10003 Travel Guide
Tags: Hotel Bookshelves / Sean MacPherson / Hotel Games / → All Tags
Books & Board Games at The Bowery
Pick up a book or magazine at New York's Bowery Hotel, and you’ll feel the careful curation of co-owner Sean MacPherson. Surprised? We weren’t.
The master of cool details selects all of the vintage volumes and magazines himself, shopping up a storm at New York’s favorite used-book haunt, The Strand. Unlike other hotels, which rotate their libraries, the Bowery’s collection stays the same, and most of the books stick to a New York theme.
But as is becoming abundantly clear, MacPherson’s real passion is Hollywood. As the New York Times gushed earlier this year, MacPherson has quite the thing for movies like The Shining and A Clockwork Orange (both influences on the Bowery design). And while we’ve heard all about how The Jane’s ballroom references The Royal Tenenbaums, we’ve also learned that the Wes Anderson flick gets some mileage at The Bowery.
Tags: Hotel Bookshelves / Sandra Ardito / Interviews / Red Flower / Hotel Toiletries / → All Tags
Cooper Square Guests Like Their Books 'Arty' (And a Little Sexy, Too)
Hotels have gone gaga for books — but have the guests? We checked in with the Cooper Square Hotel’s librarian (aka head of sales, marketing and special events), Sandra Ardito, to find out.
“It’s been incredible,” Ardito tells us. “We've had some guests that have purchased up to $1,000 worth of books in the library.”
Obviously, there are cheaper places to buy books (without the $245 a night cover charge), but the Coop is doing it all for a good cause. The books are sourced from NYC charity Housing Works (which does work to combat AIDS and homelessness), and proceeds go back to the organization.
For cheapskates, there’s a loaner system: the books are branded with an old-fashioned library stamp, and guests can take books from the library back to their rooms—where there are even more books.
Tags: Celebrity Scoop / Courtney Love / → All Tags
Courtney Love Allegedly Trashes The Inn at Irving Place
This is the state of rockstars today: trashing the crap out of cute little boutique hotels like the Inn at Irving Place. Sad. And not very nice. And Courtney Love, girl, you are sort of too old to be doin' that sort of stuff, no?
While we were hangin' out and watching fireworks this weekend, Miss Courtney Love was busy with other things. Namely, she was apparently "trashing" her room. According to Page Six:
While the rocker was visiting New York on June 17 with her 16-year-old daughter, Frances Bean, sources say Love completely ruined her accommodations.
The hard-partying 44-year-old widow of Kurt Cobain left dirty needles and used feminine hygiene products behind, according to sources, and also flooded the floor.
Ew. Ew! Courtney! Girl! Come on. You leave a mess like that behind and you've gotta at least tip your housekeeper (and, um, tip them like $5000), you know?
For those of you unfamiliar, The Inn at Irving Place is twelve-room hotel "furnished with exquisite antiques reminiscent of the New York of Edith Wharton." Quaint and sweet, with rooms that start around $445 per night. Not a trashable-by-rockstars kind of place. Edith Wharton would not be impressed.
Tags: Snapshot / Hotel Bars / Manhattan Hotels / Anti-View / → All Tags
The Cooper Square War Rages On, Now With D-Bags
We're not sure what kind of people hit up the Cooper Square Hotel's controversial outdoor terrace for drinks — hipsters? Preppy banker-types? Collar-poppers? Ed-Hardy-shirt-types? — but we can tell you one thing: the neighbors think they're douchebags.
Or, at least, they'd like someone to notice that they have made their next move in the pissed-off neighbors vs. The Cooper Square war and have hoisted a "douchebag" above the hotel's outdoor bar.
To recap: The Cooper Square's outdoor bar opened up fairly recently, to the annoyance of the right-up-against-it neighbors, who can seriously hear every little word uttered on that balcony. Seriously: every little word. Warning shots were fired in the form of a giant pair of poopy undies, and the clothesline wars have been continuing since. Now: this douchebag.
Thanks to the tipster who sent this in. We know that none of this is particularly funny for those involved, but the clever-ness makes us giggle.
