Tag: Hotel Coffee

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The Secret Espresso Bar of the Crowne Plaza London St. James

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  Site Where: 45-51 Buckingham Gate, London, United Kingdom, SW1E 6AF
September 23, 2011 at 9:31 AM | by | Comments (0)

We'll be the first to admit that even when we aren't staying in hotels, we're all for hanging out in them. Heck, that's what the all the restaurants, bars and shops are for—guests aren't the ones having all the fun. For this reason, nothing delights us more than discovering a secret little niche, an oasis of calm within a hotel within a metropolis.

And we just found one, and we're sharing it with you because you likely feel the same way about these secret hotel places. It's The Espresso Bar at the Crowne Plaza London - St. James in London, and it's cute and quiet and just around the corner from tourist and business centers like Buckingham Palace, St. James' Park and Victoria Station.

There's no free WiFi (shame on you, Crowne Plaza), but if you'd like to take your cappuccino outside, the hotel also hides a lovely little alfresco garden you've got to walk all the way through the lobby and the hotel bar to reach.

[Photo: HotelChatter]

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Do Tea Drinkers Get The Short End Of The Hotel Stick?

August 31, 2011 at 10:56 AM | by | Comment (1)

Coffee coffee everywhere, and not a drop to drink...

When it comes to standard hotel amenities, coffee makers rank up there with pillows, a working toilet, soap. Basic. But for many of us, a bowl of instant coffee packets is about as useful as a hairbrush to a bald person. When it comes to in-room tea options, we've found some hotels to be quite lacking.

Take a look at this picture of a recent Las Vegas hotel we stayed in. Plenty of coffee! But where's the tea? Nevermind the inconvenience of trekking to the nearest Starbucks for our early morning jolt—when equally-in-need coffee drinkers can simply reach across their nightstand—but it also raises an uglier question. What should be considered an essential hotel room amenity?

Surely, if someone took the time to fold the tip of our toilet paper roll, artfully sealing it with a small hotel-branded sticker, then that person probably had enough time to drop a few bags of Twining's English Breakfast on our desk. No?

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Guess The $15,000 Hotel Coffeemaker Revealed!

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  Site Where: 517 Lexington Ave [map], New York, NY, United States, 10017
August 29, 2011 at 12:09 PM | by | Comments (0)

We took a whirlwind tour through the newly-operational (well, almost operational) Hyatt 48Lex on Thursday morning. Amidst construction workers, multiple staff trainings, and other private tours, we got to peek the hotel's first-floor restaurant, Lexington Brass, the second-floor lounge area, Lexicon Lounge (above), and several of the rooms.

What struck us most, however, was the $15,000 WMF Bistro coffeemaker we spotted in the Lexicon Lounge. Not only will this machine be available to guests throughout their stay, they will even be able to use it to make coffee for themselves. Free coffee for all!

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Guess The $15,000 Hotel Lounge Coffeemaker

August 26, 2011 at 9:00 AM | by | Comments (2)

Time for another round of Guess The Hotel! This week, we go inside a new property opening next Monday (there's your first clue) with 116 rooms and a lobby restaurant. Excited? Wait, it gets better.

To give you a feel of the space, we took a snapshot inside the second-floor lounge, whose name reflects the hotel's location. Wink wink. Take a look at this WMF Bistro coffeemaker and just let its shiny new-ness bathe you in a halo of light. In case you were wondering, this baby sells for a cool $15,000. That's almost the cost of a two-month stay at the hotel itself! Ready for some more hints? See below.

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In New York, Room Service Extends Beyond The Hotel

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  Site Where: 7 E 27th St [map], New York, NY, United States, 10016
August 9, 2011 at 9:10 AM | by | Comment (1)

The good folks at Time Out New York tipped us off to a new service being offered by Birch Coffee, the super eco-friendly coffeeshop located inside the Gershwin Hotel.

As of last month, you can sign up to get 64-ounce jugs of cold-brewed iced coffee delivered—by tricycle—straight to your front door. Or office building. Or wherever your daily caffeine fix is needed most.

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Starbucks Lovers, Head Here Over Labor Day Weekend

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  Site Where: 373 Fifth Avenue [map], New York, NY, United States, 10016
August 5, 2011 at 8:50 AM | by | Comments (2)

Along the illustrious Fifth Avenue sit a great many New York mainstays: Bergdorf Goodman, Bryant Park, The Museum of Sex—and a barely noticeable mid-range hotel named after its address. Though we've written about it before, here are two points about Hotel 373 we'd like to drive home today:

· the Starbucks in the lobby will satisfy your caffeine addiction like no other hotel coffee station on the entire island of Manhattan (it's literally under the hotel)

· they still have availability over Labor Day weekend. 'Nuff said.

