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About Last Night: The Essex House Gets Rebranded – and Parties

By Terry Trucco

About Last Night | tags: Brian Baumgartner, Christie's, Danny Aiello, Herb Williams, Jane Packer, Jon Bon Jovi, Jumeirah Hotels, JW Marriott Essex House, New York Knicks, Strategic Hotels & Resorts | May 1, 2013
Opening Celebration.

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…)

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About Last Night: The NoMad Hotel

By Terry Trucco

About Last Night | tags: Andrew Zobler, Daniel Humm, Eleven Madison Park, hotel review, Jacques Garcia, Maison Kitsune, NoMad Bar, NoMad Hotel, NoMad Hotel review, NoMad Libaray, Sydel Group, Will Guidara | May 14, 2012

Paris on the Hudson.

I’ll get straight to the point – the room was delectable. My favorite hotels are ones where you can open the door and slip into a different life. And the life on offer at The NoMad? I felt like I had walked into a fin de siecle Parisian pied-a-terre with contemporary plumbing and a hint of time travel. (more…)

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About Last Night: Crosby Street Hotel

By Terry

About Last Night | tags: Crosby Street Hotel, hotel bars, hotels, restaurants, screening rooms | April 19, 2011

Desk and lamp in our room.

Shortly after I spent the night at the Crosby Street Hotel, I came across the April issue of Elle Décor. Inside I spotted the London townhouse of Kit and Tim Kemp, owners of the Crosby. Gazing at their fancifully sophisticated, color-drenched house awash in bold florals and even bolder stripes it seemed I’d never left the hotel. In fact, a shiny lamp base comprised of stacked silver balls looked like the one in my room.

I love hotels that flaunt the owner’s style. To my eyes, Kit Kemp boasts the most singular vision of any British hotelier this side of Anouska Hempel, creator of Blakes, the original boutique hotel.  But what different styles. (more…)

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About Last Night: The Pod Hotel

By Terry

About Last Night | tags: budget, hotels, J.M. Rizzi, Pickford Arms, renovation, The Pod Hotel, Vanessa Guilford | February 3, 2011

Invasion of the Body Snatchers aside, Pod is a cool name for a budget hotel.  To our ears, it sounds upbeat and hip, because what could be more upbeat, or hip, than a place that proudly admits its rooms are small and cheap? (more…)

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About Last Night: The Surrey

By Terry

About Last Night | tags: Chuck Close, Duxiana bed, hotels, Kate Moss, Lauren Rottet, Les Pleiades, restaurants, The Carlyle, The Surrey | January 22, 2011

The Surrey.

It was just a matter of time. The Surrey, a small 1920s hotel, occupies a prime spot steps from Madison Avenue’s high-end boutiques, art galleries and the Whitney Museum of Art. For years it was a dependable if frowsy place where East Siders put up visiting relatives or moved in after a divorce if the nearby Carlyle proved too pricey.

But let’s face it, it was too well located to continue on that path.

And it didn’t. The hotel closed for renovations as a shabby dowager and reopened in 2009 — as what?  We recently checked in for a night to find out.

The lobby, an elegant mix of black, white and gray with an exquisite mosaic tile floor, all but screams that the Surrey is dowager no more. It’s a beauty, a mix of Art Deco, Woman of the Year glamour and East Side chic. Irving Penn could have posed his glamorous subjects here, sprawled on the small velvet sofa next to the fresh white roses. (more…)

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About Last Night: The Carlyle

By Terry Trucco

About Last Night | tags: Annette Bening, Bemelmans Bar, Carla Bruni, Chris Gillespie, Dorothy Draper, hotels, Nicholas Sarcozy, Ricard Rodgers, The Carlyle, The Carlyle Restaurant, Thomas Carlyle, Warren Beatty | October 17, 2010

 

The Madison Avenue entry

The uniformed attendants posted behind a discrete desk in the grand black-and-white lobby were impeccably polite.  But check-in wasn’t unspooling quite as we expected. The man next to me, owner of a blue blazer and a belligerent British accent, waved a sheet of paper and demanded to know what the devil these bloody charges were.

I, meanwhile, stood and waited – and waited – and waited. I’d supplied a credit card, cell phone number and e-mail address. I’d learned in detail about the hotel’s various services – yes, I’d be sure to have a drink in Bemelmans Bar, and the spa sounded divine. But I still didn’t have our room key. (more…)

Comments (2)
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