The Suite Spa Cart.

The new Hyatt 48Lex is a small, upscale hotel that offers guests everything you’d expect, from a restaurant and room service to a well-equipped fitness center – everything, that is, except a spa. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get a hot stone massage or an herbal facial without leaving the premises.

48Lex is the latest in a small contingent of hotels, including the Andaz Wall Street and the Grand Hyatt, offering the Cart – a spa on wheels outfitted with the basics a therapist needs to administer spa treatments in a hotel room.

The Cart looks like a rolling room service table, but instead of Eggs Benedict under a silver dome look for a facial steamer, magnifying lamp and towel warmer, a warming shelf for heating stones or wraps, (more…)

Garin & Millet at M Salon

Hotels and piano bars go together like cocktail shakers and martinis. So why, in the city of Broadway and countless preternaturally talented musicians, has the hotel piano bar become a borderline endangered species?

Count Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle and the Rum House at the Edison among the plucky stalwarts that have staved off the twin threats of recession and changing music tastes and kept their lounge pianos playing. (more…)

Books at the Library Hotel

We love hotel libraries, book-lined havens – or at the very least, a cozy room with a couple of well-stocked shelves – where you can climb into a big, squishy sofa or club chair. Sure, you can byo, but half the fun is discovery – that obscure novel you missed, a travel or photography book you’ve never seen or a Dutch design magazine you didn’t know existed.

Paper rules at hotel libraries. Elsie de Wolfe knew nothing warms up a room like books, and generations of decorators absorbed her edict. (more…)

Standard equipment: dishwasher and mini-fridge.

Is the latest, must-have luxury hotel accoutrement a dishwasher?

We wondered after a recent tour of the new Hyatt 48Lex, a 116-room glass box with the moniker of a chain hotel and the heart – and size — of a boutique. The first thing you see as you enter is a butler’s pantry outfitted with gleaming versions of the expected (stainless steel sink, microwave, mini fridge) and a pair of surprises.  A clever cabinet swings open to display a superbly stocked, mirror-backed bar (full-size bottles instead of minis). And a Fisher-Paykel stainless steel dishwasher drawer nestles under a cupboard.

Our idea of a vacation is not washing dishes, but you get the idea. The rooms at 48Lex exude a pied a terre vibe, from the parade of wines and glasses to the dishwasher. (more…)

We’ve been noticing an abnormally high percentage of rangy, good-looking people around town. That means one thing – Fashion Week is back.  More than 200 designers unveil their creations during the Spring/Summer 2012 shows at the tents in Lincoln Center and a host of private venues through September 15.

What are New York’s fashion-forward hotels doing besides gleefully celebrating their full – or nearly full — houses? Hint: think “emerging designers ” – and fashion by association, that hint of glamour that rubs off on anyone around it.

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Chef Devesa and the Barclay bees.

In a city known for lavish rooftop amenities, from lounges to pools, the roof of the Intercontinental New York Barclay is neither the tallest nor the chicest. But it’s got buzz.

In June, a fleet of wooden planters arrived, and before long, a small-scale urban garden brimming with herbs, fruit and flowers bloomed atop the roof’s southeast corner (the plants enjoy a spectacular view of the Chrysler building).  And in mid August, the bees swarmed in, housed in four wooden hives, each the size of an old tube TV set and populated by 70,000 to 80,000 tiny bugs.

“We’re looking forward to serving our own honey at our breakfast buffet,” says Serge Devesa, executive chef at the hotel, standing serenely beside a hive. In his white chef’s coat, the French-born chef could be a beekeeper, and the bees steered clear of him. They left me alone, too, though that was probably because, unlike Devesa, I avoided them. (more…)

Summer doesn’t end officially until the Autumn Equinox on September 23, but once this long weekend is over, summer fades. What better way to bid the season farewell than with a big visual bouquet of summer flowers we snapped at hotels around town?

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