The Surrey: Chic Perfection in NYC

The Surrey is one of a cluster of high-end boutique hotels nestled in Manhattan’s posh Upper East Side. The natural delights of Central Park are a block away to the west, the hedonistic pleasures of the shops and galleries of Madison Avenue are only a short stroll in the opposite direction. The Mark and the Carlyle, two other icons of tasteful luxury, are literally a stone’s throw away in what is otherwise a delightful, leafy residential area of classic New York townhouses. MOMA, the Whitney, The Guggenheim, the Frick and other prime destinations are all within a short walk.

The Art of ‘Boutique’

In the rarefied world of the high-end New York boutique hotel, perfection is mandatory; with the goal of making guests feel relaxed and at home the minute they step up to the building. A good boutique hotel will ensure that service is courteous and impeccable, but at the same time warm and accommodating. Where big luxury hotels achieve status through sheer opulence and range of amenities, the boutique strives for something luxuriously different: charm, chic, atmosphere, comfort and quiet.

Where boutique-style hotels are concerned, much of the secret is in planning the welcome so that staff greet you by name, handle your luggage efficiently, seat you comfortably for the check-in, and offer a glass of Champagne. Kids get special attention. Cut flowers should be everywhere, often from gardens on the property. Beds should be supremely comfortable, and amenities complete, down to details like shaving mirrors, hair dryers, irons and ironing boards, plush robes and slippers and high-end toiletries. They should serve by the cardinal rule, which is that snootiness is the antithesis of great hospitality.

This is the basic formula that has been fine-tuned by the Relais & Chateaux group over the past 60 years—first in France, then in the rest of Europe, and now around the world. To boot, many of the Relais & Chateaux hotels have on-property restaurants that are Michelin-starred; many are world-famous.

Which brings us back to the Surrey in New York, because it is the only Relais & Chateaux member hotel in the entire city. For me, the Relais & Chateaux group has always been the benchmark when it comes to reliably comfortable accommodation and often spectacularly great dining.

On this sixtieth anniversary of the association’s founding, I was curious to see how the core concepts of the association would translate to Upper East Side sensibilities. (We were unable on this trip to sample the Michelin-starred restaurant, Café Boulud, managed by chef Daniel Boulud. Its predecessor, the Pleiades was a famous watering hole and meeting place for the New York art crowd of the 1970s and ‘80s.; the Bar Pleaides off the hotel lobby, also run by Boulud, carries on the name.)

The Art & Glamour: From JFK to Kate Moss

The Surrey was built in the Beaux Arts style as a residential hotel back in 1926, and over the years has seen many a famous guest, from JFK to George Clooney, and plenty of other celebrities whose desire for discretion the hotel has respected.

The design of Bar Pleiades, the lobby bar, harkens back to the romance of the Roaring ‘20s, but with a decidedly modern twist and lots of quilted odes to Chanel. The lobby itself is a compact, well-proportioned limestone and marble space featuring a quirky, mosaic-tile interpretation of a Persian rug on the floor and contemporary photography and art on the walls.  The view through the lobby past the twin elevators ends in a shock of recognition with what is perhaps the most memorable feature of the hotel’s reno: artist Chuck Close’s enormous, black-and-white Jacquard tapestry of the face of Kate Moss, close-up and in high definition, wrinkles and all.

Kate Moss, the “anti-supermodel,” is of course emblematic of our era’s fashions and foibles; “the ideal beauty of the moment,” in Marc Quinn’s phrase. But the way photographer Chuck Close has depicted her shines a spotlight on her vulnerable humanity. It’s a mesmerizing piece and it sets the tone for the hotel’s design in both sensibility and color palette.

Other artist’s works, more than 30 in all, are sprinkled through the hotel’s public spaces: works by Cecily Brown, Jerry Halzer, Richard Serra, Imogea Cunningham, William Kettridge and more. Each is worth a visit.

Both the public spaces and the rooms are decorated with a muted and relaxing palette of silver, black, grey, sepia and cream, with occasional chocolate accents. All of the hotel furnishings were custom-made in New York to designs created by Lauren Rottet, many stenciled and hand-painted. “We were kind of design schizophrenics,” she told an interviewer, “moving through all the styles from 1925 to 1940. It’s beaux arts revival, art nouveau and art deco, traditional and contemporary, all together.”

