Bostom
Jul 28, 02, 10:42 pm
All in all, a nice weekend stay at a very reasonable price. We usually stay at the Sheraton Russell in NYC but have stayed at the Essex House before, usually on a weekend for a quick getaway to see a show or go to a museum or to see friends.
We rolled up to the front door on CP South at 3PM this past Friday after the ride down from Boston in our spiffy new Hertz-issue Lincoln LS for a combined $199/nt "Picnic in Central Park" and "Free Saturday" weekend. The doorman was cheery, attentive - and when I tell him not to bury the car because we're headed downtown for dinner at 7 - actually sorry to tell me that parking is now $45/night with no "in and out" privileges so, effectively, a shade under $50 every time you want your car. He suggests I should look around the neighborhood for meter ($1.00 to $1.50/hr) parking, a garage or the rare free space. Good advice - saved me from $90 to about $180 or more that way.
Check-in is quick, friendly enough and even if a bit disjointed, we're on our way to a smallish ('tho not THE smallest) park-view room on the 5th floor. Unfortunately, any "park-view" room below about the 10th floor is - because of Central Park's topography - primarily a view of the trees along Central Park South, the horse drawn carriages lined up across from the entrance (and attendant horse aromas) and the crazy guy who lives atop the hill and screams at passersby. An upgrade to a larger room was offered for the following night.
When we got to the room, things got a bit sloppy: my request for ice (no machines) and extra towels meant a two hour wait: the first call at 4, a reminder at 5 and finally a call to the front desk manager at 5:30 made it happen a bit before six...not a good start, service-wise. By contrast, the room service folks were up with the picnic basket that came with our package rate within about 20 minutes. For those of you interested - it's a bottle of drinkable French vin rouge, pears, apples (2 of each) grapes, pate, cheese, crackers, a jar of olive tapenade and a couple of bags of vegetable chips along with plastic glasses, plates, a corkscrew, etc. It comes in a wicker basket and the woman at room service said many guests take it home. Because it was there we used it as a gift to our hostess that evening who was polite enough to appear pleased...If this were "The Price Is Right" I'd estimate NYC retail to be about $50-60.
The room was clean and quiet if, as previously noted, smallish and our elevator ride back "home" at the end of the evening was briefly enlivened by the company of three members of the once and now again famous band, The B-52's. "Rock Lobster" indeed. Their tour bus was out front on Saturday morning and they were loaded and leaving about 11:30 AM.
Free/cheap parking kept working for me and cost $4 for the four hours from 8 to noon on a Muni Meter on 56th and Sixth while we shopped before driving the 20 or so blocks up Madison Avenue where, on the corner of Madison and 77th, free parking was found. An afternoon at the Met with the Gauguin (OK) and Thomas Eakins (awesome) shows and a too-brief stop at the Temple of Dendur (Favorite snatch of overheard conversation from what appeared to be a young Yeshiva or rabbinical student: "'cuz, like, you know, Moses was like a superfreak." Of course. I knew that. And it seemed appropriate in the ancient Egyptian setting...) made us footsore so back to the Essex House where, one block away, we snag that rarest of New York gifts, free parking that's good until Monday morning on Sixth Avenue in the block between 58th and 59th. The car stayed there until we left.
Back in the room the message light was blinking with news that if we wished to move a larger room was waiting for us. Though without a park view, the junior suite offered was very nice with a sitting area at one end, a walk-in closet and an art-deco fantasy bathroom about the size of the room we'd just vacated. Friends recently arrived in New York from San Francisco came up for a drink (so the extra space to sit was nice) and took us to dinner. We passed on Alain Ducasse (two prix fixe menus; either $160 or $280 pp plus wine, tax and tip....perhaps another time...) for the second-to-last night of the Russian Tea Room which is scheduled to close on Sunday. A bit cheaper than Mr. D's hash house and always a favorite of my ex-mother-in-law, God rest her soul, who knew a good blini when she saw one. Much lamenting of the closure: crying, sighing, vodka and champagne and sevruga and ossetra toasts... Rolled into the hotel (only two blocks away) around midnight past the night watchmen and slept like (well fed, pre-Soviet) babies.
