It’s a lot easier than it once was to get a good cup of coffee in New York. And that goes for coffee at hotels. Flavorful house blends and premium brands like Illy are typical at large hotels (and former coffee wastelands) from the New York Hilton-Midtown to ONE UN New York. Newcomers are embracing […]
Dark libations like bourbon and rye don’t wind up in cocktails nearly as often as the clear stuff, like vodka and gin. But they get mixed with something other than water a lot more than scotch. Purists might say the reason is obvious. Or as my husband puts it, why ruin a great single malt? […]
Midtown Manhattan isn’t known for its residential ambience. So cheers to Affinia 50, fresh from a $19 million renovation, for offering a taste of apartment living this side of Airbnb. To be fair, hominess is in the Affinia’s DNA. The 250-room building started out in 1959 as a residential hotel. There’s no restaurant, but two […]
With a nod to Earth Day, we offer our (second) annual roll call of green New York City hotels. The greenest of the green are those with LEED certification – third party proof of adherence to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards set by the U.S Green Building Council.
This is shaking up to be the biggest year in memory for good eggs in New York. First came the Fabrege Big Egg Hunt, which deposited 250 gigantic eggs decorated by artists, designers and bold-face names around town, including at hotels (it ends April 26). And as we zero in on Easter, hotel pastry chefs […]
Nothing promotes time travel like a grand hotel. Step inside and you’re whisked to another era where you can imagine yourself trading stories with Winston Churchill or Grace Kelly, Cole Porter or the Duchess of Windsor, albeit with locally sourced menus and WiFi. New York’s Waldorf Astoria is one of these full-throttle time machines. If walking […]
Every year or so we’re treated to a citywide exhibition of large objects decorated by artists, like upright pianos or fiberglass cows. So why not eggs? The Fabrege Big Egg Hunt, as you’ve no doubt heard, is on, with 250 gigantic egg sculptures adorned by artists, architects and creative types like Bruce Weber, Julian Schnabel, […]
Earlier this month I attended the opening party for the new Courtyard Marriott Manhattan/Chelsea, a 273-room “sliver” hotel built from the ground up in New York’s once-flourishing Fur District. (If you visit, check out the clever stone reliefs of fox heads on a nearby building.)
I doubt I’m alone in saying I’ve been counting the hours, the minutes, the seconds to the arrival of spring. By Siberian standards — but New York isn’t Irkutsk. And when you rack up the days that failed to break 30 degrees, couple them with more than 56 inches of snow and throw in a […]
Since this item posted Stayful, a site that brought Priceline strategies to boutique hotels, has joined the many sites that have fallen (details here). A shame. It was a neat idea. No joke. The year is young, but so far 2014 New York hotel prices are trending lower than industry observers expected. “Hotels in New […]