New Hotel Restaurants, But What About The Boutique Hotels?

We’re a food blog, but let’s face it… There is a substantial grey area where covering restaurants intersects with covering hotels. Blog The Illadelph recently did a great job on rounding up spring hotel news for Philly.

From them we learned that Tavern 17 is expected to open late next week at the Radisson Plaza-Warwick Hotel, in the former Circles off the Square space. What we are interested in is the fact that Tavern 17 are marketing themselves as a destination restaurant rather than as a “hotel restaurant”: Once opened, they will have over 1000+ bottles of wine available and dog-friendly outdoor seating (!). The Radisson, located just off of Rittenhouse, is also home to The Prime Rib.

Meanwhile, an update on the plans of two high-profile restaurateurs to open new boutique hotels in Center City. Neil Stein, formerly of Rouge, the Striped Bass and Avenue B, has been speaking to the press about his hotel plans ever since his release from jail. Although there is no word on the latest status of his plans, word is Stein has been busy with… something. We just don’t know what it is.

But then there’s Stephen Starr. Our local restaurant king has been considering opening a Center City boutique hotel for years. But it appears those plans might be changing, or at least sidelined. The ever-readable Down By The Hipster is reporting that Starr Restaurant Organization might be purchased by Starwood Capital as part of a plan by Starwood Capital to recapture their former Starwood Hotels subsidiary (W, Westin, Le Meridien, Sheraton) with Starr’s restaurants possibly being used for high-end hotel dining spinoffs a la W and Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Meanwhile, Starr told New York magazine that he wants to open a hotel in New York too. But Starr has been talking of his Philadelphia hotel plans since 2003, so you be the judge.

Hotel Hotwire: Rumbling from the Masses [The Illadelph]
Radisson Plaza-Warwick Hotel [Official Site]
Is Stephen Starr for Sale? [Down By The Hipster]
Starr sets table for growth [Philadelphia Business Journal]
Q&A; With Stephen Starr [New York Magazine]

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New Hotel Restaurants, But What About The Boutique Hotels?