Hotel eating offers luxury, fine food and dark corners: for privacy, nothing beats a hotel restaurant.

• Author: Lavrakas, Dimitra
• Position: Alaka Business Power Lunch

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It's never been much of a secret that to find the movers and shakers of the oil industry and Native corporations, you head to Fletcher's at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage. Amid highly polished, dark wood and Victorian decor, sit the captains of industry and masters--and matriarchs--of multinational corporations. You certainly can impress a client in this rarefied atmosphere.

But there also are other hotels with restaurants that deserve a nod.

WITHIN STRIKING DISTANCE OF DOWNTOWN

The Inlet Towers, secreted in a quiet neighborhood off Anchorage's Park Strip at 1200 L Street, offers the bright and cheery Mixx Grill. It's an easy walk from downtown and a world away from the busy pace of the city's core. It's also around the corner from 10th and M Seafoods, where you can purchase fresh seafood for dinner, should you not have a crazed Alaska fisherman in your household filling your freezer.

There are lots of nooks and crannies in this restaurant in which to hide if you desire privacy for business meetings.

The menu is light and fresh, starting out with the full-bodied Signature Roasted Tomato Soup. Just about every restaurant in town offers a roasted tomato soup, but this one is especially savory and satisfying. The Pasta Pomadoro del Mare, with fresh fettuccine, prawns, scallop and salmon tossed in a tomato caper sauce; and the Pan Fried Salmon Cakes, with roasted corn salsa, cilantro-jalapeno sauce celebrate the bounty of Alaska's waters, but with an updated twist. Don't worry, for lovers of traditional fish dishes they do have Ale-Battered Fish and Chips.

Really, the Mixx Grill is one of the city's best-kept secrets, but it should be a secret no more. (Psssst, it has an enclosed back patio, away from street noise).

MIDTOWN MEDITERRANEAN DELIGHT

In Midtown, the eclectic Qupqugiaq Inn has on its ground floor the Istanbul Cafe that serves authentic Turkish and Mediterranean cuisine. From a selection of kebab (meat and vegetables roasted on a skewer), to appetizers that feature meatless stuffed grape leaves, babganush (eggplant dip) and hummus (ground chick pea dip), the cafe specializes in a healthy cuisine of food low in cholesterol and trans-fats.

A GEM IN SOUTHEAST

If you want to bowl over someone with excellent food in a classy, old-time hotel, then you must find yourself in Haines, a town on the Inside Passage 80 miles north of Junean.

One of the most memorable meals this reporter has ever had was served in the...