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The Algonquin: Not just a pricey martini

December 17, 2004 at 8:54 AM | 0 Comments

NYC publicity-mongering Algonquin Hotel is at it again. (And again we play right into their hands! Blast! They're really good at this!)

With the help of a very expensive diamond martini and a $3 million renovation the historic hotel is fighting tooth and nail to revive their reputation as hip writer hangout.

Their latest publicity stunt? Let's just call it adventures in time travel, centered around the hotel's famous Round Table.

[General manager Anthony Melchiorri] says visitors will find a cast of actors seated at the most recent version of the table - the original disappeared years ago - who will assume the roles of Parker, Benchley and others. Guests would be invited to discuss anything, from books and magazines to the latest celebrity gossip and news events.

Part of the renovation included eqipping the table with wireless laptops for public use, presumably available when the, um, reenactors have gone home for the evening.

The Algonquin may be generating a lot of press, but will they attract today's literati? Nat Benchley, an actor and writer decended from the original (and authentic) cast of the Round Table's glory days, had this to say: "Most creative people I know don't have a lot of time to sit around and soak up each other's daily wit and wisdom."

Translation: No number of fake writer compatriots and wireless public laptops will convince one of today's hipster writers to spend two hours in a hotel when they could be off doing, you know, whatever it is writers do today. Our prediction of the Algonquin's new clientele: Well-read tourists. Maybe.

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