Checkout was fine, even as the initial bill under the door in the morning for two nights totalled $3.40: trouble, according to the front desk clerk, with the computer system that doesn't do too well with different rates. Quickly corrected to an altogether reasonable $235 for two nights in rooms with rack rates that would have exceeded $1000.
Apart from the $145 speeding ticket I earned in Auburn, MA later in the afternoon ("going 82 in a 65 mph zone Mr Bostom, should watch it and try and keep the speed down," says Officer Friendly) and the grief I got for that from the passenger seat, the ride home was uneventful.
Overall impression of the hotel: well-maintained for the most part but lacking attention to some details - it could be a 5-star property with just a bit of work. Like dusting the furniture, fixing scuffs on the walls and shampooing the carpets. As an example, the elevator lobbies on each guest floor have amazing Zubarain French landscape wallpaper which is marred in spots by luggage scuffs, water stains and scrapes and the occasional missing piece. Small edges of wallpaper in the halls are peeling, etc. In addition to the overlong waits for something as simple as ice, there were no newspapers outside the room in the morning - apparantly as they're "on request" for the weekend. So tell me I need to request them. A wakeup call for Saturday morning (to move the car) never came, though I woke up on time, so not a big whoop but not what I expect either - glad I wasn't trying to catch a plane. In and of themselves, each of these complaints is small but in a place as grand looking as the Essex House, they stand out and add up as they're noticeable by their absence.
Security is tight and although I was not asked for a photo ID at checkin (something the most modest Four Points wants to see) there were men in black at all hours at the lobby elevators - nobody goes up without either a room key or a call. Nice touch, if a bit heavy handed, and obviously there as somebody decided they were needed - it never used to be like this but a lot of things, and I suppose more so in New York, are not as they once were.
Overall, we enjoyed the stay, we appreciated the upgrades, we liked all the staff with whom we came in contact and we'd certainly go back.
We rolled up to the front door on CP South at 3PM this past Friday after the ride down from Boston in our spiffy new Hertz-issue Lincoln LS for a combined $199/nt "Picnic in Central Park" and "Free Saturday" weekend. The doorman was cheery, attentive - and when I tell him not to bury the car because we're headed downtown for dinner at 7 - actually sorry to tell me that parking is now $45/night with no "in and out" privileges so, effectively, a shade under $50 every time you want your car. He suggests I should look around the neighborhood for meter ($1.00 to $1.50/hr) parking, a garage or the rare free space. Good advice - saved me from $90 to about $180 or more that way.
Check-in is quick, friendly enough and even if a bit disjointed, we're on our way to a smallish ('tho not THE smallest) park-view room on the 5th floor. Unfortunately, any "park-view" room below about the 10th floor is - because of Central Park's topography - primarily a view of the trees along Central Park South, the horse drawn carriages lined up across from the entrance (and attendant horse aromas) and the crazy guy who lives atop the hill and screams at passersby. An upgrade to a larger room was offered for the following night.
When we got to the room, things got a bit sloppy: my request for ice (no machines) and extra towels meant a two hour wait: the first call at 4, a reminder at 5 and finally a call to the front desk manager at 5:30 made it happen a bit before six...not a good start, service-wise. By contrast, the room service folks were up with the picnic basket that came with our package rate within about 20 minutes. For those of you interested - it's a bottle of drinkable French vin rouge, pears, apples (2 of each) grapes, pate, cheese, crackers, a jar of olive tapenade and a couple of bags of vegetable chips along with plastic glasses, plates, a corkscrew, etc. It comes in a wicker basket and the woman at room service said many guests take it home. Because it was there we used it as a gift to our hostess that evening who was polite enough to appear pleased...If this were "The Price Is Right" I'd estimate NYC retail to be about $50-60.
