street cred
In a city full of cool hotels, QT Melbourne still manages to stand out.
Ahotel should feel like a home away from home; a place to anchor a travel-weary soul, or provide an exotic sense of escape from the every day. Few hotel chains capture that essence as well as QT does. One recent addition to its portfolio is an 11-storey hotel on Melbourne’s Russell Street. It’s got all the quirk you’ve come to expect from QT – hop in an elevator and an exotically accented voice will throw out a cheeky suggestion, hit the “feed me” button on your in-room phone for room service – but with the added charm of feeling distinctly Melbourne.
The rooms are industrial (think polished concrete ceilings and exposed lighting fixtures) yet cosy. Going back to your own bed never feels as disappointing as after you’ve spent the night in one of their Gel Beds. The bathroom is equally as luxurious, though a minimalist contrast to QT’S usual bold style, with black and white tiles, a freestanding bath and Malin + Goetz toiletries.
Outside your room, the little details go a long way. The hotel’s lobby makes a mean first impression: bar to your left, check-in counter (engraved with scenes from Melbourne’s “Paris end” in nearby Collins Street) to your right, and a photoready staircase straight ahead, starring rich blue carpet and a feature wall made to look like an overstuffed bookcase. Art is as much a part of the theatre here as the professionally styled staff (no, really, they have their hair and makeup done by the in-house stylist before their shift starts), but it’s a blending of old worlds and new: LED digital works add movement to the common areas and neon sculptures hang playfully from the ceiling.
While you’re surrounded by some of the city’s best food and drink spots (Supernormal, Heartbreaker, Chin Chin and Gogo Bar), the on-site offering is hard to pass up. Pascale Bar & Grill showcases the best of the produce grown in the hotel’s rooftop garden alongside locally sourced ingredients by the QT forager. The Rooftop At QT is an indooroutdoor space that rivals the best rooftop bars in the CBD (it’s open to the public so you never have to worry about a lack of party atmosphere). Back on street level, there’s a clever nod to the local laneway culture in the alley beside the hotel – Hot Sauce bar blends Korean and Japanese street food with cocktails and hip-hop bangers, while next door there’s Tanto, a Japanese professional knife shop, the first of its kind in Australia.