Hasta La Ideas

Inside the new boutique hotel in NYC’s arts district

From the airy architecture of seaside retreat Basico to Distrito Capital’s urban focus, Mexico-based hotel group Habita has already made a name for itself for how it introduces high-design without disrupting surroundings. Opening today, 6 September 2011, Hôtel Americano, their first U.S. property, brings this elegantly light touch to New York City. The 56-room hotel both blends well into the scale of its “Way West Chelsea” neighborhood and firmly stakes a claim to its future. Designed for locals as well as out-of-towners, the destination offers a rooftop cafe and pool, basement bars and a street-level cafe in a section of NYC’s gallery district that has been one of the last to transform from its industrial past.

Like when the Ace Hotel opened to the East (as well as Habita’s property in Mexico City’s Condesa neighborhood), Americano’s arrival signals a new beginning for the area. With the elevated outdoor park, the High Line, opening nearby and a newly-constructed condo across the street, the new growth promises to reinvigorate an area formerly home to literally one restaurant and generally lacking housing and retail. And just how did the developers manage to balance the needs of the neighborhood with their ambitious new property? Let’s start with the building itself.

The work of Mexican architect Enrique Norten, a metal mesh-clad exterior creates a clean and striking facade whose clean lines integrates well with neighboring warehouse spaces while lending contemporary shine. By offsetting this facade from the windows, the size of the rooms inside feel a bit bigger—a welcomed detail for the more petite rooms on that side of the hotel. Across the hall, the larger accommodations feature a sitting area, fire places and bigger bathrooms. All rooms (designed by Arnaud Montigny) house wooden platform beds inspired by Japanese ryokans; beautiful wood cubes hold the beds in the bigger spaces.

For those who aren’t staying at the hotel, the Americano has a separate entrance so neighborhood visitors don’t compromise the experience for guests. A cafe near the front door provides Intellegentsia coffee (its first NYC outpost) and fresh-squeezed juices. Just behind the cafe, a restaurant will serve three meals a day indoors and on the back terrace.

On the roof, also open to the public and accessible via a separate elevator so as to not annoy hotel guests, La Piscine bar and grill will feature not only a seasonal menu but also seasonal decor—open and airy in the summer, glass-enclosed warmth in the winter.

Below the lobby, Bar Americano—a concrete tube of a bar, feels like a chic, modern subway station. Behind this space is El Privado, a small, warm living room with a bar that feels more like a kitchen, which as the name suggests is reserved for private functions.

A welcomed addition to our neighborhood, Hôtel Americano is now open for hotel guests and cafe customers. The additional spaces are set to open in late September or early October.

The two-sided alternative to bulky messenger bags

Conscious of the need for a midsize alternative to the often oversized and always cumbersome messenger bag, the creative minds at SSCY have come up with the Bandolier, a dual-compartment bag that allows quick and easy access to all pockets and pouches without slowing you down. The sling-style design fits over the shoulder like most messenger bags do, but a swift tug pulls the back to front or vice versa.

Another example of the bag’s intelligent design, a diagonal pleat expands to jam more in the bag that you may think. To keep the load balanced, straps cinch tight to the body, making it ideal for biking, skating, or really any activity with lots of momentum change. The simple feature keeps the Bandolier’s weight from shifting unexpectedly and throwing the wearer off balance—a common issue with heavy backpacks and messenger bags.

Constructed using tough 600 x 300 denier nylon backed with vinyl for water resistance, the Bandolier bag offers ample room and protection for everyday necessities. Combined with anatomical design, it’s perfect for light days on the road when you just can’t leave your phone, camera, notebook or iPad at home.

Proudly made in Brooklyn like all SSCY products, the Bandolier is now available through a few local NYC retailers and online at SSCY. Make sure to keep an eye on head designer S.C. Yuan and his design team. Word is they’re already working on a second innovative bag to address further needs of the cycling community .

New guides from the anti-tourist travel site

Only a few short months after its debut earlier this year, online travel hub Fathom has expanded its scope of original travel-related tales to include essential tips for planning trips to unfamiliar cities. The visually-pleasing site is filled with memorable stories and practical advice as colorful and intoxicating as featured destinations. With vibrant photographs linked to every post a taste of international travel is only a click away.

