Terry Trucco

Is The Hotel Check-in Desk Dead — And Does It Matter?

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The massive, inquisition-style check-in desk, once as basic to hotels as beds, pillows and running water, occupies a spot high on the endangered amenity list. But so, in some cases, do check-in staff members. Read more

Terry Trucco

Sidecars, Cosmos and Harvey Wallbangers: Drinking Up Eight Decades of Cocktails at The Barclay

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Sounds like a riff on Long Island Iced Tea, ie mix ½ ounce of everything. But instead of a single drink we’re discussing one from each decade from the 1920s through the 1990s.

This summer the bar at the Barclay Intercontinental New York is serving up a Decades Cocktail Hour, weekdays from 5 pm to 8 pm.

Mondays celebrate the 1920s (Sidecar) and 1930s (French 75). Tuesdays relive the 1940s (Bellini) and 1950s (Harvey Wallbanger). Wednesday, the 1960s, is Vodka Martini night. Thursdays salute the 1970s with Caiparinhas. Fridays usher in the 1980s (Tequila Sunrise) and the 1990s (Cosmopolitan). At $8 a drink, pricing is retro, too, at least for a New York hotel bar. Read more

Terry Trucco

Fresh Flowers — The Ultimate Hotel Freebie For All — At The Plaza

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I love hotel freebies, the kind you get when you walk through the door. A great looking lobby generously appointed with sofas and chairs? Check. Read more

Terry Trucco

On the Road: Sipping a Highlands Margarita at the Highlands Inn in Carmel, California

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It sounds like a mixed metaphor, but no, we’re talking mixed drinks – one of the coolest drinks I’ve had this summer. Read more

Terry Trucco

A First Look At The Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers’ Renovated Rooms

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Some renovations are the hospitality equivalent of an out-patient procedure – new bed dressings, curtains, carpeting and TVs. Others are tantamount to a quadruple bypass — deep-dish metamorphoses that entail messy stuff, like ripping out showers, furnishings and climate systems. Read more

Terry Trucco

Millesime — A Restaurant That Captures the Mood of Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris”

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An evocative movie, play, even art exhibition can make you hungry. Read more

Terry Trucco

A Big Win for Rory McIlroy, Jumeirah Hotels — and New York’s Essex House — at the 2011 US Open

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For anyone who follows golf, June 19, 2011 will be remembered as Rory McIlroy Day, thanks to the charming, unaffected 22-year-old golfer from Northern Ireland who won the US Open with a spectacular 16-under-par 268. Read more

Terry Trucco

Sipping a Vieux Carre at the Royalton’s Forty-Four Bar

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We’re in the early stages of summer roof bar season, but no one would call most of New York’s recent nights balmy or sweet. So this week we offer a weather haven, a hotel bar where you can order a drink with a dash of glam and forget the gloom swirling around outdoors. Read more

Terry Trucco

A Big Dog and a Big Boy: The New York Palace and The Standard Roll Out Sculpture Under the Sky

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You know summer’s here when hotels start rolling out outsize outdoor sculptures, the warm-weather equivalent of the holiday tree.  A big dog and a big boy on view all summer offer a taste of art and amusement, not to mention countless photo ops, in midtown and downtown. Read more

Terry Trucco

Are iPads The Next New “It” Item at Hotels? The Morgans Group Thinks So

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What’s the next hotel room amenity destined for the slag heap littered with CD players and tube TVs? My guess: the in-room phone with its push-button call list for the concierge, room service and housekeeping. Read more