Hotel Zelos, Dirty Habit, and the Ghost of Kimpton Past in San Francisco
December 18, 2022
Oh the Kimpton of yore, how we miss it. After the IGH acquisition, the properties have gone completely corporate. No brand left at all. No personality. No staff that loves their jobs. So sad. Our last two Kimpton attempts in NY sucked (see https://noplasticshowers.com/2022/10/17/quick-hit-in-nyc-hotel-indigo-is-very-corporate/ and https://noplasticshowers.com/2022/05/08/back-in-new-york-the-muse-hotel-ihg/).
But the good news is that some of the properties have the old magic. Like the Zelos in San Francisco that used to be the Palomar. This was once one of our favorite hotels. And maybe it will be again.
We remember fondly talking to Mike Defrino about adding good bars to the properties (using Bourbon and Branch as one of the examples of what people will pay for a cocktail). Jacques Bezuidenhout was hired, and Dirty Habit was born under the direction of Brian Means.
We remember the battle of the Palomars.
At what os now the Zelos, we were assigned 712 (which is a nicely renovated version of a room we’ve stayed in back in the Palomar days). Great room.
In fact, enough space to conduct a zoom meeting with multiple attendees in the same room. (Don’t ask.)
The bathroom could be bigger. But it works. The shower is over a tub, but the nice glass doors make it all OK.
Though we arrived late, there was time for a slightly adjusted Boulevardier before bed.
And then a Cloudbreak (from Friday, Saturday, Sunday in Philly). This is still a magical cocktail. Make one!
Though it arrived late, a welcome note did arrive (along with a nice bottle of wine that I gave to madou since I was not checking my bag. Thanks for that Ben!
This is not your usual hotel art. Love it.
Breakfast at Cafe de la Presse is always recommended. At the Chinatown gate.
And for fun? How about Wildhawk, followed by ABV, followed by the Good Good Culture Club all with a bunch of great friends? Yes please.
So, a Negroni or a Breakfast Negroni?? Jacques, which should it be?
Maybe Suzu (who has become quite famous, aparently) knows.
While at ABV, tequila (or mezcal).
Thee guys…
Good Good was very good. What a treat to be in San Francisco for 32 seconds! Merry Christmas all.
Five showerheads and a big thumbs up for the hotel zelos. Looking forward to returning.
Scandic Nidelven, Trondheim, Norway: Go for the Breakfast
November 5, 2022
More post-COVID business travel in 2022. Trondheim, Norway is well north of Bergen and Oslo, situated on a Fjord, and is the home of NTNU where NPS was participating as adversary for a Ph.D. defense. That meant travel was dictated by university policy. Fortunately, breakfast was included.
In case you have forgotten what Norway is like, here is a video. About the same geographic size as California, Norway has only 5.4 million people. It is a gorgeous country.
Flying in to Trondheim is always an adventure, as you have to stop off in Oslo for customs and then brave the winds at the Trondheim airport. One poor old lady on my flight was literally screaming in fright as we made our approach and landing.
The great news is some of our good Norwegian friends were in town to greet us. Our first committee meeting was a very nice dinner out at the cozy Fagn bistrot.
The Scandic chain has done nothing to improve post COVID. A middle tier hotel chain on par with Marriott in the US or maybe Hyatt, Scandic pays more attention to their common areas and meeting rooms than they do to their actual rooms.
The Scandic Nidelven does boast the “best breakfast in Norway.” And the spread is actually quite good (and equally crowded). So go for the breakfast! I got two breakfasts in while in town.
The shower in my room (423 I think) looked something like this. Distinctly uninspired, yet functional and not plastic.
Views from the breakfast room over the Nidelva canals are very pretty.
In one minor wrinkle, my suitcases followed me into town by a day. That meant borrowing a coat and a dress shirt from friends just to stay warm and presentable.
The defense itself was interesting and fun. We minted a new doctor!
After which it was time to celebrate. First with a large dinner at Rive Gauche a droite (LOL) and then for some late night cocktails at the Britannia. The hotel has undergone major renovations and now has a world class cocktail lounge fittingly reminiscent of its London cousins.
We had to sort a major travel SNAFU on the way to the cocktail bar (NPS does sometimes drop packets, but we also bring along our credit card to buy entirely new packets…and sometimes a router.)
The next day a public talk at the university on Machine Learning Security was in order.
After lunch with the faculty (deeply interested in MLsec), there was a very short window for some tourism in Trondheim. The Rockheim museum is almost worth a visit..if you go with the right attitude it can be silly and fun.
The Trondheim sense of humor is even visible in the cafe signs. “probably the best espresso in the world” (more LOL).
After a parting Negroni at the Scandic bar (inundated with business types having a cocktail before their conference dinner), it was off to the airport to wait several hours for a quick flight to Bergen?
All in all, three showerheads for the Scandic Nidelven. Like the headline says, go for the breakfast.
Quick Hit in NYC: Hotel Indigo is Very Corporate
October 17, 2022
What was to be a long weekend in the city shrunk down to one night when business did its usual thing of melting away. NPS stayed on the lower east side on somewhat of a whim. The verdict? Meh.
Thing is, Madou had no idea that we weren’t in midtown. So we shlepped up there for sushi at Sushi by Bou. Which was hilarious and definitely worth the subway time.