This unusually pleasant approach to vacation planning is no happy accident. Motivated by past experiences of wading through extensive recommendation lists, founder and CEO Pavia Rosati worked with editorial director Jeralyn Gerba to “create a beautiful place for the travel-proud to get inspired, then come back and share their adventures.”

So far, Fathom’s Postcards make up the bulk of the site. From product guides and photo galleries to videos and questionnaires, the Postcards contain first-person content written for travelers by travelers. Within the heading “I Travel for the…,” each post reveals whether such categories as food, romance or culture motivate the traveling contributor. The Tools section, an especially “useful amenity,” offers general resources for money tips, links to sites with the best airfare and travel-friendly applications for smartphones.

Fathom’s latest section to debut, Guides compiles incredibly helpful information for cities all over the globe. This includes cleverly-orchestrated itineraries like London’s “I’m Here on Business” and New York’s “Two Old Broads in NYC.” Other categories list top restaurants, hotels, shops, sites, and nightlife spots—all at varying price points—with an insightful blurb to help you pick the right ones for you. Written by locals who know the area best with content updated as needed, you can’t go wrong with Fathom’s city guides. Recognizing that savvy travelers refer to various sources, each venue listed also includes links to relevant news and travel sites that have something to say about that spot. For a short-form list of local essentials, every featured city also includes a Cheat Sheet with info like tipping customs and convenient forms of travel.

Fathom Guides are currently available for New York City, London, Berlin and The Hamptons. Sign up for Fathom’s newsletter to get your wanderlust going. Also, feel free to contribute to the site by sending in a postcard with your most exciting travel adventures.

Nightmare and the Cat celebrate their EP release with a raucous NYC show

“Drink your shots, pick up your beer and come watch us perform,” Django Stewart commanded the crowd at Mercury Lounge last week. “We’re Nightmare and the Cat,” punctuated his brother and fellow frontman Sam Stewart, kicking off the show to launch their debut EP. Eight songs later, sweating and dazed, the packed house saw the band off the stage with rapturous applause. The music that came between varied from lofty, thoughtful rock to soulful, layered folk. Dramatic, story-driven, catchy and with swoon-inspiring potency that envelops the band itself (as well as their performance and the new album), Nightmare and the Cat exude nothing shy of magic.

The two frontmen, despite their youthful appearances, both were members of since dispersed, but seasoned musical acts before forming the band a little over a year ago in Los Angeles. Sam spent seven years with London band Blondelle, while Django helmed The Midnight Squires.

Together, with multi-instrumentalist and singer Claire Acey, drummer Spike Phillips and bassist Julie Mitchell, the five-piece has performed both coasts, a SXSW showcase with artist Gary Baseman and the United Kingdom. Circumnavigating the Edward Sharp and Local Natives aesthetic, the band’s harmonies, taut instrumentals and atmosphere build, first and foremost, an environment where their stories exist.

The self-titled EP, lush and melodic, feels more than anything like a thrilling teaser for things to come. A melodic through line weaves among the tracks “Sarah Beth,” “The Missing Year” and “Little Poet.” Orchestration and backing vocals play off Django’s dynamic voice—often in dialogue, sometimes in alignment.

Just when you feel the band settling in with a sound, the closing song, “Anybody’s Bride,” punctures it with punkish ferociousness. The whimsicality might feel extravagant, but never disposable, glazing the music with a limitless sense of wonder. There is sentimentality and delicacy to even the more raucous portions of the tracks, knitting everything together as sound storytelling should.

Famed photographer Mick Rock, a supporter of the band and attendee at the Mercury Lounge show, once snapped an iconic photograph of David Bowie, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, arms draped across one another. There was startling breadth and depth to those three musicians’ work. As If schooled in the language of rock, Nightmare and the Cat draw on these influences, blend their lessons and strengths and craft something all their own.

Top image by Sterling Taylor, performance images by Eli Russell Linnetz.

Dopo Davos, Hamburg, Zurich, Cologne, Berlin e Vienna, Freitag sbarca oltreoceano e apre un nuovo flagship store a NYC. Lo potete trovare al 1 di Prince Street.
{Via}