Hotel Vertigo

Description:

• I don't normally write reviews of hotels that haven't opened yet, but I have insider info that the York Hotel, currently under renovation and scheduled to reopen in the fall of '08 as Hotel Vertigo, will be the hot new place to stay and play in San Francisco. Combining big-name designers with celebrity chefs is the new trend in high-end hospitality, so locally-based Personality Hotels paired cutting-edge design company Thomas Schoos Design, Inc., with celebrity chef Tyler Florence (who will open his first-ever restaurant, Bar Florence, within the hotel) to create a hotel with instant celebrity status. It's a clever concept: The restaurant's salon-style seating and Florence's shared-plates menu will bring in the locals, while Schoos' stylistic design elements will attract tourists and business travelers looking for an alternative to the W Hotel. There's even some colorful history involved as well -- the hotel occupies the former site of the Empire Hotel made famous in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, hence the name. Guest rooms will feature playful, eclectic design features such as white tufted-leather headboards, custom wingback chairs in vibrant orange, and crocodile-patterned tiles in the bathrooms. iPod docking stations and 36-inch flatscreen TVs will be standard as well. With room rates starting at $169 (half that of the W), it's a safe bet that the Vertigo will be one of the hottest new hotels in town.

• © Frommer's 2012

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Highly Recommended 2010