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Taking The Bad With The Good: Reviews of The Surrey So Far
When we had the chance to check out The Surrey Hotel’s $60-million “re-creation,” we were impressed by the sheer prettiness of the new guest rooms. But not everyone shares our take. Over at the UK site, Globalista Travel Journal, this week The Surrey copped a dressing down for what the nameless reviewer called “a pointless refurbishment.” In the nature of being “fair and balanced,” we decided to compare Globalista’s opinion to recent reviews on TripAdvisor.
Let’s start with those Gloablista grumbles, shall we? The things that ticked them off included: a huge discrepancy in the size of the lowest category Deluxe Salon rooms (some box-like and others spacious, but the same price); the noise; spotty housekeeping service; the complicated or non-functional TV; and the lack of weekend breakfast until 8 a.m. Globalista also said, “The 1920s homage to Lanvin decor is quite simply ghastly.”
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Stay at the Buckingham Hotel's Penthouse For a Song
If you’ve dreamed of living in a New York penthouse but only ever get as far as flipping through the ads in the Times real estate section, you might now be closer to living your dream thanks to the Buckingham Hotel. Sitting atop the small boutique hotel near Carnegie Hall is The Martinelli Penthouse, which was once home to opera singer Giovanni Martinelli when he was performing at the Met, and also used by musical star Bobby Van as a dance studio.
Now, the two-bedroom duplex with a totally awesome terrace is available for meetings, private parties, and of course as hotel accommodations for cashed-up guests. We know, we know, you’re thinking: why are you telling me this? I could never afford something so luxurious. That’s what we thought—but then we learned that the Buckingham has slashed the regular rate for the penthouse by 50%.
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Hooping It Up In Your Hotel Room Encouraged at The Muse Hotel
When we first saw the words "Hoop There It Is," we thought we were in an early ’90s time warp and wondered if Miami bass was back on the charts. But no, it’s just another wacky hotel amenity promotion—this time, courtesy of Kimpton’s The Muse Hotel in New York City.
Riding the tails of yet another resurgence of hula-hoop fitness (doesn’t it seem that this comes around every three years or so?), The Muse is offering a “Hoop There It Is” amenity basket, with all the goodies you need to get hula-ing: a hoop, a hula-hoop workout video (we think they probably mean DVD) and a small towel. Because, after all, hula-hooping burns between 150-200 calories in half an hour. Totally sweat-inducing.
Sure, it’s gimmicky, but we actually like the idea of hula-hooping it up in our hotel room. Doing all of those “take it on the road” workout routines seem so boring in comparison. The Kimpton folks reminded us that even Michelle Obama has taken to hula-hooping recently, racking up 142 swivels during a kids’ fitness event on the South Lawn of the White House a couple of weeks ago.
But more importantly: how many swivels can Muse Director of Pet Relations Ginger do? We’ll make that our goal before we reward ourselves with a cocktail at the bar.
The “Hoop There It Is” basket is available free-of-charge upon request. A room at the Muse this Friday night starts at $329.
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Mister Cartoon Now Accepting Tattoo Reservations at The Marcel Hotel
Perhaps we spoke too soon about Hotel Graffiti being the new hot hotel trend. Perhaps Hotel Tattoo Artists are the new new hot hotel service instead.
The Marcel at Gramercy Hotel has announced today an ongoing art series called, M.O.A.R.--Marcel Original Art on Rotation. The program will bring "progressive, burgeoning artists" into the hotel to show off their work. But the first artist to come onboard will not be displaying his talent on the walls. No, try your skin instead.
Famous for tattooing celebrities such as Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, Eminem, Mena Suvari and Ryan Phillippe – Mister Cartoon will set up his very own Ink Suite at Hotel Marcel, where he will see his regular clientele as well as hotel guests while working on his masterpiece for the outside wall.
Guests of the hotel will have the unique privilege of skipping the one-year waiting list to get "inked" by Mister Cartoon.
His residency will run in two parts: his first stay will take place from November 15th – 24th 2009, with a two-week return visit at the beginning of February 2010, culminating with the unveiling of his exterior M.O.A.R installation.
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Kimpton's Next Hotel in NYC Will Be Quite an Eventi
Now that Ink48 is up and running, it’s time for the seemingly unstoppable folks at Kimpton to start focusing on their next New York property: Hotel Eventi in Chelsea. As with some of its other properties (such as Miami’s Epic), the hotel will share space with apartments, in this case rentals. The Eventi will also share its entire-city-block with retail stores and an outdoor plaza with public seating.
Even better, the developers plan to construct a 20-foot wide screen to be used in the plaza for public and private events. The hotel’s restaurant will also have a long dining terrace overlooking the plaza.
Exterior construction has been progressing above Sixth Avenue in recent months, so it must be almost time to send in the interiors designer. Colum McCartan will bring Eventi’s 287 guest rooms to life, while Philip Koether Architects and Syd Mead will work on the multi-level bar and restaurant, which will be operated by China Grill Management, and the residential section of the building. There are no room renderings to peek at just yet but for an idea of McCartan’s work, take a look at his interiors at Le Parker Meridien New York, Hotel Adagio and Hotel Vitale in San Francisco, and Hotel Sax in Chicago.
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We Do Brunch at The Breslin and the Verdict Is: It's Ace
At last! The Breslin restaurant inside the Ace Hotel New York is open, and HotelChatter was there on Saturday to sample the goodness. Either the hotel was well-booked this weekend or just as many New Yorkers have been salivating over this opening as much as we have, because the Breslin was jumpin’. We started at the bar, which is always a nice way to pass the time while waiting for a table, but in this case it was not the best introduction to a delicious meal served with just the right amount of attention.
