Is This the Future of Luxury Hotels?
Predicting what will happen in the world of travel is a fool’s game (hello COVID). But on a recent trip to the brand new Four Seasons Minneapolis for Room Key, a window into what global contemporary luxury hotels will look like going forward opened to us.
When you think about what you didn’t like about a lot of hotel properties in the 2010s, the things that come to mind are the outdated decor, unimaginative food offerings, products the beauty industry left behind long ago, and limited amenities. Now, many hotel groups are overhauling their look while also undergoing rapid expansions. While some properties pull from their surrounding destination, most have an aesthetic that provides continuity and consistency.
After two days crisscrossing the city by foot, if there’s a signature style to be pulled from this pleasant city it’s industrial with all the converted warehouses and factories as well as the 21st interpretations. While there are hints of Minnesota here and there, the hotel largely eschews that. Instead of being a hotel that pulls from its surroundings—such as the group’s new property in Fort Lauderdale—it’s an escape within Minneapolis.
Housed in a glass tower downtown, this hotel, in fact, could be anywhere and gives an idea of what Four Seasons—and others who will follow their lead—thinks we want. Before we dive in, credit where it’s due: They guessed right.
The lobby is sort of a classic Four Seasons—marble slab floors, large flower arrangements, mirrors, and pops of color from furnishings. But in the spacious and light-filled rooms we see what trends are here to stay: brass accents, Art Deco light fixtures, Japandi-style pale woods, textured walls of white, cream, and gray, and leather headboards. Also, thank the Lord, blackout shades.
And while you may not think of Minneapolis as having an iconic skyline, you’ll become very familiar with it in their elegant freestanding tubs that look out the floor-to-ceiling windows.
You won’t find a sad little gym with only a treadmill and a couple of dumbbells here. This gym is as good as any you’d be a member of. And the hotel also has an outdoor pool terrace with a bar, Riva Terrace.
But the highlight of the hotel, even if you’re not staying there, is Mara Restaurant & Bar, the latest from James Beard Award-winning chef Gavin Kaysen. The bar area is a lush Art Deco space of mercury red and gold whereas the restaurant is a light and airy and even has a tiled fireplace.
Gone are the artery-clogging menus beloved by too many hotel restaurants. Instead, Mara leans into Mediterranean and Levantine cuisines. Offerings range from a fresh ricotta tartine to Spanish mackerel and a chermoula-spiced chicken with pomegranate, sumac spring onions, and charred lemon. Our recommendation? The brioche-crusted halibut that melts in the mouth but is given substance with the chorizo accompanying it.
In the morning, the snow crab eggs benedict is the way to go, but just a heads up, it’s a massive amount of crab.
If this hotel is what we can expect for the next decade, I’m cool with that.
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