NEW YORK Hotel bars are finding their niche as they become bigger and more club-like than ever. A recent sweep of Manhattan hotels finds parties in a number of lobbies, engineered by aggressively hip innkeepers like Ian Schrager, who owns the 1,000-room Hudson which opened last month.
Schrager hired a younger generation of clubland aficionados like Zok Casavetes, who advises about entertainment, and Ben Pundle, of Lot 61, who manages the Hudson Bar, which has been host to post-movie-premiere parties.
The TriBeCa Grand Hotel, is also a gathering place where patrons have engaged in elevator races after $12 cocktails, and the W, on Lexington Avenue and 50th Street, packs a crowd four-deep at the bar from happy hour to after midnight on weekends.
Other cities have witnessed the hotel-as-nightclub phenomenon in recent years, notably Miami Beach, Los Angeles and even Stockholm. (11/21/00)
Source: New York Times