The Accommodations

We were in an “Ultra Deluxe Suite with Skyline View”, and it was indeed deluxe in every respect. The large windows overlooks the Manhattan skyline and a window seat is decorated with a long grey cushion on which is stenciled: “Through these windows lies the soul of the city, across Madison and down 5^th Avenue…” The king bed—mattress by Duxiana, sheets by Sferra, pillows in all shapes and sizes—was heavenly; the marble bathroom has a stand-alone tub, an opening window, and the shower is a high-volume, high-pressure pleasure dome.

We couldn’t leave this modern touchstone of hotel design without asking for a tour of the two principle suites; the presidential suite and the penthouse. The presidential suite, a floor a floor down from the 17^th floor penthouse, is bright and airy, with coffered ceilings, great views all ‘round and its own wraparound terrace. There’s a small library of books by the living room fireplace that actually look interesting, a mammoth his-and-hers bathroom (plus two others); a full kitchen, bar, formal dining room, a baby grand piano, and of course a pair of sumptuous bedrooms with the same Dux mattresses and Sferra sheets we’d enjoyed.

The penthouse shares many of the same amenities, minus the baby grand and Olympic-sized master bath, but including a gas fireplace and kitchen like many of the hotel’s thirty smaller suites. Because it shares the top storey with the hotel’s rooftop bar, it’ smaller than the presidential suite, but it’s enough space to raise a family, though of course it’s used mostly for receptions and other functions.

The Amenities

On the hotel’s second floor there’s a round-the-clock exercise room with all the latest equipment (empty when we looked at midday), and a Cornelia spa, with five treatment rooms, each impeccably decorated to induce a feeling of serenity. During our stay the internationally-celebrated hair stylist Billy Yamaguchi was making a guest appearance and his trademark feng shui consultation, color, cut and style was going for $800. at the spa.

I miei trattamenti alla Cornelia Spa mi hanno fatto sentire come un reale coccolato nella mia tenuta inglese. La sala d'attesa e le sale per trattamenti eccezionalmente grandi sono progettate per farti sentire come a casa, con lussuosi posti a sedere, armadi simili a una camera da letto per i tuoi vestiti e vestaglie, morbide coperte di piumino e cuscini fantasia. E per coloro che non condividono i bagni, ogni sala per trattamenti è lussuosamente attrezzata con la propria zona trucco (riempita con prodotti Cornelia Signature), WC e doccia.

I trattamenti sono tutti progettati per soddisfare le vostre esigenze specifiche. Ad esempio, durante il trattamento del viso, la terapista mi ha chiesto quali fossero le mie preoccupazioni specifiche e, poiché ho rughe e pelle secca in alcune aree e pelle grassa in altre, ha personalizzato una miscela di creme e sieri dall'odore delizioso per riequilibrare la mia pelle e proteggerlo dal duro ambiente di New York City (in cui avevo difficoltà a ricordare di trovarmi ancora). Il letto, gli odori e il trattamento erano così rilassanti che potrei anche essermi addormentato un paio di volte (non che lo ammettessi!) Successivamente, mi hanno offerto del tè, del sorbetto e del Prosecco e mi hanno detto che avrei dovuto sentirmi libero di spendere qualche momento nella “zona relax” delle terme. Così ho fatto; immergendosi nella beatitudine, bevendo un bicchiere di vino bianco gratis e sgranocchiando il banchetto di frutta fresca e noci ben disposte. Se avessi potuto restare tutto il giorno, in quell'angolino con le tende, lo avrei fatto.

Accanto alla spa, la mia parte preferita dell'esperienza nel Surrey è il bar sul tetto. Come il resto dell'hotel, è progettato in modo quasi impeccabile per un tranquillo relax, con terrazze in legno, fioriere piene di lavanda, arte topiaria in legno di bosso in miniatura e molta edera inglese. I posti a sedere sono ampiamente distanziati, per conversazioni private. La musica di sottofondo sommessa si appoggia a Tony Bennett e Sinatra. È uno spazio assolutamente delizioso e, a differenza dei famosi bar sul tetto di molti altri hotel di Manhattan, probabilmente rimarrà tale perché per andarci devi essere un ospite dell'hotel, o un membro del "Patron's Club" del Surrey, che organizzerà ti restituiscono $ 1000 all'anno.

Relais & Chateaux e il suo sessant'anni punto di riferimento per il comfort e il benessere generale sono ben rappresentati a Gotham, dove il Surrey aggiunge un tocco tipicamente moderno al classico lusso del vecchio mondo per cui è noto l'Upper East Side.