Going to the dogs.

Considering the size of the average hotel room, it’s amazing that New York City has any hotels that allow guests to bring their pets. But pet friendly ranks have grown in recent years.

The SoHo Grand has always been kind to pet lovers, possibly because the hotel is owned by the family that founded the Hartz Mountain pet supply company. Dogs stay free of charge, and the hotel was one of the first to send up a goldfish in a bowl to pet-loving guests. But this month the hotel unleashed its grandest pet friendly effort yet — an outdoor Dog Park next to the hotel that’s the exclusive domain of pets belonging to hotel guests.

With benches, potted trees and two bright-colored fire hydrants, the brick-lined park looks like it was designed by an architect who understands dogs and people. And privacy. A black iron gate keeps out non-registered guests (and pets) and gives the park the look of a compact private garden in London. (more…)

Handel’s “Rodrigo” at the Gershwin.

We’ll take a wild guess and assume that George Frederich Handel never dreamed his opera Rodrigo, written in 1707 when he was 22 years old, would have its North American premiere nearly three hundred years later in a hotel lobby.

But on May 21, 23 and 25, Handel’s fifth opera will be performed in the lobby of the Gershwin Hotel, a move that trumps the Met and every other opera house in the hemisphere.

The premiere comes almost a year to the day after Almira, Konigin von Castilien, Handel’s first opera, made its North American debut before an audience of 75 in the Gershwin lobby (Anthony Tommasini gave the production a thumbs up in The New York Times).

The person responsible for Handel’s long-overdue premieres is Jennifer Peterson, founder and director of operamission, a plucky pick-up company that stages old and new operas in concert settings. Make that unexpected settings, like Bryant Park, Brooklyn’s Fort Green and the Gershwin, though to be fair, a place called Gershwin should embrace music. (more…)

Prosecco and Ice Pop.

The calendar says it’s spring, even when it’s contradicted by chilly breezes and overcast skies. No matter.

Seasonal roof bars observe time, not temperature when choosing to open, and this week the Loopy Doopy Bar atop the Conrad New York, flung open its terrace above the Hudson for its second season.

With jaw-drop views of the river and the Statue of Liberty, Loopy Doopy – named for the Sol Lewitt mural in the lobby, not the way you feel after a couple of drinks – was one of last summer’s hottest bars. It’s back with a new line-up of summer drinks and, last year’s hit, Prosecco on tap.

Also new: five new multi-proof flavors for the bar’s signature libation – Prosecco and Ice Pops. This childhood-channeling concoction with kick consists of a boozy popsicle plopped into a goblet of Prosecco, stick and all. Morello cherry (10 Cane Rum) is the fledgling season’s big seller so far – “it’s sweet,” explained a bartender. Pina colada (Malibu Coconut) and Orangeade (Cointreau) are the other sweeties. Lime Margarita (Suaza Blue Agave Tequila) and Appeltini (Absolut Hibiscus Vodka) taste dry and tart – by popsicle standards.

Make that ice pop standards. Popsicle is a trademarked moniker, so the drink was renamed for the 2013 season. Still more that’s new: the $18 price. “It’s an experience, not a drink,” quipped a friend. So it is, especially at sunset on a balmy night – when things finally warm up.

Kristen McGinnis’s lacquered dining room.

The best hotel rooms are the ones filled with things you want to steal – like decorating ideas.

A great decorator show house is even better. The designers, of course, want you to hire them, but they have to put their ideas out there to lure you in. And this year’s Kips Bay Decorator Show House, the biggie of the bunch in New York City, is jam-packed with ideas ripe for the plucking.

After last year’s foray to a chilly high-rise condominium overlooking the Hudson on Riverside Boulevard, this year’s show house returns to more familiar ground, namely a svelte, late 19th-century townhouse on the East Side.  We found ten ideas to tweak, transplant – or just dream about – in almost any kind of abode.

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The Plaza.

As The Great Gatsby, the most hyped movie since, well, Iron Man 3, steamrolls into theaters, two hotels are proudly trumpeting their Gatsby connections.

