The vintage cocktail list includes punches and fizzes, as well as the hotel's signature drink, the "Code 55 and 2 Bulat", named after an incident at the bar many decades ago when a disgruntled wife confronted her cheating husband and mistress and asked a barman for a Colt 55 and two bullets. The barman was puzzled, thinking she was asking for a cocktail.High teas are also served, in the adjacent Colonial Cafe, or you can take your scones and cream in the Orchid Conservatory, a glass atrium with space for about 15 people among thousands of orchids.But there is more to this hotel than first meets the eye. It has a split personality.There is also a new 15-storey tower wing, with 253 modern rooms, ballroom and gymnasium.
The Contango restaurant, in this new section, is an example of made-to-order buffet dining at its highest quality, with an ethnic mix including Malay, Thai, Indian, Chinese, Japanese and a churrasco grill.And upstairs in the tower wing rooms, you can not only soak in a tub full of bubbles after the buffet, but you can watch television on the wall-mounted bathroom screen. If you drop the remote control into the water it doesn't matter, because it's waterproof.
New York has hotel rooms coming out of its ears, from the highest of design to the, well, polar opposite. But why book a room for 200-something bucks a night when, for the same price, you can have full run of an entire mansion? We've rounded up nine of the nicest houses available to rent on AirBnB, which provide a homey alternative to bland 'n' boxy guestrooms. First up, Clinton Hill's Erhart House.