Jane Goodwall
Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 19-25: May 19: TV personality David Hartman is 89. Actor James Fox is 85. Actor Nancy Kwan is 85. Musician Pete Townshend is 79. Singer-actor-model Grace Jones is 73. Drummer Phil Rudd AC/DC is 70. Actor Steven Ford is 68. Actor Toni Lewis (“Homicide,” ″Oz”) is 64. Guitarist…
Known as “the Asian vanilla,” the blade-like leaves of Pandan add brilliant green color and seductive aroma to curries, cakes, and even better, cocktails.
Singapore’s flush with sexy, singular hotels, but the vertical ascension of its skyline on this land-poor nation-state has led to a dizzying effect. Finding low-rise hotels, especially in meticulously restored heritage buildings, seems near impossible. Yet, The Warehouse Hotel, located on the bank of the Singapore River in Robertson Quay, offers exactly that—a historic façade housing an expansive and contemporary lobby and bar inside, replete with an excellent cocktail bar.
After strolling the river on a hot May day, I fled for the cool dark interior of The Warehouse Hotel and grabbed a seat at the lobby bar. I’d just returned from Indonesia (and Vietnam a month earlier), where I’d sucked down a few pandan-infused drinks, so I asked the bartender if he had a cocktail with this regional ingredient in mind.
Pandan leaves (Pandanus amaryllifolius Roxb.) are plants that contain aroma essential oils. … [+]
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“Not at the moment, and I personally think it’s become overused in drinks; however, people love it,” said bar manager Jae Min.
“Well, we rarely see it in the United States,” I replied. He paused, and said, “give me a range of flavors you like, and we’ll put something together.”
I rattled off a few notes like sour and citrus, floral, and creamy, perhaps thinking subconsciously about a Peruvian pisco sour.
Min pulled a few bottles from behind the bar and got to work, pouring, dry shaking, wet shaking, fine straining, and finally presenting me with a muted pea-green cocktail with a creamy trim.
The Warehouse Hotel Bar
Courtesy of The Warehouse Hotel.
“This is off the menu, but it’s a drink we’ve been working on behind the bar,” he said, nodding at his part-time colleague Ron Ong who was the brainchild behind the recipe. Ong, who has worked at some of the finest bars in Sydney, Australia, took inspiration from the Hotel Georgia Cocktail, a classic believed to have been created in the mid-1940s. The team plans to call it The Warehouse Hotel Special as a tribute.
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Pandan Sour or The Warehouse Hotel Special
Lauren Mowery
I took a sip, immediately imagining a pandan version of a pisco sour. It was smooth, complex, creamy, a little nutty, and tasted of that grassy vanilla flavor I’d come to love in my recent travels.
“Outstanding,” I said. I asked for the recipe but lamented to Min the lack of access I had to fresh pandan in the United States. Min said pandan concentrate, easily found at nearly every food store in Singapore, might be available online. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to shop for concentrate on my travels, so I searched and found quite a few options on Amazon.
As for the recipe, here ya go. Happy shaking and sipping.
Pandan Sour or The Warehouse Hotel Special
Ingredients
3 Drops of Pandan Concentrate*
30 ml Egg White
25 ml Lemon
15 ml Orgeat
5 ml Caramel
60 ml Gin
Recipe
Add all ingredients into a shaker. First dry shake* to emulsify the egg white. Add ice, then wet shake. Fine strain into a coupe glass and serve.
Pandan Concentrate: Common to Asian food stores, one can make it at home by steeping the leaves in simple syrup, though it’s far easier to buy the concentrate online. Amazon sells a few options.
Dry shake: Dry shaking is the technique used to get egg white cocktails to froth. Shake the egg white with all the other cocktail ingredients without ice to allow the mixture to combine without dilution.