Tags: Snapshot / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel Bars / → All Tags
More Places to Drink Outdoors in NYC: The Bowery Hotel
Once the New York weather shows it can truly correct its behavior and be sunshine-y for, like, more than 15 minutes at a time, we'll be happy to go out and do our drankin' on the patios, rooftops and courtyards across the city (er, but not the streets, kids. Open container laws! Don't forget 'em!)
We hit up Gemma at The Bowery for lunch today, and were pleasantly surprised to walk out past the (totally music-free and relaxation-friendly!) lobby to find this lovely little outdoor seating area. Yes, that's a cemetery just beyond the fence there — but ain't no thang. It's...quiet.
A couple folks were out here hangin' out and nibbling on food, sipping drinks, but this isn't really a place to hit up with your pals if you're just wandering the streets in NYC; you should probably be with a guest of the hotel if you want to come chill here at night.
Tags: Snapshot / Manhattan Hotels / → All Tags
Cooper Square's Neighbors Appear to Be Declaring (Panty) War
Oh, the hot drama with the Cooper Square's outdoor bar: we have yet another report of the up-this-close-to-the-hotel-bar neighbors getting miffed at the balcony partygoers — and after warning shots were fired in the form of a giant pair of soiled underwear hanging on the clothesline by the outdoor terrace, a video was sent around the interwebs about just how loud the happy drinkers on the balcony were.
And now, this: clotheslines with undergarments that are practically close enough for the patrons on the CSH terrace to touch.
A tipster pointed us toward these snapshots posted on the best source of CSH-vs-the-neighbors-news, Vanishing New York:
An air conditioner plummeted from a top-floor tenement window, sailed towards the hotel patio, and took out the infamous clothesline with all its brown-stained underpants and double-D brassieres. [...] This week, the clothesline has been rehoisted in a new, more prominent position.
Yup. Looks a little closer to the terrace. Lovely. Mmmm, margaritas and granny panties. Happy summer.
[Photo: Vanishing New York]
Tags: Room Rate Drop Watch / Quikbook / New York Hotels / → All Tags
Quikbook's Newest Sale Offers The Cooper Square Hotel for $172 a night
We always love Quikbook's last-minute sales as they consistently deliver good rates for hotels that we actually like and not just hotels near the airports. Their latest NYC hotels sale features nearly all of the Thompson Hotels with Smyth Tribeca going for as low as $145 a night and Thompson LES at $120 a night.
However, we were tickled to see The Cooper Square Hotel from $172 a night. Even better, we actually found that rate available for next Friday, June 26. The room is a lower-floor king bed room and we must warn you that you will probably be close to the hotel's outdoor patio bar, which can get kinda loud. A higher floor queen room costs $192 that same night and a higher floor king gets bumped up to $212.
Still, these rates are down about $20 from January, which was practically the dead of winter. And it's down $100 from its special opening rate of $275 in December. However, you must book by 5pm ET on Friday, June 19 to get in on the 20 percent off deal and stays must take place before September 7.
Tags: The Cooper Square Hotel / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
The Cooper Square's Neighbors Hear Your 'Every Drunken Inanity'
Whoa. We thought the Thompson LES's neighbors had it bad — and they do, they really, really do — but we supposed the Cooper Square Hotel's neighbors were all about poopy-underwear and megaphone games. Until we saw this video.
Yes, it's a bit dramatic with the text and captions and such, but this clip — which came via The Feedbag, things do not look pleasant. At all.
They can hear everything you say. Boyfriend dumped you? The neighbors will hear all about it and laugh about how maybe he dumped you because your voice is so shrill. Leaving your job? Everyone will toast to you out on the CSH deck while the neighbors will undoubtedly be counting down the seconds until your departure from the bar. Actually, maybe your coworkers will be doing that too.
Wow. This sucks.
[Photo: carolvinzant]
Tags: Manhattan Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
The Cooper Square's Neighbors Really, Really Don't Want You Around
Surprise, surprise: that gigantic pair of underwear hanging on a clothesline overlooking the Cooper Square Hotel's newly-opened second-floor bar was, in fact, the doing of a disgruntled neighbor (and by "neighbor" we mean "person whose apartment window is pretty much right up against the bar terrace.") Residents are waging war on the CSH's patio — and we're kind of scared to go there now because we think that things will escalate to the point that someone might fling cat poo into our shiraz glasses.
