The Beekman, New York City.
Where is it?
Lower Manhattan. Not an area we would usually recommend being near Wall Street and all that boring stuff, but it’s handy for the 9/11 Memorial and Museum and One World Trade Centre, the highest building in New York, if you can be arsed to queue up for some admittedly spectacular views from the platform at the top.
Why so lovely?
It’s the epitome of clever classic New York City, built at the end of the 1800s as one of the city’s – the world’s! – first skyscrapers, albeit in a very ornate red brick. And that means the architecture is the star, both outside and in. Well, you don’t get voted the best hotel in New York by Condé Nast Traveler without a bit of something going on.
First impressions?
The eccentricity of what could be straight-down-the-line classic hits you as soon as you step into a lobby that is grand with paneling and old-school paintings but which has a huge stitched-together Persian rug all over the reception desk and lamps with fringes long enough to plait. That’s before you walk round The Atrium, which will leave you gasping. A multi-storey funnel that cuts through the building to a glass roof with balconies looking down all the way up, you may never get over just how fabulous it is.
And the accommodations?
Lovely and old-school – as befits such an historic building – this is such a relief from the cloying newness of so much in New York City, though that’s not to say they are stuffy. Classic furniture shares space with colourful prints, mumsy lamps sit on sassy credenzas and historical wallpapers pop with scarlet anglepoises. It’s like having your interiors cake and eating it.
And the food?
Choose your own spectacular backdrop to dinner – the Temple Court in that Atrium we’re raving about or Augustine, an absolutely authentic-looking French brasserie, which is all white tablecloths and clinky cutlery. Chef Tom Colicchio has kept everything in keeping with classic dishes like Maine lobster with chanterelle mushrooms, but it’s all done with twists and flairs. Come at the weekend and there’s a brunch with live jazz in the corner. But it’s that space that’s so delicious, especially at this time of the year.
What is there to do?
Well, you’re in New York City so you can do pretty much anything you want. The famous museums and Central Park are way uptown, but you can jump a Subway, grungy but totally safe and so much quicker than a cab, while the shops and galleries of areas like SoHo and the West Village are walkable if you don’t mind a bit of a trot. And Brooklyn Bridge is just over there.
And the LGBTQ bit?
We’re never going to mention New York without biing up Julius’, maybe our favourite gayborhood bar in the whole world, where you can get a happy hour cocktails for $4 and a burger from the open burger stand. And as most of the gay scene – apart from the Hell’s Kitchen bit – is down this end of Manhattan, The Beekman is a decent location for that, even if you’re not exactly in the thick of it.