Ahost of high-profile hotel openings in New York over the past couple of years
has raised the bar — literally, in some cases. These days, you can order
your cocktails on the rooftop of trendy Gramercy Park before heading for
dinner with the A-listers at the London NYC or the Bowery. Here’s a roundup
of the hot newcomers, the hot one that’s about to open and the hot one that
has stood the test of time.
GRAMERCY PARK
Ian Schrager is the feisty, zeitgeisty New Yorker who created the concept of
design hotels — places that were filled with objects you weren’t sure if you
should sit on or sigh over — but he’s so over that white-on-white nonsense
now. Gramercy luxuriates in the theatre of “organised chaos” — full-on,
heaving-bosom bohemia, with wild splashes of midnight blues, jade greens and
rococo reds, baronial log fires and 10 tonnes of twinkling chandeliers — all
watched over by artworks by Warhol, Julian Schnabel and Damien Hirst.
Rooms are dangerously dark boudoirs, with black lacquered woods and louche
velvets softened by draped flamenco shawls and delicate crystal glasses. The
Rose and Jade Bars and the Private Roof Club are guaranteed to be stuffed
with slebs (Mischa Barton held her 21st birthday here). Make sure you spend
a penny, so you get to experience the party-sized powder rooms. 00 1 877
898 3200, www.gramercyparkhotel.com;
doubles from £280
THE BOWERY
The duo behind the successful Maritime Hotel, in the Meatpacking District,
have moved down a bit to open the Bowery on the Lower East Side — an area
that keeps threatening to become gentrified, then doesn’t. Still, the
location deficit is reflected in its room rates — it’s a bargain. The look
is gothic gilding for the public areas, sliding to a more brutal industrial
look for the bedrooms, with stripped floors and exposed pipework. There’s
decent food at its Italian restaurant, which attracts a fashionable
clientele. (The owners are partners of Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity
Fair, in Waverly Inn, currently the city’s hottest restaurant.) 00
1 212 505 9100, www.boweryhotel.com;
doubles from £125
THE LONDON NYC
If you hanker after a corner of New York that is forever England, this is your
very British billet. The designer David Collins (responsible for
fairy-dusting Claridge’s Bar) has decorated this Midtown hotel with a
well-executed bow to the old country. The lobby, inspired by London’s parks,
displays an icy elegance, and the 500-plus bedrooms offer a certain
Anglo-Saxon sang-froid, despite their lovely limed-oak parquet floors,
hand-carved chairs and custom-designed open wardrobes. This is also home to
Gordon Ramsay’s first US venture: its kitchen has been panned by the Big
Apple’s notoriously sniffy food critics, but for Brits abroad, it represents
considerably better value than the London equivalent (three courses from £42
versus £60). 00 1 866 690 2029, www.thelondonnyc.com;
doubles from £250
HOTEL QT
This is a motel for the MySpace generation. The 140 rooms are small but
sassily designed to maximise the minimalist decor: no wardrobes, no baths
and no room for inhibitions, with just a sliding door between the shower and
the loo. Bonuses include comfy mattresses on the world’s most stylish bunk
beds, flatscreen TVs, iPod docking stations built into your bedside radio,
complimentary breakfast and free WiFi access. All that and a swim-up bar in
the lobby, with Times Square around the corner. Cancel sleep for the
duration. 00 1 212 354 2323, www.hotelqt.com;
doubles from £80
HOTEL ON RIVINGTON
Thor is the tongue-in-cheek acronym for this 21-storey glass tower, and it
certainly has godlike portions of street cred: project consultants included
the too-cool-for-school gurus at Surface magazine (the NY equivalent of the
UK design bible Wallpaper) and Zaha Hadid, the first woman to win the
Pritzker architecture prize. The decor is cutting-edge chrome, while two
walls in every room are 100% window — all the better to showcase the
360-degree views over Manhattan. It’s glorious — if a little greenhousey in
summer — in the bedrooms, where touch-button drapes offer instant privacy,
but the floor-to-ceiling glass in the bathrooms might force the modest to
revert to school-day strip baths. 00 1 212 475 2600, www.hotelonrivington.com;
doubles from £125
SIX COLUMBUS
Not so much new as nascent is Six Columbus. When it launches in May, it will
be the eagerly awaited offering from the stable that includes the SoHo
celebrity mainstay 60 Thompson (beloved by the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal and
Freddie Ljungberg). It’s Austin Powers meets patrician towers: retro 1960s
styling, lots of bold blue stripes, out-there fittings and a groovy rooftop
lounge. The city’s high-flyers live in the nearby brownstones, and on your
doorstep are the arty Lincoln Center and the deli of all delis, Zabar’s. 00
1 212 431 0400, www.6columbus.com;
doubles from £185
THE MERCER
It’s not new, but it is certainly not going to be ignored. The Mercer is the
Madonna of design hotels, still hot long after the candles should have burnt
out. Ageing gracefully is all about good structure: it’s housed in one of
the finest examples of romanesque-revival architecture in the city. The
loft-like lobby-cum-sitting room is a playground for fans such as Kate Moss
and Marc Jacobs. Rooms are discreetly tasteful, odes to white offset by
baby-soft leathers in pale lavender or pistachio green. Outside, buzzy bars
and quirky boutiques of TriBeCa and NoLita beckon. 00 1 212 966 6060, www.mercerhotel.com
; doubles from £255
Getting there: airlines flying to New York include British Airways
(0870 850 9850, www.ba.com),
from Heathrow and Manchester; Continental (0845 607 6760, www.continental.com/uk),
from Gatwick, Belfast, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Dublin and
Shannon; and Virgin (0870 380 2007, www.nycvisit.com,
www.virgin-atlantic.com),
from Heathrow. Expect to pay from £370. Silverjet (0871 700 8520, www.flysilverjet.com)
has all-business-class flights from Luton; from £999 return.
- For more information, go to www.nycvisit.com
