Michelin’s newest star: the NoMad restaurant.

October isn’t normally thought of as the start of a new year – unless you’re publishing a restaurant guide. This month biggies Michelin and Zagat unveiled their 2013 guides to New York City restaurants. As always, we snapped up copies (yes, we still like paper guides).

How did New York’s hotel restaurants fare? Thumbs up. The days when no one ate at a hotel restaurant except hotel guests too cowed by the city  are long gone.

Still, getting a nod from a tony guide book is no guarantee of longevity. Two hotel restaurants that scored 2013 Michelin stars – no mean feat – are closing. This summer Gilt, a two-M star restaurant at the New York Palace, is to be replaced by a new, somewhat formal restaurant by French chef Michel Richard, who operates restaurants in Washington, DC, Las Vegas and Carmel, California, Eater reports. Richard is, in fact, planning three properties at the Palace, including a bistro in a room currently used as an event space and a pastry shop in the lobby. (more…)

Roses at Jumeirah Essex House.

“Florals? For spring? Ground breaking.” We hear you, Miranda Priestly. But strolling through a half dozen or so hotel lobbies, we couldn’t resist whipping out a camera and celebrating spring with flowers.

In the early and mid 20^th century a flower shop was a must at large urban hotels. Besides eye-catching blooms for the lobby, weddings and parties on the premises, the shop sent flowers to guest rooms on behalf of friends and associates (guests checked in for longer than a night or two in the years before air travel).  The shop also stocked the boutonnieres and corsages that were the mark of the well dressed.

Such shops are a rarity today, but the custom of dressing the lobby with fresh blooms lives on. (more…)

We don’t know whether to be befuddled or embarrassed. We’re pretty partial to New York City hotels, but not a single one – not one! – landed on Trip Advisor’s annual Travel’s Choice list of the 25 Best Hotels in the World list published yesterday.

New York did better last year, when the city offered fewer rooms but apparently played to more enthusiastic Trip Advisor users.  Though none made the cut for the top 25 international hotels in 2011, the plucky Casablanca in Times Square rolled in at number eight for best in the US. Alas, it – and every place else here in town – was shut out of that list this time. (more…)

Sex, drugs and fluffy pillows. Think about it, dude. Rock musicians spend a lot of time on the road. The lucky ones score suites in some of the world’s best hotels. Those that don’t often crash in intriguingly oddball places. And things happen. Rooms get trashed. TVs get tossed into the pool. Harleys get driven into the lobby.

In short, there’s a lot of rock history lurking in hotel rooms around the world – enough to fill a book, or at least a new guidebook like Rock & Roll Hotels (Punk Publishing; British pounds10.99). In this cloth-covered, 198-page volume, slim enough to slip into a pocket, backpack or guitar case, British music promoter Greg Simmons escorts the reader through 45 rock-tinged hotels in Europe, North America and the Pacific. The result is well researched, trivia enriched and fun. (more…)

By the time 2011 morphed into a memory at the stroke of midnight, New York City boasted an unprecedented 90,000 hotel rooms. But the year that was didn’t just set records. If 2011 was a wine we’d raise a glass (and buy several cases). (more…)

As hotels have edged into endeavors that have nothing to do with lodging – art galleries! screening rooms! bingo nights! – retail scores high as a splashy extracurricular effort.  With Barneys edging out Walgreens as a role model, it can be easier to find a one-of-a-kind necklace than a newspaper – remember those? – in the shop adjacent to the lobby.

This can be a good thing as the holidays move into full swing. We set out on an informal shopping spree, camera in hand, and came up with a sampling of items that would look good under a tree, from stocking stuffers to big ticket.

Behold, the first annual Overnight New York holiday gift guide. (more…)

The John Dory kedgeree.

Remember the scene in Ratatouille where a forkful of vegetable stew sends the grumpy restaurant critic into Proustrian raptures and transports him back to his carefree childhood?

Okay, the kedgeree at the Ace Hotel’s The John Dory Oyster Bar wasn’t quite like that.  No childhood memories bubbled up (we weren’t big kedgeree eaters in Northern California). But we ate a lot of the stuff during the four years we lived in London. And we loved it. (more…)

Silver stencils on the ceiling.

A lampshade that looks like a feathered hat. A coffee table perched on the legs of a beast. Silver rosebuds dancing across the ceiling.

This is the kind of lobby you either love or love to loathe, but really, a dash of whimsy never hurt anyone, especially when it’s this amusing.

The best hotel lobbies are a lot like stage sets, expertly produced environments where you step into whatever realm the hotel chooses to create. The Algonquin’s urbane, wood-paneled gathering place flaunts its history. The Ace’s tech-inflected scene is equally conducive to cocktails and laptops.

And the Mondrian SoHo?  It’s a fantasy set, where you feel like you’ve taken a detour and fallen into the rabbit hole.

The other-worldliness is palpable, fueled by color (French blue and beige shot with silver) and surfaces – everything looks dreamy and a little surreal, especially when reflected in a wall of floor-to-ceiling blue mirrors. Hang out long enough in this feast of feathers, velvet and patent leather and you’ll wonder why luggage racks are cruising by. (more…)

Jean Georges at Trump International

The first week in October is pretty innocuous unless you’re a foodie — or to be precise, a guide-loving foodie. This week Michelin and Zagat published their respective, red-covered 2012 New York City restaurant guides within a day of each other. That’s like back-to-back Golden Globes and Academy Awards. (more…)

Ace New York lobby.

Think Barneys, not Hudson News. The latest hotel shops qualify as stand-alone boutiques that reside in hotels almost coincidentally.  Curated down to the last Walker crisp or Haribo raspberry, the best are destinations in themselves. And with good reason.

The Standard Downtown in LA showcases creations by local designers, like a line of fragrances concocted by an Echo Park resident. “She came in and wanted to sell to us,” says Claire Darrow, Standard creative director. “That happens a lot in LA. There’s a lot of creative energy.” (more…)