Tag Archive for: Le Parker Meridien

Five New York City Hotels to Check Out Before the Holidays Wind Down

As we breeze into the holiday home stretch, what better time to blow off an afternoon or evening with a fortifying drink, wintery exercise or seasonal visuals? Here are five hotels to check out even if you’re not checking in. Read more

Holiday Eye Candy: The Sixth Annual Gingerbread Extravaganza Wafts Into Le Parker Meridien

Add edible art to the list of New York City products that won’t be outsourced this holiday season.

For the sixth year in a row, The Gingerbread Extravaganza outfits the atrium at Le Parker Meridien with a fleet of fragrant art-meets-cookie-dough sculptures encased in Plexiglas.

This year’s theme, Made in New York, is a reminder of how inimitable the city’s sights are, from King Kong and the Great White Way to Holly Golightly breakfasting at Tiffany’s, especially when rendered in gingerbread. Read more

And They Smell Great, Too – Le Parker Meridien’s Ultimate Gingerbread Houses

"NYC Street Scene: the Holiday Bustle" by Butterfly Bakery.

“NYC Street Scene: the Holiday Bustle” by Butterfly Bakery.

The Gingerbread Extravaganza – the annual line-up of holiday sweet shacks at Le Parker Meridien – is among my favorite New York hotel traditions.

For the last five years, the hotel has invited local bakeries, restaurants and caterers to cook up the ultimate gingerbread creation built around a theme for display in the hotel’s mirror-lined 56th Street atrium. You can’t touch (or nibble) – the edible masterpieces are encased in Plexiglas boxes – but you can look at a line-up of clever constructions worthy of a nod from Cake Boss – or Gretel. Read more

10 NYC Hotels to Check Out Before the Holidays Check Out

I finally got around to seeing the year’s top fashion documentary Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel.  In the spirit of her fabled Why Don’t’ You lists that spiced up an earlier iteration of Harper’s Bazaar, I offer Overnight New York’s Why Don’t You: the NYC Hotel holiday version. Here’s what to see and do at New York hotels while the holidays are still humming. Read more

Holiday Gingerbread Creations at Le Parker Meridien That Look Too Good To Eat

Honest Abe, the gingerbread version.

Who needs bricks and mortar – or limestone and chisels – when you’ve got gingerbread? Or to rephrase, ever wondered what the Lincoln Memorial, Kyoto’s Toji Tower or the Sphinx might look like as edible holiday sculptures? Read more

How Have NYC Hotels Weathered the Horrors of Hurricane Sandy?

It’s been a tough week for New York, the city’s hotels and guests staying – or trying to stay – here.  What was it like when the lobby flooded? How did guests react? How bad was the damage? And what can we expect next? Read more

Why Do the Construction Gods Seem to Hate Le Parker Meridien?

The Knave cafe — closed again until further notice.

Earlier this year Le Parker Meridien was forced to close its stylish Knave café for a month.  A freak accident at a construction site next door broke a wall and soaked the floor with liquid concrete, startling early morning guests sipping espressos and nibbling croissants.

Yesterday the hotel was once again a casualty of a construction mishap at another building. (Hurricane Sandy had a hand in this one.) Read more

Upbeat and Basic, Le Parker Meridien’s Burger Joint Turns Ten

Cooked to order.

Long before Shake Shack – and the $32 Daniel Boulud truffle burger – there was Burger Joint, the hole-in-the-wall hamburger heaven tucked behind a velvet curtain in a corner of Le Parker Meridien.  This week it celebrates its tenth birthday. Read more

Freak Construction Accident Startled Morning Coffee Drinkers and Closes Le Parker Meridien’s Knave Cafe

Talk about a double whammy. First came the news that Le Parker Meridien’s new next-door neighbor will be a new 296-room boutique hotel.  Then yesterday morning the new neighbor invaded Parker Meridien’s turf. Read more

Where do Rock Stars Crash When They Play New York, Paris or Louisville, Kentucky? ‘Rock & Roll Hotels,’ a New Guide Book, Tells All

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. Read more