian flight attendant whom he had just married, left the royal compound for the Crowne Plaza in New York in 1997. The Saudi owners of the hotel were friends of Hussein, who tapped the contact to further Littlejohn's career. Unlike his passion for the restaurant business, Littlejohn's marriage didn't last.

Hussein lost his battle with cancer in February 1999, and his oldest son Abdullah II took over the reins of the kingdom. Littlejohn exchanged occasional correspondence with Noor until he came to Las Vegas to launch Il Molina in 2004.

Besides his memories, Littlejohn prizes a Nicholas Egan limited-edition print of Petra. It was an unexpected Christmas gift from the royal couple that hangs in a prominent spot in the living room of his Rhodes Ranch home.

But he recalls other workers in the compound drooling over the wealth that surrounded them. They yearned for, if not expected, their own slices of it. They'd ask for cash or a motorbike or other item, and Hussein would give it to them.

"Then the king told them to get out," Littlejohn said. "It would be the last thing they ever got from him."

Littlejohn sought only a rich, life-altering experience. He got it, in multiples. Even during his last week in the compound, others prodded him. "What did you get? What are you going to ask for? You could get anything!"

"No," Littlejohn responded. "I got a great experience."

On his last day, Hussein called Littlejohn into his office and presented him with a gift that Littlejohn refuses to reveal.

"I was blown away," Littlejohn said. "A lot of people are greedy. Expect nothing and you get everything. You'll be pleasantly surprised by the nature of some people."

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