The New York Post had a report this afternoon — with the brillz headline "The Natives Are Hostel" — about the CSH-versus-NIMBY issue; the resident was pretty determined:
She strung a clothesline across the courtyard and hung from it several pairs of extra large men's briefs adorned with an appropriate amount of -- how shall we say this -- brown. Residents insist the stains are not authentic.
"The whole thing is life-wrecking," said one disgruntled resident. "There hasn't been a moment of quiet, and this bar is now a cherry on top. These people are two inches from my window."
Ugh. That must suck. Other fun facts from the Post article: the hotel's nicknames Sore Thumb, the Giant Shampoo Bottle and Dubai on the Bowery (our personal fave).
[Photo: carolvinzant]
Tags: Hotel News / Manhattan Hotels / Snapshot / → All Tags
The Cooper Square's Terrace is Already Pissing People Off
Ah, something awesome is about to begin — well, awesome for us to watch; maybe not so awesome for the people involved.
The ol' Cooper Square Hotel — whose battle with the residents of the surrounding tenement buildings has been bitter and, well, going on since the hotel was just a blueprint — is about to be engaged in a somewhat hilarious battle with its neighbors closeby.
See, the second-floor outdoor terrace is now open (weather in NYC has finally come around to outdoor-drinking-friendly temperatures, rejoice), and since the tenants of the surrounding buildings were not so down with drunkies gallivanting near their apartment windows all night long, the hotel agreed to a 9:00 pm closing time in order to snag a liquor license — and, we'll go ahead and assume, in order to not get torched by the neighbors.
But all is not well. According to something dug up by Curbed, the terrace has just opened and shiz has already started going down.
Tags: Hotel Bars / Thompson Hotels / Hotel Lounges / Snapshot / Manhattan Hotels / → All Tags
Above Allen at Thompson LES Issues Camo-Chic Membership Cards
Yeah, well, if we had to guess what the vibe was at Thompson LES's members-only seventh-floor bar/lounge (and bookable private event space), we would have gone with Lower-East-Side chic with lots of black and silver decor — but now we don't really know.
Down by the Hipster received its membership card and it's kinda, er, weird. Camo? Declaration of Indepence written graffiti-style? Yeah, we dunno either.
A few more deets on the space, via Grub Street: Above Allen has a retractable roof, so when the weather warms up (and the city stops getting pounded with rain), it will be an outdoor space. It only holds about 150, and "design is minimal, with upholstery from Stephen Sprouse."
Meh. We'll stick to the expensive absinthe cocktails on the second floor at Shang.
[Photo: Down by the Hipster]
Tags: Hotel Restaurants / Celebrity Scoop / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel News / Jennifer Aniston / → All Tags
Jennifer Aniston Ate at Cooper Square's Table 8 Before You Did
We give the Cooper Square a pretty hefty amount of garbage for their panty-views (see here and here, in case you haven't been in on the fun) and their occasionally non-functioning website and whatnot, so we'll be nice today and deliver some good news: we called the hotel this morning and found out that Table 8, the hotel's long-awaited restaurant from chef Govind Armstrong, opened last night.
New York Mag's latest issue mentioned the opening, describing the dining room as "outfitted with a leather-clad wall, bookshelves, and a central fourteen-seat 'salt bar' featuring house-cured meats and fish," but according to the hotel staffer we spoke to, the resto didn't actually open to the public until last night.
On Tuesday night, however, good ol' Jennifer Aniston was all up in there for her new flick's after-party, but the only notable happening from that event was some weird drama going on with her and some dude (so says Page Six). We're not too worried about Aniston making this her new Sunset Tower, though, 'cause she doesn't live in NYC. In other words, we can sleep soundly knowing we'll be able to enjoy those fabled short-rib grilled cheese sandwiches (as seen on Oprah!) in peace.
[Photo: Hannah Whitaker / NY Mag]
Hotels In: Africa | Asia | Australia | Caribbean | Europe | North America | South America
Our Publications:
Jaunted | HotelChatter | VegasChatter