Most obvious is The Plaza. When Daisy suggests Gatsby, Tom, Jordan and Nick drive to Manhattan, they beeline for the Plaza, a favorite of F. Scott Fitzgerald and wife Zelda. “They lived at the Biltmore but drank cocktails at the Plaza – orange blossoms spiked with bootleg gin,” writes Sally Cline, author of Zelda: Her Voice in Paradise, in New York magazine. Ernest Hemingway once told Fitzgerald to “leave his liver to Princeton and his heart to the Plaza” – or so the Plaza website tells us.

The Plaza appears as a high-profile supporting player in the movie, even though the interior scenes depicting the hotel were recreated in a studio. That hasn’t stopped the hotel from happily linking its fortunes to the film – and Fitzgerald. (more…)

Chef Brian Wieler and his arugula planter box.

The answer is on your plate or in your glass if you order an arugula salad or a muddled-mint mojito at LCL, the hotel restaurant and bar.

Last summer the Westin Grand Central turned its rooftop into a modest organic Eden suspended 41 stories in the air. And this year the fleet of 11 dirt-filled planters and four fat barrels are back in business, bearing fruit – and vegetables and herbs – destined for hotel guests once again. (more…)

Jack Reacher, based on the best-selling book One Shot by Lee Childs, took in around $80 million at US box offices – not great for a $60 million movie with Tom Cruise in the leading role. (Translation: don’t expect a sequel.)

But it was a big hit in hotel rooms last month, coming in first with pay-to-view hotel audiences in the US and Canada as well as New York City.

What else were hotel guests watching during the cruelest month? As always, our Hotel Viewer Top Ten culled from more than 1.5 million rooms comes courtesy of LodgeNet, provider of in-room hotel entertainment in the US And Canada. (more…)

Opening Celebration.

They skipped the bells, whistles and champagne last September when JW Marriott took over management of the Essex House, the gracious 1931 tower overlooking Central Park and operated most recently by Dubai-based Jumierah Hotels.

Last night they made up for it.

For three and a half hours, the ballroom was a party with, well, bells and whistles and champagne. Jon Bon Jovi, looking almost ageless in an unbilled appearance, sang six songs and declared he had stayed at the hotel “many, many times.” A phalanx of former Knicks, including current assistant coach Herb Williams, stood heads and shoulders above the crowd. Actors Danny Aiello (Moonstruck) and Brian Baumgartner (The Office) provided a dash of movie cred. (more…)

Be seated.

For years the lobby at the Belleclaire bothered me.

The Belleclaire was the W of its day, as cool as they came in 1903. The hotel occupies a spooky/gorgeous brick and limestone pile architect Emory Roth appears to have dreamed up in a hallucinogenic haze. Carved Roman goddesses gaze down from the balconies. Mark Twain and Maxim Gorky signed the guestbook.

But times change. The hotel lost its cool, spiraled downward into the ranks of Single Room Occupancy and bubbled up as a budget hostel. In 2008 came a clean sweep. The Belleclaire refurbished its rooms (wood floors, red tufted leather headboards, new bathrooms), opened a fitness center and raised its aspirations (the rates went up, too). (more…)

Step this way to the Bombshell cast party.

The ratings may be tanking, but someone on the production end of Smash, NBC’s Broadway soap, has a wicked sense of humor.

To boil things down if you don’t follow the show, in Episode 12, Bombshell, a musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe, opens at last to thunderous applause and, alas, mixed reviews.

But the evening’s real action unfolds at the cast party, a star-drenched affair set in a palace of a room that looks like a set from The Great Gatsby. Guests with mega-voices (and mega-looks) step through a pair of glass doors labeled C Hotel in swirly letters and find themselves in a forest of soaring balconies, glittering chandeliers, white tablecloths and gilded everything.

Logical candidates might be the Carlton, a good-looking historic hotel that’s appeared frequently on the show. Or the Carlyle, a bonafide glamour pit, albeit a bit far uptown. (more…)