The first sign that the staff are still finding their groove was the wait itself. We needed a table for two—and could see a smattering of them in the dining room—but we were still told the wait would be about 10 minutes. (The Breslin doesn’t take reservations so that was not a factor.)
Settling in at a rickety bar table, we decided to order a Bloody Mary (yes, they are serving booze, despite complaints from the mosque across the street), but just getting the bartender’s attention took 10 minutes itself. Even though there were two other people behind the bar with him, busying themselves with unknown tasks.
Waiting in this brand new but decked out to look old space is not a chore, at least this early in the game, but we hope the staff get into the swing of things soon.
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Cooper Square Hotel Jumps on the Hotel Graffiti Bandwagon
Graffiti wall in progress at the Hotel Erwin in Venice, Calif.
The Cooper Square Hotel, a giant modern glass building that popped up in the Bowery of NYC, is now trying to fit in with the gritty feel of neighborhood by hiring graffiti artists to paint the wall of an adjacent building.
But their "We're cool, we promise" plan has been met with some resistance from the neighbors, who have expressed their displeasure with the hotel before. The NY Post reports:
In a wacky attempt at earning street cred, the swanky Cooper Square Hotel has commissioned four graffiti "artists" to tag the Fifth Street wall of an adjacent building it recently bought.
One of the taggers, Joyce Pensato, was going to town yesterday on her section of the mural, which the hotel owners hope will be finished by Nov. 10, and then updated annually.
Pensato and three others -- who go by Nick 1, Vizie and Shinique -- were each paid to fill one quarter the wall.
"All the work is going to be different," Vizie said. "The only real unifying theme is the colors, black and white."
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Anna, Martha and J.Lo Have Eaten at Le Caprice in The Pierre. Have You?
The official opening of Le Caprice in the Pierre Hotel was on Monday, but well before then a string of celebrities had already graced the deco-styled restaurant. As an outpost of the London Le Caprice, in the same stable as fellow London hotspots The Ivy and Annabel’s, the celeb contingent makes sense. Stars love nothing more than being first to try something, even if it does involve putting deliciously rich food in their mouths.
Anna Wintour threw a Vogue book party there, while J.Lo, Marc Anthony and Naomi Campbell dined with shoe god Christian Louboutin at the opening celebration. So far only renderings have been available of the black-and-white dining room, lined with David Bailey photographs—however we do note a heavy use of mirrored panels, which the A-list is sure to adore.
Tags: Hotel Offers / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel Openings / → All Tags
Just How Special is the Introductory Offer at The Surrey? We Do the Math
We love us an introductory offer. It’s always nice to be one of the first guests at a hotel, and score a special rate in the process. But when your regular rates are in the $500-a-night range, how "special" can your intro offer really be? Let’s turn to the Upper East Side’s new darling, The Surrey, shall we?
We can admit from our tour inside that the hotel is gorgeous. But it is a little out of our price range. In the interest of trying to justify blowing our cash on one-night’s stay here, we examined the hotel’s Introductory Offer to see if it was worth it.
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The Breslin in a Battle Over Booze; Now Opening Tomorrow
Meat lovers, rejoice! The Breslin, the long-awaited restaurant inside the Ace Hotel New York, finally opens this week. It was meant to be Tuesday, and then today, but an Ace clerk told us this morning that the opening was postponed until tomorrow. They’re just serving breakfast and lunch for the time being, but with all the hype surrounding the place, this should keep our traps shut and bellies full for a couple more weeks when they start doing dinner.
The Ken Friedman joint had a trial run recently, for “FergusStock” (a pig-eating fest led by British chef Fergus Henderson), and early reports were rapturous. New York magazine’s Grub Street blog said the space was similar to New York cult restaurant Freemans, “with just the right touches of modern sheen and ballroom grandiosity.” More importantly, the preview of the food was also met with applause. Dishes we can expect from April Bloomfield in the kitchen include a half-size pig’s head, a lamb burger with feta cheese, a beef burger with bacon and Cheddar, and (fingers crossed) a mac-and-cheese.
Tags: Hilton Hotels / New York Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / Times Square Hotels / Eco-Friendly Hotels / Green Hotels / → All Tags
Hilton New York Honored With a 'Green Street' Award. Really.
Swarming with smog, exhaust, and buzzing with the din of taxis in neutral, New York's Avenue of the Americas is hardly a location we think of as being environmentally-considerate. A work in progress, maybe, with a little cheerleading needed to nudge it in the right direction.
The "Green Street" Award was established by the Avenue of the Americas Association to inspire the thoroughfare's tenants to think eco and find new ways to close the loop. This year, the Hilton New York was honored, and not just because it hosted the ceremony in its Trianon Ballroom last week.
Innovative eco-hotels are normally found bourgeois bohemian neighborhoods like the West Village or SoHo, so when we caught wind of this news we were looking for certifiable proof of the Hilton's investment in going green. According to the Avenue's Association, proof came in the form of a futuristic, energy-saving PureCell system that uses electric power to power the hotel and heat water, which has accounted for 6% of the hotel's consumption since being installed. It is also three times more energy efficient than a normal electric grid and operates 24-hours per day.
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The Distrikt Hotel: Where ‘Late Fall’ Means Winter
Get out your Hotel Opening Date Tracking Sheet, friends, because it’s time for a little update on Manhattan’s Distrikt Hotel. We’re dying to see this place: the NYC-neighborhood theme is one of the most interesting we’ve heard of all year, and we can’t wait to see which floors—each named after a different part of the city—will become the most sought after. (It seems apt that the Financial District is on the lowest floor, and Harlem on the highest, no?)
Alas, it looks like we’ll have to wait a few more weeks. While the hotel’s website is still promising an opening in “late fall,” and a press rep for the Distrikt told us the doors would open on November 15th, we’ve since heard that the big day would be pushed back to December 1st.
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