The Warehouse Hotel, 320 Havelock Rd, Singapore 169628
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Sign Up Sign InUp with your social account We won’t post to any of your accounts Forgot your password? Reset your password Creed frontman Scott Stapp was married to Jaclyn Stapp for 18 years. “She’s been through a lot and her friends are relieved she took initiative to finally file for divorce for good, giving…
When the world dreams of the Greek Islands, it’s Santorini that they picture. The view of white-washed villages dangling on the edge of the volcanic caldera may be a romantic cliché, but it still takes your breath away. And while day-trippers clamor to capture that overworked sunset shot, the best hotels in Santorini serve it up on a platter. Draw a curtain, order a cocktail, or take a dip at these beloved addresses and you’ll enjoy a front-row seat to Santorini’s sensational views. It’s not just the sun-soaked backdrop that these Santorini hotels promise; privacy is also part of the innate appeal. On this list you’ll find boltholes hidden at the end of dirt tracks, intimate villas with uninterrupted sunset views and fish baked in vine leaves served at guest-only restaurants. It’s the Greece of dreams. Make it a reality with our edit of the best hotels in Santorini.
Every hotel on this list has been selected independently by our editors and written by a Condé Nast Traveler journalist who knows the destination and has stayed at that property. When choosing hotels, our editors consider both luxury properties and boutique and lesser-known boltholes that offer an authentic and insider experience of a destination. We’re always looking for beautiful design, a great location, and warm service—as well as serious sustainability credentials. We update this list regularly as new hotels open and existing ones evolve.
All listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you book something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
All listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you book something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
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Zendaya at the 2024 Met Gala in New York City. The actress is one of many celebrities whose name has appeared this week on social media “block” lists for not speaking out publicly about the conflict in Gaza. Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
LAS VEGAS — About 700 workers walked off the job at a hotel-casino near the Las Vegas Strip at dawn Friday, in what union organizers said would be a 48-hour strike after spending months trying to reach a deal for new five-year contract with Virgin Hotels.
The Culinary Union, the largest labor union in Nevada, said the action marked its first strike in 22 years. The union authorized a citywide strike late last year, but it reached agreements with all the major hotel-casinos on the Strip for about 40,000 workers before the end of the year, and with most downtown and off-Strip properties in early February for 10,000 workers.
Guest room attendants, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, bartenders, laundry and kitchen workers were among those walking a picket line in front of Virgin Hotels, formerly the Hard Rock Las Vegas, just west of the Strip, union organizers said.
Virgin Hotels filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday ahead of the anticipated strike, accusing the union of failing to negotiate in good faith “despite our sincere efforts to meet and negotiate.” It said union officials were engaged in “unlawful ‘take it or leave it’ bargaining.”
“Because the Union has not told us what agreements it believes are necessary to avoid a strike, we have asked the Union to join us in mediation as soon as possible,” Virgin Hotels said. “The goal of mediation is to reach an agreement without disrupting our guests and our team members’ lives with a work stoppage.”
While the weekend strike is far smaller in scale than the union’s planned strikes last year on the Strip, the hotel-casino is still a notable Sin City landmark because of its proximity to the Strip and the airport, and because an 80-foot-tall (24-meter-tall) neon guitar sign stood on the plot for decades before it was removed for the property’s transformation into Virgin Hotels.
The last time Culinary Union members went on strike was in 2002 at Golden Gate hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas.
Earlier this year, union members at other Las Vegas-area properties reached deals giving them a roughly 32% salary increase over five years, including 10% in the first year.
Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Union, said they had called off a strike deadline at Virgin Hotels in February when the looming Super Bowl helped put pressure on other hotel-casinos to come to the bargaining table in order to give management more time to address its financial situation and reach a settlement at the 1,500-room hotel-casino.
But he said they had waited long enough and were hopeful the 48-hour strike would help expedite a new agreement on wage and benefit increases.
“It’s been nearly one year since the contract at Virgin Las Vegas expired on June 1, 2023 and workers are still working without a contract,” he said in a statement.
Pappageorge told reporters at a news conference on Thursday that the complaint to the NLRB had no merit.
“The charge is just a company stunt, and it’s unfortunate and sad that they’ve waited until the eve of the strike to even have that kind of discussion,” Pappageorge said.
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Mr. and Mrs. Bieber are expecting their first child together, and they’re not the only ones who are over the moon about the happy news. Today, after Hailey Bieber announced their pregnancy via a glamorous slideshow on Instagram, the couple’s famous friends quickly flooded the comments section with words of support.
