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Chatwal, Zakarian, and the Lotus Boys Teaming Up for Midtown Hotel

Vikram Chatwal, who tells us Dream Downtown is about a year and a half from landing in the meatpacking district (he’s in talks with a Barcelona chef about the restaurant), reveals to us that he’s teaming up with Geoffrey Zakarian and designer Thierry Despont (who did the Carlyle Hotel and Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant in London) on his other project, the Lamb’s Club, opening at 130 West 44th Street in August of next year. Zakarian was hesitant to discuss his involvement but indicated that David Rabin and Will Regan of Lotus were also partners. Rabin certainly has his hands full these days between the relocation of Double Seven and the opening of Los Dedos, the Mexican restaurant he and chef Sue Torres are launching next month in the old Meet space, but he found a moment to clue us in about the hotel.

“It’s not going to be off-putting or stiff,” says Rabin. “It will be very top-of-the-line food and top-of-the-line drinks à la Double Seven, but we hope it will be a place where real regulars develop.” Will the hotel, with its restaurant on the ground floor and steps up to a bar on the second floor, be as over-the-top as Chatwal’s Dream? “It’s going to be very subdued and classic,” Rabin tells us, “The designs on the restaurant are beautiful woods and stones and rich fabrics. We hope it’s going to be one of those places that New Yorkers adopt.” With parents like this? Where do we sign the papers?

Chatwal, Zakarian, and the Lotus Boys Teaming Up for Midtown Hotel