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…)

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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Downtown dining at the Smyth’s Plein Sud.

Week is a misnomer, but who’s complaining? New York’s Winter Restaurant Week, an annual event for, well, decades, stretches luxuriantly from January 14 to February 8, proving a week can be longer than seven days – and that 2013 is already a lucky year, at least for diners out for a deal.

Nearly 300 restaurants – including more than 30 at hotels – offer three course prix fixe lunches for $25 and dinners for $38.  Here’s our list of participants, grouped by location so you know where to book a table – or stop by on a whim – when you want to warm up with a starter, entrée and dessert. (Click on the green letters for additional information.) (more…)

Larger than life Gummy Bears? Models prepping for a fashion show? A Dublin artist’s outsize photos of New York?

You never know what will turn up in the windows of The Corner Space, the Roger Smith Hotel’s storefront on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 47^th Street. And that’s why we love looking in whenever we pass by.

Art under glass.

This week, through Friday November 16, a live art happening, courtesy the Thai Artists Alliance, is unfolding under glass from 9 am to 6 pm – and sometimes a little later as we discovered when we chanced by at 6:30 one night. (more…)

Trellised — the Palace Gate.

They don’t hand out gold statues for Best Dressed Scaffolding. But if they did we’d vote for the courtyard at the New York Palace.

During the hotel’s $100 million renovation, set to conclude in spring 2013, the lower parts of the exterior are aproned, scaffolded and cocconed in a moody brown scrim that brings Christo to mind.

Much of the work centers on the historic Villard Mansion, the opulent McKim, Mead and White manse that forms the base of the hotel, and the Palace Gate, the hotel’s outdoor lounge in the courtyard. And that’s were things get interesting. (more…)

Storm weather.

A hotel on high ground with power, water, room service and a big bathtub can be a great place to ride out a hurricane – if you’re a guest.

But what about the people who work there?  “It’s definitely a lot more fun to stay in a hotel during a hurricane than work in one,” says Daniel Jones, a former employee at a luxury hotel in Orlando, Florida who writes the popular travel blog The World of Deej.

We asked D.J., as he signs his blog posts, what it’s like to be on the job at a hotel when a big storm strikes.

+ How many hurricanes occurred while you were on the job?

We had two storms pass through during my adventure in the hotel business. One was a moderate tropical storm and the other was a hurricane. (more…)

Caught at The Plaza.

As advertised: they really do have palms at The Plaza’s Palm Court. We spotted this one today, peeking out between closed French doors. It reminded us of a certain scene in Sixteen Candles. But it could just as easily be a palm’s version of a high-five.

Camera ready: Le Caprice at The Pierre.

You’re out of luck if you wanted to try the Eggs Benedict at  Le Caprice. The Pierre hotel’s gleaming by-the-numbers copy of the popular London brasserie closed earlier this year. (We wonder who got their hands on the gorgeous David Bailey photos of Jean Shrimpton that dressed the walls.)

But you can watch Richard Gere and Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, cast as a mercurial pair of financial sharks, power breakfast together at Le Caprice in Arbitrage, (more…)

In glorious black and white — the Americana Hotel, ca 1962

Here’s a snapshot of New York, ca 1962: John F. Kennedy is POTUS.  The Cuban Missile Crisis revs up the Cold War. The first James Bond movie makes a splashy debut. The average annual income is $5,556.

And the Americana Hotel opens in a gleaming 51-story concrete tower designed by Morris Lapidus.

Historic hotels aren’t exactly a rarity in New York, even if oldies like the Algonquin (1902), the Plaza (1907) and the Waldorf=Astoria (1930) grab most of the attention. Still, it’s hard to argue that 1962 was yesterday.

“The hotel was built with the idea it would play a significant role in the New York World’s Fair of 1964,” says Mark Sanders, General Manager of the Sheraton New York Hotel, long-time occupant of the impossible-to-miss building that’s celebrating its 50^th birthday with a special deal September 1 (more on that later). (more…)

TRYP lobby — home to LobbyFriend.

Hotel guests fall into two categories – those who want to meet and mingle with other guests and those who can’t think of anything worse.

At first glance, LobbyFriend, a new travel app that lets guests connect with others registered at the hotel, seems aimed squarely at the first group. But LobbyFriend is nimble. Even if you’re in the second camp keep reading. This app could be for you, too.

The app — available on iPhones, Androids, Blackberries (coming in June), the new Nokia Lumia 900 (in the works) and in a web version – made its debut at Manhattan’s new TRYP New York Times Square South and is up and running at some 130 properties around the world. To learn more, we talked with Jason Ayoub, a Canadian chartered accountant with an entrepreneurial streak who co-founded the company. (more…)