10011 Travel Guide

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Hotel Chelsea Will Still Be All About Art and Music When King & Grove Takes Over

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 222 W 23rd St. [map], New York, NY, United States, 10011
January 13, 2012 at 3:18 PM | by | Comments (0)

The aftershocks of today's news that King & Grove Hotels will be managing the chaotic Hotel Chelsea continue with this bit of info we received from a Hotel Chelsea insider. The source spoke about Patti Smith's private concert at the hotel on Wednesday for the building's new owner and the King & Grove management team (The Thursday night concert for the building's residents was cancelled after they protested.) The source says:

Patti's performance on Wednesday was the inauguration of a series of events related to music, the visual arts, literature and poetry, and film that will be curated by the ownership, management and creative teams of the Chelsea. The Chelsea will have new and established artists of all types performing, showing, creating and living there.

That's the future. What's there today is a decayed building in disrepair with a small minority of tenants who are so adverse to change that they'd prefer to live in squalor and pretend to care about the legacy than risk being a part of a successful restoration and return to relevancy that the Chelsea deserves.

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King & Grove to Take Over The Hotel Chelsea

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 222 W 23rd St. [map], New York, NY, United States, 10011
January 13, 2012 at 8:30 AM | by | Comments (0)

Wow. We are stunned, stunned! The new boutiquey brand King & Grove Hotels will finally get a New York City outpost--in none other than the Hotel Chelsea.

In a Daily News piece over the kerfuffle about songstress Patti Smith doing a concert at the hotel (she later canceled the performance after tenants threatened to burn copies of her memoir, "Just Kids"), it made clear mention of King & Grove as the Chelsea's new management company:

On Wednesday, Smith posted a statement on her website, pattismith.net, defending her decision to work with the new owner of the hotel Joseph Chetrit and the Chelsea’s management company, King & Grove, which is headed by former Morgans Hotel Group CEO Ed Scheetz. On Wednesday night, Smith performed a show for friends and family of Chetrit, King & Grove and architect Gene Kaufman, who is overseeing the Chelsea’s renovation.

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The Penis Festivals are Over as Maritime Hotel's Matsuri Restaurant and Hiro Ballroom are Closing

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 363 West 16th Street [map], New York, NY, United States, 10011
December 19, 2011 at 11:30 AM | by | Comments (0)

It looks like the Penis Festivals and the Hot Pot Parties are over at the Matsuri restaurant inside the Maritime Hotel.

Guest of a Guest reports that both Matsuri and the Hiro Ballroom at the hotel are closing at the end of March. And in their place will be two new spots from Marc Packer, who helped launched two of NYC's hottest nightclubs, Lavo and Tao.

While Hiro and Matsuri were beloved places in their own right (and not just because of penis worshipping), we're guessing they just could not compete with the PH.D, the nightclub at the bumpin' Dream Downtown.

The Penis Festival usually happens during the first week of April. Maybe Matsuri will celebrate a week early. After all, what could be better than a final send-off surrounded by penii?

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More Celebs Make Out In a Hotel, This Time At The Dream Downtown

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 355 West 16th Street [map], New York, NY, United States, 10011
December 13, 2011 at 9:30 AM | by | Comments (0)

If we had to make a list of places to go and make out with Sean "P Diddy" Combs, the Dream Downtown would probably make the cut. Apparently, Cameron Diaz had the exact same idea.

On Saturday, the 39-year-old actress had dinner with friends at Marble Lane, the hotel's lobby restaurant, and then headed up to the rooftop bar, PH-D, where, according to Page Six, she and Diddy started getting "affectionate" in a VIP booth around 1am. Up until now, their reps have claimed their relationship was strictly professional, as they are supposedly "collaborating" on a new movie project. Yeah, sure. And the only drinks they ordered were ginger ale and cranberry juice...

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Don't Look! Carnage Inside the Beloved Chelsea Hotel

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 222 W 23rd St. [map], New York, NY, United States, 10011
October 7, 2011 at 9:00 AM | by | Comments (0)

There are anti-views, and then there's this. The Real Deal recently got a peek inside the overhauled Chelsea Hotel, where work is very much ongoing. And it ain't pretty. Last time we tried to check out a hotel construction site, we were almost exiled. When did The Real Deal get to be so lucky sneaky?

Of course, we knew this was coming. Removing the art from the walls was one thing. But when we heard certain parts of the building were already being ripped out to make guitars, we knew the hotel's new ownership meant business.