Waygu and uni…surf and turf @mmadou pic.twitter.com/BBZUfT75ih
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) September 7, 2022
The place is tiny, so make a reservation. Immediately after coffee, it was back downtown for our meetings, and then back to midtown for dinner at Freemans. Dinner was great.
But skip the rice pudding fad! LOL. Ride pudding is way too filling to catch on.
After dinner, the plan was to wedge into PDF, but the hot dog place was being its persnickety self. So instead we headed to Amor Y Amargo for some fantastic cocktails. We made up an experimental cocktail called the McGillicutty.
The Indigo was generic and boring. All of the Kimpton magic has dispersed.
The shower is not plastic.
The lower east side is close to some stuff, we guess.
NPS doesn’t remember the room number. Not returning.
Back to EWR you go (in an early Uber).
The United club is all new and fancy, but the flights are still delayed.
All told, three showerheads and no more strikes for Kimpton. Anybody have a good boutique hotel chain to offer?
Just Don’t Staycity Aparthotels Heidelberg
June 28, 2022
It is in Heidelberg, so that’s good!
And there are some great people in town at the same time to have some fun with. So that’s good too.
For what it’s worth, NPS actually knows better! We should have stayed at the arthotel or maybe even Hotel Ritter with the old people.
I mean, any hotel actually named Staycity Aparthotels is gonna be exactly like this. So just don’t. LOL.
Hamster cage 223 is just like every other hamster cage here. Looks great in pictures because of the veneer and plastic. But it is made of veneer and plastic. And it has the design sensibility of a modern TV. Big black slab with some fake wood veneer pasted on.
Speaking of the TV, here it is splotted prominently on the plastic veneer architectural feature.
The toilet does get its own plastic room.
What a nice touch to add those moth orchids! They are easy to care for after all. And… Oh no wait, they are plastic. LOL.
Whatever you do, do not steal the hangers! They are very valuable as they are not made of plastic.
The shower area looks great and there is even glass! But really, the floor is all thin bouncy plastic. (We will give them props for good water pressure and plenty of hit water.)
So just don’t.
We’ll leave you with some Heidelberg to cleanse your pallet.
Over here on the “used to be an American Army base side (which is quickly transforming into a high tech center, Mandy’s Grill is a great place for breakfast. Very much international and tasty.
The walk to the center is not too bad from here (about a mile), and there in tourist zone you can find most anything. Read some science with a Hugo or a Capari Orange.
Anyway, two showerheads and no hope for redemption for the Staycity Aparthotel. We’ll be smarter next time.
Back in New York, The Muse Hotel (IHG)
May 8, 2022
Our first foray into the city was not that long ago, but was directly impacted by COVID when both stars of Plaza Suite were infected. We went to see Hangman instead, an OK play, but not really all that. And then it was back in Virginia for the advent of the Spring green. Were some of us disappointed? Why yes we were.
So, soon enough we were back in the city to take another crack at Plaza Suite do some business on the side. The original plan was to fly in Saturday evening, so we booked a room at the Muse, one of the Kimptons of yore. Bottom line: the IHG takeover of Kimpton is complete. These days, the lobby of the Muse seems to be filled with aging midwesterners who have accumulated enough IHG points by staying at many Holiday Inns that they are splurging on a trip to Broadway and the big city. Kimpton is hip no more.
The new demographic at the Muse in NY seems to be mostly oldsters from flyover states who accumulated lots of points by staying at Holiday Inns. @Kimpton has been utterly transformed by @IHGhotels.
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) May 7, 2022
Times Square remains a Disneyfied tourist attraction and a traffic snarl. That’s nothing new.
The Muse does retain much of its old staff, and that is nice. But its computers are corporate and the wiggle room is gone. So our request of room 1703 was ignominiously ignored due to the fact that we expanded our stay to two nights instead of one (really with plenty of time for the hotel to adjust) and didn’t feel up to switching rooms halfway through our stay. That leaves us surly and disappointed.
Somehow I think we ended up accumulating lots of IHG points due to all of this. But guess what? NPS does not give one shit about IHG points. None. We just want really great rooms for our cash money.
Plus it rained the whole time, so 1506 was not all that it’s cracked up to be what with a soggy balcony.
It was great to see Madou.
The rain made business in Brooklyn interesting too. Traffic was a thing. Our visit to One World Observatory for dinner was hilarious with zero visibility. LOL.
Finally we ditched the tail and ended up at Katana Kitten for some real fun (thanks to Jacques for the pointer). I mean, check out this before and after!
Things were blurry.
Thankfully the canary extracted us before the blurry things got much farther out of hand. They did get far enough though, and Saturday morning was hard.
Returning to 1506 after a night on the town? Nah. The Muse days are over.
At least the shower is NPS approved. A very nice one.
After recovery, we visited the Guggenheim for a Kandinsky fix. Ahhh. That and ramen will do it every time. It was a glorious afternoon.
After a nap that stretched on just a little too long, it was dinner at Junoon. Highly recommended.
Breakfast at Banter (the original one south of Washington Square) is fantastic. The mushrooms are worth talking about.
Now it’s time to see the play and then scoot to EWR for a quick hop home.
Four showerheads and a demotion for the Muse. We miss our Kimpton.