Maybe Next Time
I’ve yet to experience the joy that I once felt for hotels, but I’m hopeful that I can get there.
Read MoreChaya B&B Boutique
It’s been exactly 14 days since I flew back from Mexico City and one of the most-ill advised trips I’ve ever taken.
Read MoreDesign is People
The TWA Hotel — with the Erik Saarinen-designed TWA Flight Center as its centerpiece — is beautiful. The lush red carpet in the hotel and concourse hallways is stunning. But — like Soylent Green — design is people. Good design reflects an awareness of how people behave, what people need, and what people want. It’s the entire reason I started 166Beds.com.
Read MoreThe Gladstone and the The Broadview - Toronto
It’s the kind of hotel that feels like the founders wanted to create a space for themselves and their friends to hang out and then decided to invite the rest of us to join the party.
Read MoreThe Line - DC and LA
The guests in LA range from lower rent hipsters to Asian tourists while those in DC range from higher rent hipsters to very confused men in khakis who couldn’t get a room at the Marriott over in Woodley Park. Both seem to attract local residents to their bars and brunches, although it’s clear that the DC location has made a bigger impression on the city’s dwellers and has become a destination for those seeking breakfast, a cocktail, wi-fi, or an Instagram selfie.
Read More3 Connecticut Hotels
The Study at Yale is a 2-minute walk to the front door of the Yale University Art Gallery, a 10-minute walk to Vito’s Deli (where I encourage you to order The Godmother: ham, genoa salami, prosciutto, capocollo, sharp provolone, banana peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, and dressing on a grinder roll), and a 20-minute walk to Pepe’s (where I encourage you to order everything).
Read MoreThe Kimptons
Get a super high floor and take lots of pictures of the skyline at night. (I did.) I stayed here after a two week trip to Cuba to celebrate the indulgence of capitalism. I don’t think I ever left the room. Why would I? It was hot outside and my bed was cozy.
Read MoreThe Artist Residence
I ordered a number of small plates, including a bowl of anchovies accompanied by nothing more than a small stash of toothpicks with which to eat them. It may have been the best thing I have ever eaten. Fresh, simple, bountiful. (I dream about that bowl of anchovies.) By the time my room was ready, I was giddy. And it wasn’t just the orange wine.
Read MoreWythe Hotel
There are hotels — like Wythe, At the Chapel, the Beekman hotel in New York, the NoMad in LA — that are particularly beautiful and well-designed because it's clear that the designers recognized, revered — and likely studied — the material with which they had to work. They didn't destroy what came before them, they lured it out gently and brought it into a new era. Living in a city (Seattle) besieged by the destruction of older buildings to make way for giant, overpriced apartment buildings that look like dorms for spoiled rich kids, I've built up a keener appreciation for this approach.
Read More166 Beds
Eventually, taking a picture of every bed you sleep in does something to you. Or at least it did something to me. I felt driven to find new beds, pretty beds, remarkable beds. I resented hotels that looked like every other hotel — because so did their beds. (This does not make for a compelling Instagram stream.)
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