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Well, At Least Lindsay Lohan Can Always Get a Free Room at a Dream Hotel

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 46 W 17th St [map], New York, NY, United States, 10011
September 21, 2011 at 10:38 AM | by | Comments (0)

Ladies, dating the club promoter for the hottest club in town is sooo last decade. The new dating up trend is now hoteliers, or so Lindsay Lohan thinks.

We've long suspected that Lohan has been using dating the Dream Downtown's hotelier, Vikram Chatwal, but now it looks like The Superficial has the proof.

The gossip site posted a series of photos of Lohan and Vik inside Vik's apartment in Soho doing whatever it is two people like Lohan and Vik do. Apparently, these shots were taken before Lohan's disastrous attempt to get into some Fashion Week parties at the Dream Hotel.

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Jack Kerouac Would Approve This New Greenwich Village Hotel

Where: 5 West 8 St [map], New York, NY, United States, 10011
September 12, 2011 at 1:00 PM | by | Comments (2)

In New York's Greenwich Village, right above Washington Square Park, there exists a building known as the Marlton House—formerly an SRO, it was converted in 1987 into dormitories for students at Parsons The New School for Design. And now, thanks to Sean MacPherson and Richard Born, it's becoming a hotel again.

What's interesting about the building is its history of attracting notable writers, artists and actors as guests—Jack Kerouac, Edna St. VIncent Milay, Maggie Smith and John Lithgow have all stayed here.

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Nothing Like A Little Oudh To Take You To That 'Different Place'

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 355 West 16th Street [map], New York, NY, United States, 10011
August 16, 2011 at 9:12 AM | by | Comments (0)

Now, this is something that's been on our minds for a while now, ever since we first visited the Dream Downtown. Though at the time, it was more like a nagging thought in the back of our minds—call it a persistent unease—that something wasn't quite right.

We're talking, of course, about the cloying, slightly church-like fragrance that permeates every corner of the Dream's bubble-icious lobby. If you've walked through those heavy wooden doors, even just for a second, then you'll know what we mean...

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The Chelsea Hotel Finds New Life...As A Guitar

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 222 W. 23rd St [map], New York, NY, United States, 10011
August 15, 2011 at 9:10 AM | by | Comments (0)

The story isn't quite finished yet at the Chelsea Hotel (are you really surprised?), despite the fact that its new owner has temporarily shuttered the whole place.

A Racked story explains that pieces of the hotel's woodwork (as in, beams, lumber and scraps) are actually being used by Carmine Street Guitars owner Rick Kelly to, yep, build new guitars. Apparently, Kelly sees the relics as "bones of Old New York City." Funny, we'd be willing to bet they'd find actual bones in there, if they were willing to dig deep enough.

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Just Another Dreamy Weekend In Chelsea

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 355 West 16th Street [map], New York, NY, United States, 10011
August 4, 2011 at 11:23 AM | by | Comments (0)

Yes, we finally made it to the Dream Downtown. But before we go all mushy talking about how it was everything we'd hoped it would be (of course, it's more complicated than that), let us clear something up real quick.

Despite blatantly obvious similarities, Dream Downtown and The Maritime are separate hotels. That's right—two distinct, neighboring hotels, both with portholes dotted around their exteriors. An architect by the name of Albert C. Ledner designed both buildings in the 1960s, though neither were originally planned as hotels.

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The Chelsea Hotel, After All The Drama These Past Few Years, Has Closed for Renovations

Where: 222 W. 23rd St [map], New York, NY, United States, 10011
August 1, 2011 at 10:33 AM | by | Comments (0)

The day of reckoning has finally come for the Hotel Chelsea in New York, the last Bohemian outpost. The place that housed famous artists and musicians for several years before giving way to tourists on a budget closed yesterday with only a few days of notice.

The hotel had been acquired by a new owner back in May who explicitly said that the hotel would be renovated and modernized. It's just that no one expected it to happen this fast.

According to the NY Times, hotel employees learned late last week that the hotel would be closing after Saturday. The 100 residents of the hotel would be allowed to stay but no more guests would be allowed and that included folks with existing reservations. (No word on where they were sent instead.)

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What Is That On The Dream Downtown's Floor?

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 346 W 17th St [map], New York, NY, United States, 10011
August 1, 2011 at 9:20 AM | by | Comment (1)

In case you should ever find yourself bored in Chelsea, there are more than a few quirks inside the lobby at Dream Downtown to divert your attention. Like bubbly design details, and odd credit card signature policies.

But if you show up during the daytime, when the lobby is uncharacteristically calm and peaceful, then you'll get to witness this other visual phenomenon. Go ahead, fall into a dream-y stupor, like we did, as you watch the overhead pool's light dance on the lobby floor in little penny rounds.

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