Fall staycation upgrades

GETAWAYS • NYC Hotels 

Let’s begin with the word on a major new Manhattan hotel opening this week, and further downtown, an ongoing refresh: 

• The Fifth Avenue Hotel (Nomad, above): A short block away from the Ritz-Carlton Nomad, The Fifth Avenue Hotel opened its doors Monday in a restored McKim, Mead & White mansion from 1907 — and an adjoining new 24-story tower. When FOUND dropped by to scope it out, we found an opulent lobby, bedecked in a dizzying array of bold colors (very 2023). Also spotted: construction work in the hallway off the lobby. “Soft opening,” a staff member told us. For a mid-November night, a standard king runs $1,295/night.

  • The Ticket: The house restaurant, Café Carmellini, handsomely fronts Fifth Ave. Previously scheduled to open this month, FOUND hears they’re now targeting November. “I’m going to make this my culinary home,” chef Andrew Carmellini (Locanda Verde, The Dutch) told the NYT, inspiring hope.

• W Hotel Union Square: It’s hard to remember, but in the late 1990s, W Hotels were the epitome of cool, none more so than the Union Square location with its bustling Todd English restaurant. Flash forward, and things needed more than a little spiffing up. Enter the Rockwell Group, which redesigned the rooms, lobby, and restaurant spaces; five floors of new rooms are now open to guests, with the public spaces expected to be finished by the end of the year. A corner king for a mid-November Saturday quotes at $521/night.  

  • The Ticket: Restaurateur John McDonald (Lure, Bowery Meat Company) will run the W’s new French-influenced seafood spot, Seahorse, on the ground floor. Expect teak paneling and a semi-circlular raw bar. A rooftop bar with retractable roof will debut in the spring. 

Looking forward, two other major new NYC hotels that hoped to debut this fall have pushed openings to 2024: Faena, at One High Line in Chelsea, and The Surrey (from the Corinthia Hotel Group, with food by Casa Tua) on the Upper East Side.