Boston's hotel bars are heating things up and packing 'em in
On a recent Friday night, the crowd waiting to get into the Liberty Hotel (215 Charles Street, Boston, 617.224.4000) was about 30 well-dressed people deep. Inside, diners, drinkers, revelers, and presumably some actual hotel guests swarmed the lobby. It was a typical weekend night at the Liberty, the holding-cell-turned-hotspot that emerged on the local nightlife map just over a year ago. And the momentum doesn’t appear to be slowing down.
The idea of hotel bars used to conjure up two starkly different — yet similarly unsexy — images. Images, on the one hand, of dark rooms awash in mahogany and filled with a sea of suits and power politicians drinking $20 martinis; images synonymous with private men’s clubs, low on fun and high on pretense. And on the other, images of sparsely filled barstools where traveling businessmen sat killing time between meetings.
But for Boston, that stereotype has been steadily shifting as hotel bars shape themselves as destinations — places where locals go after work and on weekends to take in the scene and a few well-mixed cocktails.
Some major cities, namely New York City and LA, have had deeply rooted and highly popular hotel party scenes for years. But in Boston, the hotel’s prominent place in the nightlife landscape is a more recent development. With the just opened Mandarin Oriental Boston (776 Boylston Street, Boston, 617.535.8880) and the still-new-ish Liberty and InterContinental Boston (510 Atlantic Avenue, Boston, 617.747.1000), Boston’s hotel bar scene continues to grow from barely-there to must-be-there. But what exactly is the draw?
Christopher Choquet, rooftop manager of Plunge at New York’s trendy Hotel Gansevoort, attributes hotel bars’ appeal to the fact that their owners often have more funds to pour into creating posh spaces: “They’re usually a little bit pricier, trendier, sexier, and better built” than your average bar. Located in the city’s Meatpacking District, which has gone from gritty to go to since designer boutiques and high-end nightclubs took root there, the Gansevoort, which opened in 2004, certainly has all of the characteristics Choquet mentions.
Robert George, general manager of City Bar (Lenox Hotel, 61 Exeter Street, Boston, 617.933.4801), shares Choquet’s sentiment. The surge of hotelbar popularity “has to do with the hotels themselves realizing that they were missing out on a lot of money and then allowing companies to come in and design a place to make it a destination,” he says, referring to operators such as the Briar Group, which runs City Bar, among other Boston bars. “When I was younger, the hotel bar was known as the deadest place to be,” says George, 40. “And now it’s the hottest place to be.”
In an industry where the “hottest place to be” sometimes has the shelf life of a dairy product, City Bar is arguably the first local hotel bar that was a successful nightlife destination—and the place that set the ball slowly rolling toward a hotel-bar renaissance. City Bar originally opened as a place for diners to have drinks before their reservations at neighboring restaurant Azure, says George, but then “it just morphed into its own kind of destination cocktail lounge.”
According to George, who’s been managing City Bar since its 2002 opening, another appeal of hotel bars comes from the talent slinging the drinks. “We hired the best bartenders we could find, and the best staff we could find, and they drew in people they knew,” he says. “The industry people really drove City Bar.”
Clink, the Liberty’s lobby-level restaurant/bar, also puts a premium on service and quality. “We’re trying to play a careful game of giving high-end service but at the same time understanding that things are a little more lowkey, relaxed, and fun” than the stuffiness associated with hotel bars of days past, says Clink general manager Jonah Selaya-Mendez. “I don’t want us to be elitist or stuffy. Bostonians, don’t forget, can very easily change their opinion about a place. And if you start charging $500 for a bottle of Champagne, people will start going somewhere else.”
In terms of Boston nightlife, it’s that elitist vibe that SelayaMendez says has really changed. So hotel bars have responded by moving into more laidback territory. “The Bristol Lounge [in the Four Seasons], for example, was always considered a very elitist place to be,” he says. “You were hanging out with millionaires and having $20 martinis and $20 burgers.” Now the movement of newer hotels toward a more relaxed, social atmosphere has transformed the landscape. “We’remarketing toward younger professionals and not necessarily the ritzy crowd.”
If the crowd at the Liberty on a recent Friday night is any indication, that marketing tactic is spoton. “What we have here are people who aren’t looking for a nightclub,” says Selaya. “They’re done with the nightclub scene but are still looking to go out and have fun.”
At Noir, the sultry lounge at the Charles Hotel (One Bennett Street, Cambridge, 617.864.5715), the people in the industry comprise a large chunk of the bar’s late-night business, too, according to manager Alex Beram. “We have a very devoted crowd from the service industry. We’re a go-to for a lot of industry folks, like bartenders from the BSide Lounge, the West Side Lounge, and some Harvard Square spots,” he says. “We have major corporate, entertainment, and political fi gures rubbing shoulders with the manager from Harvest, and a bartender from the West Side Lounge, for instance.” Beram attributes Noir’s popularity, in large part, to the staff there. “They work to cater to our customers, they build new regulars everyday, and they embrace what we’re trying to create here.”
