The Algonquin Has Been Hosting And Toasting Glitterati For 100+ Years
We devote more than enough ink to Manhattan Hotels, but what about the days when hotels first started tuning their cool? Thanks to an old tourist materials from the 1930s-1950s, we're exploring back in the day versus today, for NYC hotels.
Back in the day:
Settle into a banquette for a cigarette and call over the maître d' for a story of his boyhood on the Aegean Sea, and you're having a grand evening in New York's Algonquin Hotel. It is the late 1930s, and The Rose Room frequently buzzes with the conversations of the glitterati. Diners in The Oak Room and The Round Table enjoy special evenings out order such fine dishes as "rolled pancakes stuffed with chicken hash" and "Indian pudding."
Be sure to consult the 77-year-old wine steward for the best accompaniment, and for an after-theatre drink, the concierge recommends the neighboring NY Yacht Club, Harvard Club, Princeton Club, or Columbia Club.
Today:
Even though it was a midtown hotspot back in the 1930s, The Algonquin didn't disappear from the scene in the 1980s and 1990s, like so many other historical properties. No, The Algonquin survives still, even keeping the Algonquin name and taking pride in the past with a restored, classic lobby and a history section on their website. It even includes the charming story of how the hotel has taken in a cat as a resident since the 1930s.
Nonetheless, The Oak Room still impresses, but Rose Room is no more; the hotel does have a Blue Bar, which will serve up the same sort of Manhattans and Whiskey Sours that the posh set would snap their fingers for in the 1930s.
Rates for a night's stay at The Algonquin—the lobby might be vintage, but the rooms are modern—now start around $270.
[Scan: courtesy Algonquin Hotel]
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