Tilden Hotel: An Ace team
There’s something very familiar about the Tilden Hotel. Copies of Lapham’s Quarterly and the Thing sit on a coffee table in the lobby, surrounded by a custom-built Harvey Prober tufted sofa and original suede-andchrome Metropolitan Furniture chairs. A retail kiosk sells Public Supply notebooks and Marvis toothpaste, and room service is delivered in brown paper bags. That’s when it hits you: The new Tenderloin property is like a grown-up Ace Hotel with an undercurrent of hipster-ness. And that’s no coincidence — two key players were previously involved with the Ace group. Stephen Yang, founder of Point Hospitality Group, which manages the Tilden, worked on the Ace Hotel Palm Springs, and Studio Tack partner Jou-Yie Chou was formerly brand director for Ace Hotels. (The Brooklyn firm designed the Tilden.) Oakland designer Christopher Naefke fabricated the gorgeous solid cherry-wood front desk, and local artist Jenny Kiker painted a series of watercolors featuring California flora. It’s part of the hotel’s extensive arts program, which provides penthouse accommodations for artists-in-residence. The Tilden Hotel even appointed Tenderloin resident Jessie Johnson as poet-in-residence. His words grace the hotel’s walls and even show up on postcards at turn-down service. Next door, the Douglas Room bar and restaurant mixes up craft cocktails and serves a Philly-fied Whiz Wit cheesesteak on its late-night menu. What could be more hipster than that? Rooms starting at $195; 345 Taylor St., S.F.; (415) 673-2332. www.tildenhotel.com. The Tilden Hotel’s Douglas Room bar and restaurant (below) serves craft cocktails and a late-night menu.