His brother’s couch is history. Jeremy Lin, the white-hot, Harvard-educated New York Knicks point guard who less than a month ago was a) an NBA cast-off lucky to land with the Knicks and b) homeless has upped his domestic game and moved into our kind of place – a hotel. Read more
When Hollywood’s luckiest lookers thank their lawyers, agents, stylists and Mom for their screen success this Sunday, where do you want to be? Sure, you can stay home with your TV and Twitter feed, but watching the festivities on a big screen at a hotel can be so much more fun.
We found three hotels in different parts of town that go all out for Oscar night. The envelope, please! Read more
Lola — the fragrance.
Can a perfume bottle inspire a hotel? The thought never occurred to me until I visited Lola, a sleek new hotel in an old brick and stone building in the East 20s. But oh, those colors. The moody/glam lobby – and guest rooms and website – are ablaze in purple, scarlet, navy and yellow. And so is Lola, the Marc Jacobs fragrance in the whimsical bottle crowned with a plastic flower. Like the bottle, the hotel has style. Read more
Chocolate cocktails sound pretty good, but as I discovered on a recent visit to the lounge at the Pierre Hotel, they’re oddly polarizing.
While keeping a friend company before she went to a dinner party upstairs, I spotted the bar’s Chocolate Cocktail Festival menu featuring eight drinks (five hot, three chilled) and two lavish desserts, $14 each. Read more
In case you missed the Trump International New York Hotel & Tower’s starring role in the action comedy Tower Heist (and regret it), you’ve got another chance. The caper movie Rotten Tomatoes called “fun fluff” goes on sale on Blu-Ray and DVD on February 21st. Read more
Best in Show 1924, Champion Barberryhill Bootlegger, Sealyham Terrier.
It’s serendipity that Fashion Week and the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show hit town at the same time this year. Show dogs are the canine version of supermodels. And like the leggy creatures strutting the catwalk at Lincoln Center, the furry creatures running the ring at Madison Square Garden, February 13 and 14, travel relentlessly. Read more
The Empire lobby viewed from the mezzanine.
Sometimes a hotel just gets lucky. For years Fashion Week unfurled in big white tents in Bryant Park across the street from the Bryant Park Hotel. But in 2010, the big twice-yearly show moved to a sleek gray cube planted in Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park. And just like that, luck winked at the Empire Hotel, so close you can scamper from hotel to cube in stilettos. Read more
Add the TV zapper to the list of hotel room amenities one step closer to the junk heap.
Last week LodgeNet, the largest provider of in-room entertainment, introduced a new app that lets hotel guests use their smartphones to operate the TV. The free LodgeNet Mobile App turns an iPhone, iPad or Android into a hotel room remote control that does it all — turns the TV on and off, adjusts the sound and accesses free TV, on-demand TV and pay-per-view movies. The app also serves up information about the hotel and local events, restaurants, maps and attractions. Read more
Twice a year Restaurant Week muscles onto our dining radar with its vaunted three course fixed price lunches and dinners. Now in its 20th year, the twice-yearly promotion timed to boost business during winter and summer slow spells attracts more than 300 restaurants including more than 30 in hotels. This year’s first promotion, with $24.07 lunches and $35 dinners on weekdays, ends this Friday, February 10. Read more
The ads! The half-time show! Madonna! We love football (Go Giants), but it’s not the only reason to watch the Super Bowl this Sunday.
Where do you want to be when the Giants and the Patriots go helmet to helmet? We suggest a hotel bar that’s geared up for the big showdown. We found six — three in midtown and three downtown — where you can settle in with a pitcher of beer and a bucket of wings and drink in the early February festivities, be it the game, the sideshow or both, on a big screen (or two, or 17). Read more