New York’s iconic Peninsula luxury hotel

Winter is coming to New York, of course. But this year, for the first time, The Peninsula New York is going alpine. As you can see from the images above and to the left, workers are currently forming a fur-lined chalet that will seat up to 55. Head up this luxury hotel’s rooftop for gluvein or Piper-Heidsieck, and hot snacks.  This is definitely something, the gal predicts, that will draw the locale even more to a hotel that is already constantly full of surprises.  GM Jonathan Crook is obviously a great believer in pop-ups and happenings.

Right now the hotel’s lobby sports a near-transparent green fabric house, over three metres high. This is called ‘Three Corridors’, and it is by Korean Do Ho Suh. Does it have any point? No, and it takes up a lot of the lobby, but it is a talking point. I think, too, of what art design has done for the hotel’s main restaurant space. This had in the past evolved at lightning speed from one concept, one designer, to another, and another.  Now, as the Yabu Pushelberg-designed Clement, it really works. Several rooms lead into others. Each is complementary but unique. Regular customers, especially at weekday breakfasts, obviously know exactly which table suits them best.

There is so much choice today for those wanting a bed. What with increasing numbers of luxury hotels, and omnipresent competition from home stays, it is a buyers’ market. What keeps diners, and hotel guests, loyal to such a beautiful luxury hotel as this is the product, and the people. I swear most of the servers at my own breakfast had been working here at least since the end of the last century. (of the total 420 staff complement here at this 235-room property, 12 or more have been here over 30 years). Would I mind if he added some caviar to my eggs, asked one such professional, who knew exactly how to charm a young lady.

This is a highly addictive luxury hotel and I could easily have moved into #1703, the 235 sq m Fifth Avenue Suite that gives stunning views along Fifth Avenue. Designer Bill Rooney is apparently a favourite of Manhattan apartment owners, and perhaps this is why this space works so well. As the video below shows, there are soft colours, great art and bric-brac pieces, and such intriguing books as Halston,  and The Big Book of The Hamptons. I had a platter of apple ‘things’ as welcome. But I could not stay.   I left to pick up Amtrak at Penn Station. Unfortunately I ran into Extinction Rebellion, a gathering that had nothing better to do that day than to close Times Square. No problem. My driver let me out and I, and  my Rimowa, ran hell-for-leather and literally just made the train. NOW SEE THE FIFTH AVENUE  SUITE