After several years of daunting challenges, the hotel industry has rebounded with a vigor and now is on a record run of new and refurbished hotels. The major groups have recorded a sizeable number of openings and rooms in 2023, and are forecasting equally dynamic expansion in 2024, according to the Hospitality ON website. For example:
Wyndham: introduced five brands into new countries; signed 46 contracts, representing over 8,300 rooms and opened nearly 20 hotels.
Hilton: 132 openings in the fourth quarter and net growth of 4.9% by 2023
Marriott: net growth of 4.7% and record pipeline of 573,000 rooms
Accor: major global expansion planned for 2024
Minor Hotels: more than 200 new hotel openings by 2026
According to the U.S Travel Association, 93% of the population reported that they are gearing up for some exciting travels in the next six months. With such a surge in demand for travel, it’s no surprise that the hospitality industry is bustling with new opportunities in the realm of hotel openings and new accommodations worldwide.
Each property within South Bank features natural design elements.
South Bank- Turks and Caicos
South Bank, Turks and Caicos, features four distinct waterfront neighborhoods, Boathouses; Lagoon Villas; Ocean Estates and Arc, along 31 acres of quiet shoreline in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos. The oceanfront resort and marina, managed and operated by Grace Bay Resorts, exudes a thriving coastal personality, integrating elegant oceanfront living with the adventure of boating and yachting, promoting indoor/outdoor living. Each property within South Bank features natural design elements complementing South Bank’s position on the Caicos Bank, South Bank inlet and Juba Sound wetland. Guests and homeowners alike will have access to transformative amenities and handmade experiences including a calm, swimming lagoon; a chic white sand beachfront; innovative drinking and dining experiences; tennis and pickleball courts; and an energizing spa and fitness center. South Bank’s Grand Opening will be November 1, 2024.
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The hotel is deeply intertwined with cosmopolitan culture.
Hotel AKA Back Bay
Relaunching in Q2 2024, Hotel AKA Back Bay opens its doors with a modern new design transformation led by celebrated architectural firm, Selldorf Architects, across guestrooms and public spaces. The reopening of the hotel will see a complete visionary transformation of this iconic limestone building, with sophisticated guestrooms and suites filled with designer furnishings envisioned by Annabelle Selldorf. The hotel amenities will include a living-room inspired library and lounge ideal for relaxing or working, and a new fitness center. The hotel will also unveil a brand-new culinary concept – an everyday French bistro with a curated menu blending classic French fare with touches of New England influence. Located in the heart of Back Bay, this hotel boasts a storied past as the former home of the Boston Police Department Headquarters, and it is deeply intertwined with the cosmopolitan culture of this vibrant section of Bean Town.
The Mining Exchange building was originally established in 1902.
Stephen Martin, Explore with Media
The new Mining Exchange Hotel in downtown Colorado Springs has been completely reimagined from the historic Mining Exchange building that was originally established in 1902 and served as a bustling hub for mining magnates and investors. The high-design haven for modern travelers offers 128 newly designed guest rooms, two innovative food and beverage concepts, versatile event spaces and more. The hotel lobby, which doubles as a living room for locals, embraces original elements like the mining exchange safe and vault doors while guest rooms feature vibrant wall coverings, historic brick accents and custom furnishings. At BLK MGK, the hotel’s high craft, full-service coffee bar, guests can enjoy a full menu of breakfast and lunch menu items, a range of specialty coffee and tea beverages featuring a unique selection of tincture add-ons, along with coffee-based cocktails, wine and beer.
The hotel houses 245 rooms and a dozen room types.
Hoshino Resorts
Opening July 6, 2024, OMO5 Hakodate by Hoshino Resorts is located at city center for guests to fully savor the freshest seafood, exceptional night views from Mount Hakodate and the area’s charming streets. Just a five-minute walk from Hakodate Station, the hotel houses 245 guest rooms and a dozen room types. Visitors can relax at the OMO Base including a café & bar serving local sweets and an outdoor terrace. Other highlights include: a morning market specialty shop tour led by passionate hotel staff; an interactive ‘Go-KINJO’ neighborhood map at the OMO Base with local recommendations and a natural hot spring onsen on-site. Guests can elevate their morning with a luxurious breakfast buffet. The ‘Hakodate Round Free Bus’ (free of charge for hotel guests) also makes visiting local sites easy by taking guests around the city.
