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The Hunt Club, the hotel's restaurant, is one of Seattle's best-known and most highly lauded dining spots, presided over with loving care by executive chef Brian Scheehser. It's been his home for the last eight years; he started as a line cook and rose among the ranks to the top job. Now he grows his own herbs and fresh vegetables to use in his recipes, changing the daily specials to reflect the fresh ingredients that come from his garden. The restaurant itself is lovely, and has consistently been voted The Most Romantic Place to Kiss in Seattle.

For lighter fare, the bar at The Sorrento offers a substantial menu of munchies (the calamari is divine.) Guests can be served beverages and food in either the bar itself or in the Fireside Lounge, the latter being an entirely non-smoking environment.

I have spent the last five years on a mission to locate The Perfect Urban Hotel and have nearly found it in The Sorrento. It has most of the elements I seek: Charming and personable staff for whom the phrase "No, we can't" is not an option, delightful decor and ambiance, windows that open, incandescent rather than fluorescent lighting, in-room coffee makers, and -on a practical level- accessible rooms and a child-friendly atmosphere. I was mourning the fact that it isn't pet-friendly when I was emphatically told that the hotel indeed DOES welcome small pets. My "perfection" meter hit a higher level.

Which leaves only the following negatives: parking is a problem, and the location is only so-so. You can walk around the neighborhood but it isn't really fun, and the five downhill blocks to the business and shopping district might be fine on a dry summer day, but not in Seattle's rain.

On the other hand, there is valet parking with a cadre of terrific "car concierges," and there's a town car to take you anywhere you want to go in the downtown area.

If I return to The Sorrento with one of my poochies, I will have to be very specific about who is sleeping in the doggie bed and who gets to drift off in a cloud of fluff. The latter would be me.