by Angela Fairhurst
Evelyn Hotel in New York City’s NoMad neighborhood is part of Triumph Hotels. Built in the Beaux Arts style, the historic hotel originally opened in 1905 and was recently renamed after, the original “it” girl.
Ownership successfully transformed the public spaces, rooms, and dining concepts while paying homage to the building’s music and arts heritage.
Signs of its Jazz age musical past can be found in touches everywhere. Gramophones, trombone chandeliers and music-related art are subtly placed throughout the hotel.
The newly designed lobby by Parts and Labor Design has a gorgeous 10-foot deco stained-glass window wall sculpture as the backdrop for the soft velvet-covered sofas and chairs. The drink cart reflects the times of the same period.
Classic deco stairwells have been meticulously restored. In front of the elevator bank on each floor sits a dial-phone with modernized push buttons to reach the front desk, along with the same number of light fixtures as the floor number.
The hotel’s 159 cozy guest rooms have been refreshed by designer Silvia Zofio keeping to the Art Nouveau style of the early 1900s, while paying homage to the building’s historic ties. Frette linens, functional side tables, new lighting, and refreshed bathrooms with heated floors, musical note tiles and Five Wits bath amenities by Joey Silvestera’s Blackstones salon brand, are nods to the hotel’s musical past.
Dining
The re-defined art deco hotel has three new dining experiences by renowned Chef Jonathan Benno.
Leonelli Focacceria e Pasticceria is in the front of the hotel. This bakery and cafe is inspired by the great bakeries of Rome, and New York’s rich history of Italian-American pastry shops.
The lobby flows into the casual dining restaurant and bar of the Roman-focused Leonelli Taberna.
Chef’s third and final restaurant in the Evelyn is Benno. Designed by Parts and Labor Design, the dining room seats 45 and bar holds another 10. It is fine dining taken to a high with an astonishing 6:1 patron to staff ratio.
The food is the Italian and French cuisine Benno is known for, while adding other flavors from the Mediterranean rim to the mix. The exquisite prix fixe menu allows selections for three, four-and five-course meals, including the option of pairing wine with each course. Guest favorites include the mouth-watering Rohan Duck, and Agnotti del Plin.