The hotel is an adaptation of Union Pacific Depot Train Station.
Asher Adams
Asher Adams, the first Autograph Collection hotel in downtown Salt Lake City, under construction by The Athens Group with its partner, Hatteras Sky, will open fall of 2024. Asher Adams is an adaptive reuse of the historic Union Pacific Depot Train Station, which first opened in 1909. The hotel’s design preserves the train station’s iconic French empire architecture and showcases original pieces including the stained-glass windows and oil on canvas murals. Asher Adams will incorporate the historic train station with the addition of a new, eight-story guestroom tower with 225 guest rooms and suites including signature rooms in the train station itself. The boutique luxury hotel will feature a signature restaurant, a patisserie, two bars including a specialty bar located on the second floor of the Union Pacific building that will enjoy expansive views of downtown and the Wasatch Mountains.
The property will be seven stories with 110 guestrooms.
G70 Design
Opening October 2024, The Marriott Vacation Clubs will introduce a new Hawaiian property to its portfolio in Honolulu’s iconic Waikiki neighborhood in October 2024. This new resort will feature a variety of amenities including rooftop spaces, a pool, fitness facility and culinary outlet. As a part of The Marriott Vacation Clubs City Collection, the property will be within walking distance of some of Waikiki’s most notable shopping experiences and beautiful beaches on the south shore. The property will be seven stories with 110 guestrooms featuring studios and one-bedroom villas, equipped with kitchenettes and washer/dryers, perfect for large gatherings. Upon opening, in addition to rental options, the new resort will have villas available for exchange to existing owners.
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A man was arrested for attempting to break into Drake’s $100 million mansion a day after his security guard was shot multiple times. Toronto police confirmed the arrest and stated that “the person was apprehended under the Mental Health Act.” Four police cars came to the Canadian rapper’s residence around 2:20 pm after Drake’s security team had apprehended the…
For the first time ever, hotel to apartment conversion projects have overtaken office-to-residential conversions. In 2023, hotels accounted for over one-third of all adaptive reuse projects in the U.S. with over 4,500 units delivered.
In its analysis of Yardi Matrix data, RentCafe finds that of the buildings converted in 2023, hotels comprised 36% of the total—the largest share among the group. Office buildings made up 28% of adaptive reuse projects, followed by factories (15%), warehouses (9%), and others (12%).
The adaptive reuse scene is poised for even further growth as 151,000 apartments are currently in various stages of conversion, according to the RentCafe analysis.
“The adaptive reuse market does show a bifurcation between high-end and low-end markets,” says Doug Ressler, Senior Analyst & Manager of Business Intelligence, Yardi Matrix. “This is particularly evident in the commercial real estate sector, where a sizable portion of office vacancies are found in older buildings with reduced functionality and lack of modern amenities.”
Overall, over 12,700 new apartments were converted in 2023—a substantial 17.6% increase from the previous year. Hotels made up 4,556 of those units.
Most of the hotel to apartment conversions come from Class B hotels. Though not without its challenges, hotel-to-residential projects can be completed faster and at a lower cost than office building conversions. This is due in part to already existing floor plans, water systems, and waste lines that are relatively easier to modify.
Thought while some underutilized hotels are located in city centers, other potential conversion candidates are in “less desirable locations next to airports or off major highways far from residential communities—factors that can suppress the value and appeal of residential conversions,” said Chris Walker, Planning and Community Development Project Manager, Aufgang Architects.
These issues can be of less concern in converting hotels to affordable or supportive housing rather than market rate, according to Aufgang.
RELATED: Hotel vs. office: Different challenges in commercial to residential conversions
Manhattan, N.Y., has become a hotspot for hotel conversion projects. All of its 733 converted units in 2023 came from repurposing hotels. Manhattan now holds nearly 6% of all converted apartments in the U.S., according to RentCafe.
Top 10 Metros with Most Converted Apartments from Hotels in 2023
Click here to read the full RentCafe report.
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