Why book?
This is the hotel that will give you the closest brush with Gilded Age New York, bar none. If you care about that sort of thing, this is where you should be staying.
Set the scene
Directly across Madison Avenue from St. Patrick’s Cathedral, there sits a courtyard. This courtyard was made very famous, in the late aughts, by a show called Gossip Girl, because on season one of Gossip Girl Lily and Serena van der Woodsen (Kelly Rutherford and Blake Lively, respectively) lived in this hotel while renovating their apartment. Serena’s comings and goings from the hotel are frequently depicted, I suspect, to make use of this singular setting. You’ve got the west-facing light flitting through the cathedral’s high steeples, the ample seating that is very much being made us of by hotel guests and other chic passerby (in the summer months, the aptly-named Summer Bar serves cocktails and light bites), the wrought iron arch at the entrance, and the original mansion wrapping three sides in a hug. It makes for a great entrance, although the lobby can also be accessed directly around the corner via a modern entrance on East 50th Street.
The backstory
That original U-shape came to be when New York financier Henry Villard executed his vision of constructing the Villard Houses, six separate private brownstone residences designed by Stanford White and built around a courtyard. The hotel lobby is in the central wing, with details like the red marble fireplace by Augustus Saint-Gaudens preserved.
Six three-story residences, though, do not a 900-plus-room hotel make, and the skyscraper shooting up out of the building’s center actually accounts for nearly all of the rooms in the count. This 55-story glass-and-aluminum goliath broke ground in 1978 after developer Harry Helmsley brokered a deal with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, then-owners of the building, and the Palace Hotel opened its doors in 1980. The hotel can claim major parts of New York history—Le Cirque operated here from 1997 to 2005, for example. Ownership has changed hands a few times since then, namely to Bruneian royalty, before South Korean hotel operator Lotte Hotels & Resorts bought it in 2015.
The rooms
There are two room categories to be checked into at the Lotte: Palace rooms, and Tower rooms. The latter are premium, 176 of them total, occupying the 41st through 55th floors. The Palace’s 733 rooms occupy the 9th through 36th floors—still part of the tower, to be clear. My room is in the towers, on the 44th floor, staring down at St. Patrick’s from high above (113 rooms total, I’m told, have some sort of view of the church.) It’s remarkable. The room itself isn’t half bad, either, with wall-to-wall windows at the far end of its 500-or-so-square feet. The bed is a King, the bathroom is black marble, and the stylings of the room itself are slightly dated but smartly neutral enough for it not to matter.
Food and drink
The food at the Lotte is improved by the environs in which you’ll consume it. The Gold Room is the closest thing to a full-service dinner restaurant—although it’s really more of a bar with a whirlwind-world-tour list of shared plates ranging from oysters to “Korean-style” chicken wings to Jamón de Bellota to lobster mac and cheese. So-called for its setting within a room adorned overwhelmingly in gold, with cavernous vaulted ceilings overhead and gilded wainscotting, the space was originally designed by White to function as a music room—vestiges of this purpose can be found in the room’s north end, where a large suspended balcony was once a performance stage. The drinks are very good, with a standard cocktail list complemented by a novel martini list with prices that go up to $250 bucks a glass.
The 25-seat salon Rarities, also in the original building, is like the hotel’s labyrinthine living room, with deep chairs and warm light. Named for its extensive menu of rare Champagnes, whiskies, and other liquors, it’s extremely indulgent and worth a splurge.
The spa
The spa, Ila Only Spa, is pretty standard by New York standards, with seven treatment rooms in which guests can enjoy massages, facials, waxes, and the like and steam rooms and saunas in the men’s and women’s locker rooms. The relaxation room has just been redone in cool neutrals, but the most exceptional aspect was already there: the view of St. Patrick’s, which from this eighth floor vantage point just seems to stare you right down.
The neighborhood/area
I’ll mention for a third time the looming presence of St. Patrick’s, which really does dominate one’s impression of the neighborhood from the perspective of the Lotte. This is Midtown East at its most buttoned-up—you’re a few blocks north of Grand Central, with luxury shopping and office workers abound. You’re a very easy walk to the Museum of Modern Art, Rockefeller Center, and the original Saks Fifth Avenue.
The service
Totally white-gloved and deferential, this is old-school service.
For families
The hotel offers a few packages that will appeal to kids. Most directly, there’s Little Royals which comes with a Palace playhouse, $100 gift card to nearby FAO Schwarz toy store, keepsake collection of bedtime storybooks, and a cupcake delivery. Adults, too, are likely to be keen on the Wicked package that’s led to the display of costumes from the Broadway production on mannequins in the gilded lobby. It doesn’t come with tickets to the show, although the Gershwin is a mere 15-stroll away for those inclined to pick some up of their own, but those who book it can expect a signed playbill and some pink and green F&B.
Accessibility
There are ADA-compliant rooms and entrances to the hotel.
Anything left to mention?
Fourth mention of St. Patrick’s: be sure to request a room that faces Fifth Avenue, so that you get a view of its mint green roof.
455 Madison Ave., New York, New York 10022
United States
https://www.lottenypalace.com/little-royals
(212) 888-7000