Even at bars that are located right in a hotel’s lobby, like RumBa at the InterContinental, the scene is also thriving, proving that it’s not only rooftops and secluded spaces that draw the crowds. In fact, RumBa had the most successful bar opening in the InterContinental chain to date, and it continues to be one of the company’s most lucrative bars, according to Stephanie Loeber, who handles public relations for the Boston hotel. “The Waterfront changing has helped change the crowd here,” says InterCon bars manager Wayne Duprey of the upgraded dining scene and easier access to the Seaport District. On a recent Thursday evening, RumBa is filled with what looks like a Financial District after-work crowd, a typical late-week snapshot of the venue.
The new-school hotel party scene continues to evolve, with a second City Bar location now open in the Westin Boston Waterfront (425 Summer Street, Boston, 617.443.0888), and a W Hotel on the horizon. And though the nightlife niche’s full effect on the city remains to be seen, there’s no doubt that hotel bars have become a place to be, rather than a place to end up.
CITY BAR (Lenox Hotel, 61 Exeter Street, Boston, 617.933.4801; Westin Boston Waterfront, 425 Summer Street, Boston, 617.532.4600)
•The original City Bar location at the Lenox doesn’t have televisions, but the new venue at the Westin will have flat screens on for big games and events.
•Both locations offer Infusions Diabolique, a line of infused spirits created by chef Robert Fathman for City Bar and neighboring restaurant Azure at the Lenox.
CLINK (Liberty Hotel, 215 Charles Street, Boston, 617.224.4000)
•The bar and lounge are located under the Liberty’s 90-foot lobby rotunda.
•The Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame bar, adjacent to Clink, serves Champagne by the glass on weekends until 2 a.m.
NOIR (Charles Hotel, One Bennett Street, Cambridge, 617.661.8010)
•The space seats 100 guests and has a seasonal outdoor patio.
•Noir’s 5-4-3-2-1-0 special features $5 flat breads, $4 sandwiches, $3 snacks, $2 salads, $1 sweets, and complimentary nuts every Monday through Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m.
•The bar pays homage to the film noir genre with movie screenings and aptly named cocktails, including the LA Confidential and Dirty Harry.
RUMBA (InterContinental Boston, 510 Atlantic Avenue, Boston, 617.747.1000)
•RumBa pays tribute to Boston’s historic rum trade and serves nearly 100 rums.
•The space is circular in design, with a U-shaped bar as its focal point.
•RumBa’s private Champagne Lounge, adorned in sultry red leather, is available for events and is open to the public one Saturday per month for Champagne nights.
CUFFS (Jurys Boston, 350 Stuart Street, Boston, 617.266.7200)
•The lounge-like space features a fireplace, waterfall, and dark leather seats.
•Open daily until 2 a.m.
•It’s billed as an Irish bar, but the atmosphere is more posh than pub.
JERNE (RitzCarlton, 10 Avery Street, Boston, 617.574.7176)
•Features art from the hotel’s $1 million collection, including a glass sculpture from artist Ben Hill.
•Through November 4, the bar offers politically-charged cocktails like the O’Bama ($16), the Mac ($18), and the United Purple States of America ($16).
THE BRISTOL LOUNGE (Four Seasons, 200 Boylston Street, Boston, 617.351.2037)
•Offers a Viennese dessert buffet on Friday and Saturday nights from 9 p.m. to midnight.
•One of Boston’s best spots for power players and high-rollers (or wannabes), the lounge seats 165 for dinner and 50 for cocktails.
M BAR & LOUNGE (Mandarin Oriental Boston, 776 Boylston Street, Boston, 617.535.8880)
•Boasts a hand-carved wooden wall behind the glass-top bar and floor-to-ceiling windows.
•The wine menu includes about 300 options, highlighted on a custom-designed wine wall.
•Light bites menu includes Asianinspired fare and artisan cheese plates.
THE RUBY ROOM (Onyx Hotel, 155 Portland Street, Boston, 617.557.9950)
•This crimson oasis has 45 seats, including curved banquettes.
•The black granite bar glistens thanks to fiber optics.
•Ruby Room Club Card holders get 20 percent off of wine by the bottle and special rates on guest rooms at the Onyx Hotel.
CHARLESMARK LOUNGE (Charlesmark Hotel, 655 Boylston Street, Boston, 617.247.1212)
•The entrance to this Boylston Street bar is at the Boston Marathon finish line.
•Patio seating is available for seasonal cocktail-sipping.
•The bar’s sleek, modern, redandblack décor offers an interesting contrast to the building’s classic architecture.