The room was clean and quiet if, as previously noted, smallish and our elevator ride back "home" at the end of the evening was briefly enlivened by the company of three members of the once and now again famous band, The B-52's. "Rock Lobster" indeed. Their tour bus was out front on Saturday morning and they were loaded and leaving about 11:30 AM.
Free/cheap parking kept working for me and cost $4 for the four hours from 8 to noon on a Muni Meter on 56th and Sixth while we shopped before driving the 20 or so blocks up Madison Avenue where, on the corner of Madison and 77th, free parking was found. An afternoon at the Met with the Gauguin (OK) and Thomas Eakins (awesome) shows and a too-brief stop at the Temple of Dendur (Favorite snatch of overheard conversation from what appeared to be a young Yeshiva or rabbinical student: "'cuz, like, you know, Moses was like a superfreak." Of course. I knew that. And it seemed appropriate in the ancient Egyptian setting...) made us footsore so back to the Essex House where, one block away, we snag that rarest of New York gifts, free parking that's good until Monday morning on Sixth Avenue in the block between 58th and 59th. The car stayed there until we left.
Back in the room the message light was blinking with news that if we wished to move a larger room was waiting for us. Though without a park view, the junior suite offered was very nice with a sitting area at one end, a walk-in closet and an art-deco fantasy bathroom about the size of the room we'd just vacated. Friends recently arrived in New York from San Francisco came up for a drink (so the extra space to sit was nice) and took us to dinner. We passed on Alain Ducasse (two prix fixe menus; either $160 or $280 pp plus wine, tax and tip....perhaps another time...) for the second-to-last night of the Russian Tea Room which is scheduled to close on Sunday. A bit cheaper than Mr. D's hash house and always a favorite of my ex-mother-in-law, God rest her soul, who knew a good blini when she saw one. Much lamenting of the closure: crying, sighing, vodka and champagne and sevruga and ossetra toasts... Rolled into the hotel (only two blocks away) around midnight past the night watchmen and slept like (well fed, pre-Soviet) babies.
Checkout was fine, even as the initial bill under the door in the morning for two nights totalled $3.40: trouble, according to the front desk clerk, with the computer system that doesn't do too well with different rates. Quickly corrected to an altogether reasonable $235 for two nights in rooms with rack rates that would have exceeded $1000.
Apart from the $145 speeding ticket I earned in Auburn, MA later in the afternoon ("going 82 in a 65 mph zone Mr Bostom, should watch it and try and keep the speed down," says Officer Friendly) and the grief I got for that from the passenger seat, the ride home was uneventful.
Overall impression of the hotel: well-maintained for the most part but lacking attention to some details - it could be a 5-star property with just a bit of work. Like dusting the furniture, fixing scuffs on the walls and shampooing the carpets. As an example, the elevator lobbies on each guest floor have amazing Zubarain French landscape wallpaper which is marred in spots by luggage scuffs, water stains and scrapes and the occasional missing piece. Small edges of wallpaper in the halls are peeling, etc. In addition to the overlong waits for something as simple as ice, there were no newspapers outside the room in the morning - apparantly as they're "on request" for the weekend. So tell me I need to request them. A wakeup call for Saturday morning (to move the car) never came, though I woke up on time, so not a big whoop but not what I expect either - glad I wasn't trying to catch a plane. In and of themselves, each of these complaints is small but in a place as grand looking as the Essex House, they stand out and add up as they're noticeable by their absence.
Security is tight and although I was not asked for a photo ID at checkin (something the most modest Four Points wants to see) there were men in black at all hours at the lobby elevators - nobody goes up without either a room key or a call. Nice touch, if a bit heavy handed, and obviously there as somebody decided they were needed - it never used to be like this but a lot of things, and I suppose more so in New York, are not as they once were.
Overall, we enjoyed the stay, we appreciated the upgrades, we liked all the staff with whom we came in contact and we'd certainly go back.