Philadelphia's Coolest New Hotel Is Now Open — With Incredible Local Art and a Gorgeous Boutique

The designer-owner of one of Philadelphia’s best stores just opened her first hotel, spotlighting local talent throughout the new property.

With its stately red-brick façade and black-trimmed bay windows, Philadelphia’s newest boutique hotel seems like it’s always been part of the historic neighborhood of Queen Village.

“It’s not meant to be modern from the outside,” says Shannon Maldonado, designer and co-owner of Yowie Hotel. “I love that you’re gonna walk in and get hit with color.”

Open as of mid-July, the property is a much-anticipated expansion of Yowie, Maldonado’s popular lifestyle store. The Philly native attended FIT in New York City and stayed to design apparel for brands like American Eagle and Ralph Lauren; in 2016, she returned home to launch her boutique, first as a pop-up and then as a 250-square-foot brick-and-mortar shop. Her eye for emerging talent and trends — nonalcoholic aperitifs, amorphous ceramic vases — quickly established Yowie as the city’s center of cutting-edge cool.

With Yowie Hotel, Maldonado will relocate that center just around the corner to South Street. The corridor has a long history in Philly and was once home to a thriving Black community. (A 1963 song by the Orlons named it “the hippest street in town.”) Louis Armstrong performed at the groundbreaking Standard Theatre in the 1920s, and Nirvana went on at J. C. Dobbs.

Those venues are long shuttered, and the street — with its current mash-up of smoke shops, dive bars, and cheesesteak joints — hasn’t been a creative hub for decades. But Maldonado chose the hotel’s location, a former real estate office, because she has a personal history there and believes in the neighborhood. “Every person in Philly has a South Street story,” she says.

The new building provides much more space to work with. The hotel’s ground floor has a roomier version of the original shop, plus Wim Café, Yowie’s collaboration with Philly brands Eeva bakery and ReAnimator coffee. The lobby has swaths of bright green, airbrushed tiles, and a 16-foot light fixture, reminiscent of steel beams, descending from the ceiling. No two of the 13 suites are the same: one might have a chocolate-brown Normann Copenhagen sofa, another a couch from Menu in soft blue and hunter green.

“I love that every room has its own identity,” Maldonado explains. “Then every time you come back, you can have a different experience.” It’s a choice that allows Maldonado to showcase more talent, with pieces from both established and emerging artists. Many are local, including Palmer Purcell, who made a deep-blue bentwood coffee table, and ceramic artist Domenic Frunzi.

Amenities are just as creative: TVs come with Criterion Collection accounts, a first-of-its-kind collaboration for the cinema company. (As Maldonado notes, it’s the first time anyone asked.) She and her business partners, Everett and Valerie Abitbol and Bill Vessel, also created custom city guides, structured around their favorite Philadelphia dishes and art-centric activities. “I just love thinking of those little moments to make it even more special,” Maldonado tells me. “That’s what makes independent hospitality so exciting — we can do whatever we want.”

A version of this story first appeared in the June 2023 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headline "Creative Liberty."

For more Travel & Leisure news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Travel & Leisure.