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Hotel On Rivington's Restaurant Re-Opens With $22 Margaritas

Where: 107 Rivington Street [map], New York, NY, United States, 10002

While the last few weeks have thrown all the hotel restaurant publicity into The Standard's court with the opening of The Standard Grill, another spot managed to get off its feet as well: The Hotel on Rivington's cursed space now known as Levant East at THOR.

Formerly just known as THOR, and no good for anything beyond drinks and continental breakfast, the restaurant is hoping to breathe life back into its stale spot in the otherwise-happening neighborhood of NYC's Lower East Side. However, when we look at the menu, we see nothing but another dead end.

The "combination of classic French Bistro meeting American Spa," which doesn't sound much appetizing the begin with, is serving up $22 margaritas, a burger and fries for $18, a side of mac & cheese for $10, and lounge bottle service starting from $350. Sure there's a bunch of French items on the menu as well, but we'd rather head to an actual French restaurant in the city — outside of an LES hotel — for that.

[Photo: Hotel on Rivington]

Tags: Hotel Restaurants / Thor / Hotel News / → All Tags

What's the Deal With Dining at The Hotel on Rivington?

Where: 107 Rivington Street [map], New York, NY, United States, 10002

Poor Hotel on Rivington; the beautiful, airy space on its first floor (otherwise known as its restaurant) has been through a hellish five years with its chefs and its ever-changing identity. According to Down By the Hipster, the curse continues as THOR switches up its chefs yet again to bring in Matt Levine, owner of New York's notoriously "secret" lounge The Eldridge.

Since we have our own history with the THOR restaurant space, including but not limited to private parties and continental breakfasts, we sincerely hope that Levine makes it work when he re-opens the space in 3-4 weeks time. As it stands now, the hotel itself and even its second-floor lounge with pool table attracts a healthy stream of Euro-chic hipsters, but the restaurant sends them running for the hills (or SoHo). Let's think of this THOR switch-up like the movie Field of Dreams; give the Lower East Siders and the tourists who love them a place high-priced and yet faux-grungy enough to make them feel happy and comfy. De-fancify it, and they will come.

[Photo: THOR]

Tags: Hotel Bars / Hollywood Roosevelt / W Hotels / Red Rocks / THOR / → All Tags

If Only Lindsay Lohan Could Serve Drinks in Five Languages

Hotel bars have really evolved over time. What used to simply be attached to the hotel's restaurant, has become more important than the restaurant and in some cases the hotel itself.

Take for instance THOR's Members Only lounge which is apparently the size of a port-a-potty but requires an exclusive invite to enter with the exception of hotel guests. Then there's the Rande Gerber lounges found in W Hotels, Red Rock Las Vegas and the Sofitel LA with its celebrity-studded opening parties. And we certainly cannot forget the Tropicana Bar and the VIP lounge Teddy's, at the Hotel Roosevelt which ruled the Hollywood scene for a whole entire summer and essentially eclipsed the hotel's long-awaited comeback.

Well Business Week has had enough. They started to get all nostalgic about the hotel bar's good old days where guests weren't left fighting for a seat.

Their first trip down memory lane includes the Oak Bar in the Plaza Hotel in New York, which is as we speak being converted into condos. The bar will remain and is one of the survivors of a few in the U.S., places that remind us of a different time, according to the article:

Once, bars in the best hotels served as a de facto clubhouse for travelers. These were places where the bartenders could take an order in at least five languages and the guests could usually depend on finding someone interesting to trade stories with while they relaxed after a day on the road.

Aside from the Oak Bar, some other historically noted are the Menger Hotel bar in San Antonio, the Babcock & Story Bar in the Hotel del Coronado in Coronado, California, and Mayflower Park Hotel's Oliver's Lounge in Seattle. These hotel bars are at least 50 years old, most likely home to secrets of American history and have seen notable figures pass through several times.

We agree that the disappearance of hotel bars rich with history and oozing a seductive feeling of the old world, with their ancient oak or mahogany bars, their oil paintings, and their reputations alone, is a sad thing. However, call us shallow but the chance of possibly spying Jessica Simpson or Lindsay Lohan making out with their latest movie co-stars in a hotel bar is a little more gratifying than a bartender who can speak five languages. So, vive evolution!

Image via FotoBlue/Flickr

Related Stories:
· Drinking with History [BusinessWeek]

Tags: THOR / Hotel Hell / → All Tags

I-Banker Versus THOR

Where: 107 Rivington St. [map], New York, ny, United States, 10002

[Update: 11:27 AM. Literally twenty minutes after we published this we received this email from the THOR guest:

I would like to go on record to state that Klaus Ortlieb, the Rivington’s General Manager has contacted me to correct the issue. I will take him at his word that corrections have been made to correct the issues identified and look forward to giving the Hotel on Rivington another try.

We are guessing wine is involved...]

A Hotel on Rivington guest did not like her stay. Furthermore she did not like the fact that Klaus and the THOR crew did not respond to her follow up emails and phone calls. Thus, like so many before her, she shares her story with us. There are actually two lessons we gleaned from this hotel stay gone bad:

·If you are an upset THOR guest, don't bring up HoJo's unless you are ready to pack your bags and stay here, because there is a chance THOR management will be more than happy to set you up at HoJo's.

·Hotels best be beaming bottles of wine to I-Banker rooms with alacrity.

The stay in question took place--wait for it--in August of 2005! Jeez, guess time doesn't heal THOR wounds.

Like the reviewer says, a comped bottle of wine at check out probably could have pacified this situation. Can it still? Almost a year later?

The I-banker's full letter to THOR's Klaus, post click.

more ›

Tags: Celeb Scoop / THOR / → All Tags

Wynn Parties with Out of Control Chefs

Where: 107 Rivington St [map], New York, ny, United States, 10002

Page Six reports that Steve Wynn made a trip to NYC to scope out chefs for his new ventures at the Bon Appetite party Chinatown Brasserie on Lafayette Street. Among the list of chef attendees were Daniel Boulud, Guy Savoy, Julian Alonzo (Brasserie 81/2), and "Iron Chef" Masaharu Morimoto.

Later the cooking crew headed to the Lounge at THOR (altho we doubt Wynn followed) where Boulud inexplicably "jumped up on the bar, gripped a bottle of Veuve Clicquot between his thighs, popped the cork and sprayed the crowd."

We didn't know there was that much room at the Lounge to even attempt such a feat. Maybe Wynn had given him a compliment or two.

Lounge image via Gridskipper

Related Stories:
· Chef's a Popping [Page Six]
· THOR reviews [TripAdvisor]