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…)

Artist Daniel St. George (right) and assistant Max Decker painting the Andaz doors.

Sometimes a door isn’t just a door.

Last week the double doors leading to The Bar Downstairs at the Andaz 5^th Avenue were a work in progress (witness the protective plastic, brush-wielding artist, passersby taking pictures).

And this week? The doors are a mural — a witty, cartoon-inflected study of contemporary New York that toasts (and roasts) its subject in black, white and gold.  (Passersby are still taking pictures.)

Brooklyn artist Daniel St. George engineered the transformation. But he wasn’t the first to do so. In fact, St. George ushered in year two of tbd Art, the hotel’s rotating series that taps artists to splash their idea of New York — Today onto the hotel’s Fifth Avenue doors.

It’s a sweet deal. In addition to a chunk of prime real estate across the street from the New York Public Library – and a mere dozen blocks south of The Museum of Modern Art — each artist becomes an Artist in Residence, scoring a suite at the hotel during the time it takes to complete the work (alas for the artists, it’s mere days not weeks). (more…)

A red room at the new Pod 39.

In early 2011 we spent a night at the Pod Hotel on East 51^st Street in one of the tiniest rooms on the planet. But what our little cell lacked in size it made up in style and smarts.

Like a sleek burr puzzle, everything fit meticulously – storage drawers tucked beneath the built-in double bed, a tissue holder perched under the stainless steel sink, a sliding door to afford privacy for the stall shower and toilet. With white walls, honey maple woodwork and splashes of red, the room was upbeat, contemporary and clean.  It looked like a blueprint for a smart budget hotel room.

Turns out it was. This summer a second Pod opened 12 blocks south in the century-old brick

Bunking at the new Pod.

tower that once housed the Allerton, a residential hotel for men.  Rooms are typically 10 by 8 feet (it’s the Pod, not the Pierre). But unlike the original where half the rooms use shared bathrooms down the hall, all Pod 39 rooms have private baths.

Rooms are also color coded, floor by floor, with white-walled rooms accented in red and honey maple “to energize,” according to the press release, blue and darker maple to sooth or teal and walnut for visual warmth.

Who dreamed up this look? And can space-starved apartment-dwellers try this look at home? We caught up with Vanessa Guilford, in-house design director for BD Hotels, who designed both Pods as well as the snug little cabins at The Maritime. (more…)

“I’ve always thought it was a ridiculous name for a prison. Sing Sing. I mean, it sounds more like it should be an opera house or something.”   — Holly Golightly

And the Gershwin Hotel? It sounds like there should be music playing or something.  Maybe even opera.

For two nights this week, May 29 and 31, that’s precisely what happens — though it’s strains of George Friedrich Handel’s ALMIRA, Königin von Castilien, not Porgy & Bess, filling the sprawling red and orange lobby of this laid-back, art-filled hotel in the East 20s.

The Gershwin lobby, one of city’s most congenial (slouchy sofas, high drama decor, no one hounding you to buy drinks or be on your way), doubles as a performance space, attracting a clever line-up of new music, early music, jazz, poetry readings and opera.  The latter comes courtesy of operamission, a plucky, three-year-old pick-up company that stages operas new and old and sometimes manages to trump the Met. (more…)

A good egg.

Whenever a holiday rolls around, we head to Jumeriah Essex House in the hope of seeing a grand-scale edible work of art. Last Christmas a 10-foot-tall tree constructed from 500 lbs. of white chocolate commanded a corner of the lobby. The year before, a minutely detailed rendering of the hotel in gingerbread doubled as a mouth-watering photo op.

And with Easter nearly upon us? The lobby and adjoining South Gate restaurant are showcasing Faberge eggs rendered in chocolate. Two of the eggs are three feet tall and weigh 35 lbs. All are gorgeous. And yes, they’re edible, but really, it’s much more fun to look at them. (And the signs say Do Not Touch.)

We asked Deden Putra, executive pastry chef at the hotel, all about eggs, crafting art out of chocolate and whether those creations ever get eaten. (more…)

Ellabess executive chef Troy Unruh.

Forget truffle oil. It isn’t even made from truffles, just like corn syrup isn’t sugar. But with truffle season in full swing until late December, you can revel in the real deal – “the diamond of the kitchen,” as the 18^th-century French gastronome Brillat-Savarin called the fabled, if less poetic, fruiting body of the underground mushroom known for its earthy flavor and heady fragrance.

Next Tuesday, November 15, ellabess, the contemporary American restaurant with the e.e. cummings-style name at The Nolitan hotel, celebrates big with a five-course black and white truffle menu ($150, $70 optional wine pairing) devised by executive chef Troy Unruh. We talked to the St. Paul, Minnesota native about the truffle’s distinctive fragrance, the challenge of using real truffles in desserts and his favorite off-duty food. (more…)

Erin Markey and Adam Couperthwaite in Green Eyes.

It’s not news when a hotel room serves as a backdrop for a movie or photo shoot. But a play?

Welcome to Room 620 at the Hudson hotel. As noted previously here,  Green Eyes, a rarely seen one-act by Tennessee Williams, written in 1970 and published in 2008, is performed in this snug little suite through January 23.  Fortunately for claustrophobic types, the play is short – just 35 minutes – with just two characters, a warring pair of newlyweds honeymooning in a seedy New Orleans hotel room. (more…)