My hottest hotel reservations this week have been for the fabulous Crosby Street Hotel in New York. It is a firm favourite with many of my design and entertainment clients…it is also the hotel of choice for the literary set and global style setters that travel to NYC regularly. Also the favourite of ‘stylist to the stars’ Rachel Zoe when she is in town, the hotel features heavily in her television show The Rachel Zoe Project.
Crosby Street Hotel is the New York offering from the fabulous Firmdale group and is their first venture outside the UK (with another Manhattan property to follow in 2014). You all know by now how much I love their London properties, well this one won’t disappoint either. Its’ eclectic design by Firmdale’s owner and Design Director Kit Kemp keeps this city slicker’s interiors upbeat and luxurious. The individually designed rooms are of course of the impeccable Firmdale standard with the most comfortable beds ever and “room to move” bathrooms. Oh and the art collection is terrific, for instance you can’t miss the dramatic 10 foot high Jaume Plensa steel sculpture as a human head created from letters of the alphabet located in the lobby, it stops you in your tracks!
The location on Crosby Street is ideal (you can be midtown in 15 minutes if you have to!) and the restaurants and shopping in the neighbourhood are second to none. Balthazar, the famous french Brasserie style restaurant across the street is one of my favourites.. I enjoyed a wonderful French Onion Soup on a cold & sunny October day with the fabulous Susie Westwood who was also in town the same week to photograph and write a feature for Vogue Living magazine. Susie and I ventured uptown the very same day to hit Barney’s New York and even slipped in an afternoon of pampering at the uptown urban luxury Spa at The Mandarin Oriental, that is a spa bill I won’t forget and the view was just as eye watering!!
Ever since Crosby Street Hotel opened in September 2009 it has remained at the top of most “hot hotel” lists worldwide. I was lucky enough to be in residence the week it opened which was a special treat and one of the highlights of my travel career so far.
That exciting week included attending the Travel + Leisure party to launch the annual “Special Hotels” edition. Held in the Crosby Bar, it was a fun night and I finally got to meet the magazines’ Editor-in-Chief, Nancy Novogrod….. another “aha” moment in my career! (yes, she is as interesting and fabulous as she “reads”)
I just love this hotel. My contacts at the hotel (and good friends) Craig Markham – Director of Marketing and PR, Narell Devine – Director of Sales (another fabulous “Aussie done good”…don’t you just LOVE that surname??) and the forever stylish and ever accommodating General Manager Jakob Hanson will all help me arrange that special stay next time you find yourself travelling to this fabulous city. You won’t regret it and I promise it will become your new home in New York too.
*Crosby Street Hotel, bringing a bit of English glamour to downtown NYC.
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