Cocktail soirées and Central Park views from every room: The Viceroy New York's Suite 57
A two-bedroom apartment full of slick design touches, The Viceroy’s Suite 57 will appeal to fans of mid-century-modern design. Parquet floors, brass accents and vintage-style furniture create an industrial-chic vibe, while wall-to-wall windows make the most of spectacular Central Park views. An in-suite bar and magnificent marble ensuite bathrooms add to the wow-factor.
The suite
From its vantage position on the 28th floor, The Viceroy’s Suite 57 offers the best park views of any accommodation in the hotel - looking through distinctive black steel muntin windows, guests will be able to admire this landmark from every room of their 1,200sq ft suite. As well as flooding the space with light, these floor-to-ceiling windows reinforce the vintage-style, industrial-chic design that permeates the entire hotel and reaches its zenith in Suite 57.
Designed, as is the rest of the hotel, by NoHo-based Roman & Williams, the suite is an uptown take on a downtown loft apartment. The designers were inspired by 1940s Film Noir, bringing together iroko hardwood parquet floors and tambour-panelled bed surrounds with brass and chestnut leather accents. It’s masculine but not macho; a slick, stylish change from good-taste greige.
Guests enter into an open-plan lounge and dining area, with a small ‘kitchenette’ and WC to either side. There is no cooking equipment provided bar a Nespresso machine; the kitchenette is used as a preparation area for guests who wish to arrange catering via the hotel’s restaurant, Kingside.
The suite is certainly set up for entertaining; there’s a six-seater dining table and separate lounge area next to the mirrored bar. The hotel can arrange a bartender through Kingside, or guests can mix their own.
Disappointingly, none of the furniture in the suite is vintage; rather mid-century-modern-style reproductions, which makes the signs of wear and tear all the more surprising.
Flanking the lounge are two king-size double bedrooms, with veined Paonazzo marble and brass ensuite bathrooms that continue the Mad Men vibe. Marginally bigger, the master bedroom has a bathroom that’s accessed through a walk-in-wardrobe; it benefits from a double shower with views of 57th street and Central Park beyond, as well as a freestanding bath.
There’s no outside space but the park stretches out beyond the windows, adding a reviving dose of greenery to the industrial aesthetic.
The hotel
Built from the ground up in 2013, what The Viceroy’s standard rooms lack in size they make up for in Instagram-friendly vintage styling. Some 240 identically furnished bedrooms have park or city views and are full of little touches that emphasise the hotel’s youth-centric approach: from Beats by Dre stereos to fashion coffee-table books.
A double-height lobby features an enormous Thomas Hart Benton-inspired mural and low-level seating; from here guests can enter the Kingside restaurant, a casual, retro-style diner serving all-American classics (buttermilk pancakes and smoked salmon bagels for breakfast; sushi, salads and steaks for dinner).
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In the basement there’s a small gym furnished with TechnoGym equipment, while the wood-panelled rooftop bar, The Roof, offers cocktails and DJ sets until the early hours to a style-conscious crowd attracted by the clubhouse styling and city views.
What to expect
On arriving at Suite 57, guests are immediately drawn into the fantasy that it’s their own Manhattan apartment; it feels spacious, but not so large that you could lose one another. A run-down of the suite’s features would have been useful; we weren’t sure, for example, whether the bar spirits were included or chargeable (it turns out the latter - there are, surprisingly and contrary to what guests increasingly come to expect when staying in hotels' best suites, no added extras included in the nightly rate).
Mesmerising as the views are during the day, it’s at dusk that Suite 57 really comes to life, with darkening skies and twinkling lights below adding extra glamour to what is undoubtedly a particularly sophisticated hotel suite. Now would be the time to put on your glad-rags and invite friends over for a cocktail soirée: Manhattans all round.
Hopefully the party will continue late - the suite’s location directly underneath The Roof bar means music can be heard into the wee hours. A sanctuary of peace and quiet it is not.
While its looks are on point, there’s room for improvement when it comes to The Viceroy’s service. Not everybody needs an over-effusive “have a nice day” with every coming and going, but there was a notable lack of acknowledgment from the front desk whenever we passed through. Requests are dealt with swiftly, but interactions with staff lack the warmth and enthusiasm of other five-star hotels in the vicinity.
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Standout feature
The striking marble master bathroom: #loowithaview and then some.
Not so keen
The noise at night made it difficult to unwind.
Location
On 57th street between 6th and 7th, The Viceroy is two blocks from Central Park, a couple of doors along from Carnegie Hall, and within a short walk of MoMa, the Rockefeller Centre and the designer boutiques of Fifth Avenue. A subway station at the end of the street makes it easy to zip downtown.
The details
Rooms at Viceroy Central Park start from $375 (£265) per night excluding taxes and fees. Suite 57 starts from $2,854 (£2,012) per night.
120 W 57th St, New York, NY 10019, United States. 00 1 212 830 8000; viceroyhotelsandresorts.com
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