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Use Your iPhone to Get Your Starbucks at the JW Marriott Indianapolis

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  Site Where: 10 S West Street [map], Indianapolis, IN, United States, 46204
July 12, 2011 at 9:20 AM | by | Comments (0)

For those of us who are addicted to Starbucks, the location of a Starbucks store inside our hotel is always a godsend. But now the addicted Starbucksers who end up staying at the brand new JW Marriott Indianapolis will not only be able to order their double shot skinny sugar-free vanilla latte with whip but also use their iPhone to pay for it.

The hotel has just announced that they have opened this newfangled kiosk concept from Starbucks on the second floor, adjacent to the Sky Bridge that connects the JW to the newly expanded Indiana Convention Center. Very convenient!

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Would You Drink 'Cat-Poo-Cino'?

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  Site Where: Bali, Indonesia
April 27, 2011 at 2:02 PM | by | Comments (3)

We're coffee junkies here at HotelChatter but we may have some hesitation about this latest caffeine offering at the Ayana Resort and Spa in Bali in Jimbaran Bay. The hotel's Dava restaurant is serving a rare delicacy, Kopi Luwa, which translated into English means Civet Coffee, which translated into layperson's terms means, Cat-poo-cino.

The coffee beans used to make this drink come from coffee berries," which have been eaten by the Asian Palm Civet and passed through its stomach intact, before being defecated whole and collected by farmers. Sounds gross fersure but the beans/berries have been thoroughly washed, sun-dried, lightly roasted and then brewed before getting poured into your cup. Supposedly, the coffee is less bitter than your local Starbucks jolt.

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Why Everyone's 'Checking Into' Room 215 at The Ace Portland

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  Site Where: 1022 SW Stark St [map], Portland, OR, United States, 97205
April 6, 2011 at 1:01 PM | by | Comments (0)

For the past month now, guests at the Ace Portland have taken a particular liking to room 215, often making daily pilgrimages there in the mornings between 7am and 11am.

It might (just might) have something to do with the following: the ever-innovative Ace has converted a previous Junior Deluxe room into a fully-fledged breakfast nook, whose adorable kitchenette offers yummy, fresh nibbles like yogurt, dried cherries, and hard-boiled eggs.

Without any official announcement or heavy promotional push, the room, which offers a family-style dining table as well as bar seating, opened in early March, and is one of the healthiest hotel breakfasts we've ever had.

A single barista/waitress greets guests as they arrive, offering a choice of brioche or spelt toast. Classical music plays gently in the background, and on a recent weekday morning, we got so cozy, we could have spent hours just eating toast and stirring our coffee. Virtually every ingredient offered on the buffet table is regionally-sourced, seasonal, and, we should add, delicious.

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Starbucks' New One-Cup Coffee Makers To Be Placed in Hotel Rooms Next Year

March 28, 2011 at 11:55 AM | by | Comments (0)

Starbucks has announced that it will start selling single-cup coffee brewers next year, giving our beloved Keurig and Nespresso makers a serious competitor to contend with. The one-cup wonder will be sold in supermarkets and warehouse club stores but the product is also set to be placed into over 500,000 hotel rooms next year.

Unless you're staying in a mega convention center hotel that has a Starbucks in its lobby, your best hope for getting that brewed coffee perfection (seriously, we can never duplicate the brew correctly in our own homes) has been to hunt down the nearest Starbucks shop...and sometimes it's not so near. Thus a one-cup Starbucks coffee brewer in our hotel rooms will be an awesome amenity to have.

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Nice Coffee Maker, Shame About the Location at Harrah's Ak-Chin

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  Site Where: 15406 Maricopa Road [map], Maricopa, AZ, United States, 85239
March 16, 2011 at 5:29 PM | by | Comments (5)

Aint nothing like a cup of coffee in the morning before you put your face on, which is why we were delighted to find a coffee maker in our room at Harrah’s Ak-Chin in Phoenix this week. Just one problem – it’s placed in the bathroom, and that’s every bit as gross as using the phone on the can, no?

Hygiene matters and torturously slow (albeit free) WiFi aside, we’re extremely pleasantly surprised by our room here. Having slept our way through most of the Harrah’s properties in Vegas, Tunica and New Orleans, we assume most standard casino rooms will be pretty grim, but this is actually pretty damn nice. Take a look.

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Emeril Lagasse Greets You in the Morning at Universal Orlando Resorts

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  Site Where: 5601 Universal Boulevard [map], Orlando, FL, United States, 32819
June 21, 2010 at 3:11 PM | by | Comments (0)

While some hotels are all about flaunting their Top Chef winners (ah hem Affinia Chicago and Marcus Samuelsson of C-House), others stick with the already established names, like Wolfgang Puck or Emeril Lagasse. You'll find the latter dominating the in-room coffee trays of Universal Orlando's three resorts—Loews Portofino Bay Resort at Universal Studios Orlando, Loews Royal Pacific and Hard Rock Hotel—with Emeril-branded "Jazzed Up Decaf" and "Big Easy Bold" paired with a Keurig coffee machine.

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