The beautiful Pierre on Fifth Avenue, NYC, is about to get even more beautiful. The NY Times reported that it's about to close for a major renovation, but details on exactly when and for how long are still sketchy.
A hotel spokeswoman wouldn't give any details at all, other than to say a press release would probably come out in the next couple of weeks. If you try the Pierre website now, you can book up until December 30, but from then on all rooms are marked as sold out.
The rumored renovation is supposed to be costing the relatively new owner, Taj, $122 million, and will update the lobby and all 200 guest rooms. In fact in the last couple of years they have already renovated some of the function areas but it seems like more is to come.
There are some permanent residents in the Pierre and apparently they won't be kicked out during the renos, but will only be receiving limited services. Watch this space for more news on the Pierre's big remake.
Guess our coverage is striking an inspirational chord with readers. A Friend of Hotel Chatter recently wrote in with this back-of-the-bar-napkin review of Rare View at the Shelburne Murray Hill Hotel (which we first mentioned way back when):
It was OK. It's somewhat nice looking with good seating options and that kind of thing, but overpriced (of course) and filled with blue-shirt guys. Tons of them. I really prefer a dumpier environment. But on the other hand I'll go to just about anything on a roof.
That's the question HotelChatter guru markj asked after we posted our Hotel Video Tour recently. After a little back and forth with some PR types, we thought we had it sorted out: roof deck at the Pod Hotel not open for business, but garden courtyard ready to party. Here's what we hear about the garden:
The space is simple but still manages to create a warm ambiance complimented by lush greeneries. The ground is covered with beach stone amber pebbles... Floating in the beach pebbles are wood deck POD tables which create the seating and dining area...The tables have a small round leather finish with a black granite top. Scattered around on the tables and along the deck are 1930's stainless steel French bistro chairs.
End of story, right? Not quite: we poked through some TripAdvisor reviews, and either the roof is open or there's some shills about:
The hidden gem, during our stay and in the hot weather, was the roof terrace with the skyscraper view. It was a little resting place between an afternoon of shopping and a night on the town.
Wednesday night, André Balazs threw a little shindig at Hotel QT for the release of a new edition of Kelly Klein's book Pools and HotelChatter was on hand to take in the scene for you.
André was sporting a slick seersucker suit--in creme and white, not standard blue, natch. Kelly was signing away on new copies of her book. We were sticking to the back of the room taking it all in, waiting for someone to finally break down and cannonball in to the pool. And then finally it happened: a lone swimmer got up the guts and leaped in--wearing only his boxers. That's when we decided to call it a night.
The review itself is hardly flattering. There's nothing particularly bad about the place, the article says, but:
The hotel is far from stylish, and the drab and featureless interior seemed, at best, like a nice Holiday Inn. Rather than applauding its virtue, you end up wishing the Orchard had been more wasteful...It felt like sleeping in a plain cardboard box.
Though the rooms are low on luxury, the breakfast buffet sounds nice with granola and organic coffee on offer. Just don't have too much. This is a green hotel after all:
The toilet...did an amazing job with a small gulp of water, though the recycled bathroom tissue was not exactly soft.
Coincidentally, HotelChatter spent a night at the hotel this past weekend and we'll have our take on this green hotel later this week.
Last month sis site Jaunted paid a visit to the midtown Dream hotel and the next-door restaurant, Amalia. We decided to check the space out, too, but we didn't go for dinner. We snuck downstairs to the bar/lounge D'Or to really make the scene.
Or so we thought. Turns out, we were the scene--the only folks in the bar. Now, we admit we were there early in the night. But when we chatted with an employee, he told us things only really buzz for a couple hours a night: Between 11 and 1 is your best bet. Then again, maybe you'd like a quieter New York hotel scene than you find downtown.
We've got no idea where the name comes from, but it's about as bad as the place itself. The centerpiece of the small, poorly lit space is a giant flat screen TV, tuned to Girlfriends. Our lovely bartender did a good job of keeping our mugs full, though she's "Not much of a beer person," and couldn't warn us off what turned out to be a terrible Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat. The only local/"interesting" choices on the beer menu were Brooklyn Lager and Brooklyn Pilsner--available in tons of bars around the city.
What would normally be a bright spot--the happy hour discount--wasn't really that great either: It's comparable to loads of seedy midtown bars with the same amount of character as U and Mie. The place does have cute novelty cocktail napkins, though. We're filling ours out to read like a memo to Scott Kerksman: There's plenty more work to be done.
We went down to the Lafayette House Hotel yesterday and had ourselves a good look around. We liked what we saw. There's a definite Sean MacPherson-Eric Goode vibe, with antiques everywhere and that Victorian flavor. But the effect is sort of country-lodge-in-the-big-city, which would probably be nice to come home to after a day in New York.
The overall effect--given that the hotel has only a few rooms--is that of a bed and breakfast, though as our tour guide pointed out, "without the breakfast." That's not a stumbling block for us, as the property is in easy striking distance of plenty of restaurants. Next door, B Bar handles lunch and dinner, and will even deliver room service to guests in the hotel. (The bar provides after hours support, too.)
The property itself fills the five-story building, with only a couple units per floor. (That debate about 14 or 15 rooms? One is used as an office, but can be dressed up for guest occupancy if need be.) First floor rooms, while smaller, have the benefit of soaring ceilings. Room 4 has a small balcony, and a few other rooms open onto a small courtyard. At the back of the hotel, rooms can be a bit dark. Business types looking to work in the room should book facing 4th Street.
Right now, rooms start at $350, but some rate structure changes may be on the horizon. More exclusive photos after the jump.
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by amandak
