HotelChatter

Highlights: The lobby comes stocked with decidedly on-target touches: a ReadyMade mag-branded vending machine that sells handcrafted goodies like wallets made from FedEx envelopes, wall art by artists who are developmentally disabled, an orange phone that dials the hotel’s “philanthropy concierge” who sets up volunteer opportunities through local nonprofit One Brick.

Décor is “Ikea gone eco” — i.e., platform beds crafted from reclaimed pine, recycled soda bottle fleece blankets, DIY chandeliers built from empty water bottles, and pillows made from salvaged hotel bedspreads (to which we have to say, ew).

The on-site resto, Good Pizza, got high marks, with “unexpectedly good” pies (the writer ordered one with organic apples, fromage blanc from Cowgirl Creamery, and toasted walnuts — yum). Also, “a secret message from the hotel…glows in the dark.” The cryptic nature of that description might be creepy if we weren’t pretty sure it probably says something like “do good.”

But! It’s not all good. The bathrooms seemed unrenovated, with “mildewed grout and cracked brown tiles.” Writer wishes she packed flip-flops, which is never a good sign. And the hotel’s SoMa neighborhood is described as “gritty but slowly revitalizing” near “scuzzy” housing. Weirdest of all might be that while each room has a table, at least room 303 didn’t seem to have any chairs.

[Photo: Peter DaSilva for The New York Times]