NY Mag reports that the hotelier is going to debut his own private wine label in his hotels--The Andre Balazs Reserve Sunset Beach Rose. Damn, that's a lot of accents.
The grapes are grown near Balazs Sunset Beach Hotel on Shelter Island and processed by Wolffer Estate of Sagaponack. It's a blend of merlot, cabernet, sauvignon, cabernet franc and cahrdonally and Balazs argues that it can challenge any california vino.
Apparently South Fork is the new Napa Valley for Balazs. The bottle will cost somewhere between $40 to $50 and a wine expert sought out by NY Mag said it has whiffs of strawberries and cherries and will be a nice "afternoon summer sipper kind of thing."
Andre Balazs has always been about fashion and art. Where there is Andre Balazs the man (whose ex-wife runs a modeling agency) and Andre Balazs the hotels, there follows models and modelizers. Also, Art Basel parties and Spiegelworld. Now you can add fashion shows to the mix too.
WWD has the scoop on Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld's cruise line last week at the Raleigh Hotel in Miami Beach.
With a lifeguard perched above the Raleigh pool, and double-C logo life preservers and beach balls scattered throughout, the Chanel cruise extravaganza kicked off on Thursday night.
Those expecting Miami Vice pastels or even a touch of Golden Girls were in for a surprise though. Karl Lagerfeld set the mood with an all-black start, from a sleek tuxedo to a slouchy blouse-and-pant combination that was more Paris and New York than some of the world's sunnier locales.
A smattering of fashionistas including actress Diane Krueger and former tennis star Anna Kournikova along with Anna Wintour were on hand to take in the show.
Could the Raleigh be the site of more fashion shows? Possibly. Krueger said, "Everyone associates Miami with the Raleigh's kind of glamour." Let's just hope those models don't eat it on the runway. The wet look is totally out this season.
We must have been so distracted by the crazy curtains in the windows of the rising Standard Hotel NYC, that we have been neglecting the man behind the hotel himself, Andre Balazs.
Interestingly enough, a bunch of AB-related stuff has come in through our inbox. Here it goes in no particular order of importance:
· Hotel QT Sold: A while back we learned Andre Balazs was looking to ditch some of his hotels from his portfolio. According to our well-connected tipster, AB sold off Hotel QT to a Spanish hotel group. We're also hearing that his partner may have sold some shares in the Standard Hotels to the same company. All this is very real-estate centric so it really won't affect the guests unless AB Hotels stop managing the properties.
· Not Setting a Good "Standard": It seems as if the old-timey residents of the Meat Packing District, including a "disco devotee", aren't so happy with Balazs' Standard NYC project. And we're not just talking about the curtains.
· Balazs Momma's House: This arrived in our inbox. Take it for what you will:
Eva Balazs, the mother of Andre Balazs, lives in a house in Arlington, Massachusetts, that is falling apart.
C'mon Andre, we know you treat your mother better than that, right? Right??
· Who Is He Dating?: We all know that the Andre-Uma love affair is kaput but who is he into now? This random site says he dated Naomi Campbell and Renee "Squishy Face" Zellweger" in 2007. Interesting...but again, who's he dating now? Let us know.
Thanks to Urban Daddy, we now know how to get to Submercer, the previously hard-to-find (and get into) bar at The Mercer Hotel.
Apparently, the place was closed for over five years (at least to the public) but is once again open for business. UD reports:
To get there, pass the Mercer Hotel (no. 147) and enter a little nook in the wall (no. 147 1/2). You'll know you're there when you see two unassuming henchmen hanging out in front of a doorway--just walk on by and enter the industrial freight elevator.
Two floors underground, cruise down a long dark hallway stocked with bathroom supplies, turn left, pass the boiler room and then turn right through a heavy red door. One more hallway filled with wine and the faint sounds of lounge music will lead you to the promised land.
My boyfriend and I had an overall pleasant experience at the hotel besides the event of his new 80G iPod being stolen from the room when we went out for dinner. The hotel staff did nothing other than suggest that we file a police report (what will a police report do for a stolen iPod?).
Remember, hotel qt? the glorified scene hostel where you can actually get a hotel room in Manhattan for under $200? Well, we spent the night there recently. We were not lucky enough to pay under $200, however, we did pay $239 in all for our "F" type platform and it lived up to its just-a-step-above a pod room billing.
New York City hotel rates have been hit by the January thaw, thus it is a great time to snag some Manhattan hotel nights.
Late last week we decided to keep costs low and shack up at André Balazs's quickly-becoming-legendary boutique dorm hotel in Midtown -- Hotel QT. Our "Type F" room ran us $239 for the night and lived up to its just-a-step-above a pod room billing.
Platform bed, small flat screen television, and very little room to do much more than sleep. The pool area was fairly quiet, though we did see a naked dude coming out of the sauna while sitting up in the lounge area. Isn't that the way André envisioned it? Modern day turkish bath and all?
Somehow we got caught up in reading Robin Leach's Luxe Life Vegas blog the other day. Normally, we would chide ourselves for breaking our 2008 resolution of not being so celeb-obsessed but this bit of ADD internet surfing actually paid off.
A post from the end of December details some enormous Vegas project that's happening behind the strip.
Over 60-acres of land stretching down Harmon between the Planet Hollywood resort and condo towers to the Hard Rock hotel has been packaged together by the Africa-Israel Investment Bank, which is controlled by Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev.
Several boutique hotels are planned for this parcel, so says Robin. Giuseppee Cipriani will plan a boutique hotel and the planned Elvis Presley-themed hotel should pop up here.
And Robin says he's been "reliably told" that Andre Balazs will open a boutique hotel there. So up it goes on the Andre Balazs Hotels: The Real and the Rumored Map. While this is interesting for sure--will it be a Standard Hotel or something completely new?--everyone is looking to do something in Vegas these days. So we expect all these boutique hoteliers to look to Sin City.
One more interesting thing: Robin also mentions a large 2,500 room luxury complex will spring up in this parcel--"probably a hip trendy W hotel," he says. Oh god, here we go again.
Perhaps Andre Balazs is not so ashamed of his "dark secret"--Sunset Beach hotel--after all.
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