Travel News

Paris meets the Beats in New York

A Kerouac hideaway is among the city’s hippest new lodgings.

A Kerouac hideaway is among the city's hippest new lodgings.
As surely as the seasons change, New York keeps turning up new crops of hotels. This northern autumn sees the entrance of two new hotels and a revamped grande dame.
Hip hotelier Sean MacPherson (The Bowery and The Maritime hotels) has unveiled The Marlton (pictured above) in Greenwich Village, a hot 'hood previously lacking a hotel scene. The 107-room landmark is housed in a storied turn-of-last-century building, home over the years to boldface names from writer Jack Kerouac to actor Mickey Rourke. It feels more Parisian pied-à-terre than New York pad: discreet, urbane, luxurious. The small but stylish rooms feature fin de siècle details such as herringbone floors, brass fixtures and marble bathrooms, while the lobby - sure to become a hub for the literary-minded downtown set - has rich wood panelling and a marble-surround fireplace.
Further north, the Hyatt Union Square turns the chain-hotel stereotype on its head. Tablet-toting hipsters have commandeered the lobby's white sofas and pop-bright ottomans as their urban office. The artful design by Paul Vega features arresting installations such as the sculpture in The Fourth restaurant made from wooden bed frames suspended from the ceiling. Rooms are sleek and light-filled, while the newly opened subterranean tapas-inspired restaurant Botequim is already generating buzz.
In Midtown, meanwhile, the latest iteration of the venerable The New York Palace on Madison Avenue - fresh from a $150-million renovation that includes six new dining and bar venues - marries Old World grandeur with on-trend draws such as craft cocktails at the Trouble's Trust bar and private jewellery showings with bespoke jeweller Martin Katz, a perk of the speciality Jewel Suite for those with $25,000 a night to burn.
The Marlton, rooms from $286, 5 West 8th St. Hyatt Union Square, rooms from $439, 134 Fourth Ave. The New York Palace, rooms from $578, 455 Madison Ave.