The Duane Street Hotel is open, and its restaurant 'beca is now doing breakfast and lunch. A call to the hotel confirms that dinner service at the 40-seat lobby restaurant is still in the works.
In the meantime, the lunch menu is now up on the hotel website, and it looks decent. Some highlights:
Rocket with Fennel & Pomergrantes $10 Kobe Burger with Caramelized Onions, Goat Cheese & Rosemary Fries $16 Skirt Steak with Rocket & Rosemary Fries $17 Chocolate Terrine with Crème Anglaise & Pistachios $10 Smoothies: Mango, Lime & Ginger $6
But here's the thing: It's written for British tourists. No seriously. No one calls arugula "rocket" in the States. And smoothies? Who drinks smoothies for lunch?
As we inch toward 2008, it's time for another look at the Duane Street Hotel, the downtown Manhattan property we heard might be opening today. So? Not so much.
We called up to check, and sounds like Duane Street's just waiting on the city at this point:
We are taking reservations for January. We could open as soon as next week, but we haven't gotten the OK just yet.
If you want to be the first kid on the block to try it out, reservations are open for 2008. The hotel restaurant should be up and running soon after the hotel proper swings the doors open.
The Duane Street Hotel continues to baffle us with its ever-shifting opening date, which last we checked was January 2. But word from a HotelChatter source says the soft open will begin December 4--just a week from today.
Another tipster filled us in on the interiors and more:
I was there recently...During my tour they told me the furniture was custom designed for a residential feel, and they were dead on, each room looks like an apartment or a more accurately a bedroom at a friend's pad...One really cool feature (especially if you're a germaphobe) is that they have pillow top mattresses with a removable liner, something I have not seen at any other hotel...The lobby was still in disarray when I visited but the layout and design that was visible looked cool.
Now, we don't know any friends in NYC who have extra bedrooms, but maybe that's just because we don't know the right people. A call to the hotel revealed that while reservations are being taken for January, the opening date is--officially--still up in the air.
The ever-delayed Duane Street Hotel may finally be ready for action. A couple clicks on the hotel's website yielded rooms starting at $245 for January 2, 2008. That figure is quite a bit lower than the rack rate, so it may be an opening special.
According to the New York Sun, the Duane Street shouldn't have any trouble filling its 45 rooms: Lower Manhattan is the second-most touristed destination in the city after Times Square.
If the hotel manages to get the doors open in the next two months, we'll have to turn our attention to its 40-seat New American/Mediterranean restaurant 'beca. And of course, that'll leave Robert De Niro'sDowntown Hotel as the Tribeca property to watch.
Tribeca's a hotbed of hotel activity right now, but the latest news from The Duane Street Hotel is more of the same: delays. This summer we heard it might be open right around the first day of fall. Now? Seems we have a bit longer to wait.
The property has its own website--as opposed to its previously available Luxe Hotels site--with a few more views of the rooms, but we still haven't seen any real-life snaps of progress. (Website photos are great at telling a different version of the truth.) But the amenities sound promising: free WiFi, in-room spa services and room service
Don't expect it in the next few weeks, though. A post on Craigslist is asking potential desk employees, night managers and restaurant managers to "bring your 5-star style" to the hotel. If Duane Street is just now hiring managers, we're going to say it's not opening in the next couple of weeks.
A call to the hotel's info line just rang and rang--no voicemail. At least Six Columbus answers the phone to tell you the place isn't open yet.
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by pbb
