Hotel Openings

🏡 Armani Hotel Milano has joined Preferred Hotels & Resorts' Legend Collection, which comprises over 100 independent luxury hotels globally. Located on Manzoni Street 31 in Milan's fashion district, the hotel is a partnership between Giorgio Armani S.p.A. and Emaar Properties. Featuring 95 rooms and suites, the hotel offers amenities such as the Armani/Ristorante on the seventh floor, the Armani/SPA with six treatment rooms, a couple’s suite, steam and sauna rooms, a pool, and a fitness center with personal trainers. Roberta Possenti, VP of Europe for Preferred Hotels & Resorts, emphasized the hotel’s alignment with the collection's luxury and service standards.

🏖 Valor Hospitality Partners, in partnership with Links Collection, opens two new luxury UK hotels: Seaton House in Scotland near the Old Course at St Andrews and Dunluce Lodge in Northern Ireland overlooking Royal Portrush Golf Club's fourth fairway. Seaton House features 42 guest rooms, including six suites, and three junior suites with dining options by Chef Patron Roy Brett. Dunluce Lodge offers 35 luxury suites and world-class dining. Both properties aim to provide unique experiences reflective of their scenic golf landscapes and local culture.

🍸 Luxury hotels like Four Seasons and The Ritz-Carlton feature top cocktail bars. The Punch Room, first introduced at the London Edition in 2013, opened its Tampa, Florida location in October 2022. The Tampa Edition's Punch Room offers a new menu themed "Americas: Part 1," spanning from southern Mexico to Canada, with "Americas: Part 2" set to launch next year. Drinks incorporate traditional recipes and native ingredients, some taking days to prepare, with offerings like mole and cheese-washed tequila. Available by the glass for $22 or punch bowls for $100, the menu is presented in an illustratively detailed book. The Edition plans to expand to 30 properties by 2027, with recent openings in Tokyo, Singapore, and Riviera Maya.

🎂 Lough Erne Resort offers a Mother’s Day retreat on March 30th at 3pm, featuring a two-hour wax melt and candle workshop. The Scented Serenity Retreat package includes an overnight stay, a glass of prosecco, charcuterie board, and access to the resort's Thai Spa infinity pool. Guests can decorate a soy candle and name their unique scent. Tickets are £60.00, with day tickets available. The Resort is set in the Fermanagh Lakelands, surrounded by 600 acres of countryside.

🏕 Six Senses Comporta, under IHG Hotels & Resorts, will feature a 70-key hotel and 58 branded residences in the 400-hectare Pinheirinho estate near Lisbon. The area, once private, is designed to blend with nature, with architecture inspired by pine forests, sand dunes, and lakes. The resort will include 66 deluxe rooms, suites, three garden villas, a presidential villa, paths inspired by sacred geometry, and amenities focused on sustainability, wellness, and community. Culinary experiences will emphasize local, seasonal ingredients, and the spa will integrate into the landscape. Six Senses Comporta is set to open in 2028, joining IHG's Luxury & Lifestyle portfolio with nearly 100 open hotels in Europe and 24 properties in Portugal.

🍴 Reach Hospitality is set to open Evelyn, a Hollywood-inspired steakhouse, on Wednesday in Dallas' design district. The 9,500-square-foot venue, designed by ICrave, will feature The Piano Room and The Ruby Room, each with 75 to 100 seats, plus Room Seven lounge. Evelyn offers a beverage program with classic cocktails and martinis priced from $17-$22. The concept aims to provide a luxury space for dining, dancing, and a full night out. The steakhouse will be closed on Mondays.

☕ Qima Café opened its second site in Covent Garden as the UK's first tree-to-cup café brand, created by DLSM Studio. Building on their 2019 Warren Street café, they source from over 7,000 farmers. The design features terracotta, clay plaster, and marbles, with a central coffee counter and artisanal retail offerings. Covent Garden's flagship café at 21-22 New Row, WC2N 4LA, enhances Qima's reputation for quality coffee, pastries, and sustainability.

🍝 Maple & Ash, opened in Chicago (2015) and Scottsdale (2019), saw sales of over $35 million and nearly $24 million respectively last year. A new location launched March 13 at Miami Worldcenter, which spans two stories and 22,000 square feet, set to introduce two more concepts: Eight Bar and The Studio. The restaurant features a menu with a variety of starters, a steak selection with wagyu options at $45 per ounce, and a $225 tasting menu. The drinks menu offers 2,500 wine bottles and cocktails like the IDGAF Old Fashioned with 24-karat gold. Maple Hospitality Group also runs Monarch and Kessaku in Dallas, with plans to expand to the West Coast, Boston, and NYC within 12 to 24 months.

🍴 Cucina Alba, part of Prince Street Hospitality, opened in NYC's Chelsea in summer 2022. Alba Los Angeles opened on February 6 in West Hollywood, marking the company's first West Coast venture. The LA location, designed by GRT Architects, features a 10,000-square-foot space with a 120-guest main dining room, a 14-seat bar, lounges, and a private dining room. Executive chef Adam Leonti showcases Italian cuisine with California ingredients. The bar, led by Truman Flanders, offers over 5,000 wine bottles and a variety of Italian-inspired cocktails. Prince Street Hospitality is also developing a new project in SoHo, Manhattan.

🍴 The Occidental, originating in 1906 in Washington, D.C., near the White House, reopened with a new design by Ken Fulk on March 5. Renowned for hosting politicos and world leaders, it has been revitalized by Starr Restaurants. The 14,000-square-foot, 280-seat venue features a decor of mid-century nostalgia, including a black-and-white marble entryway, vintage parquet floors, and a 3,200-square-foot courtyard. The American classic menu offers dishes like beef Stroganoff and "the pork chop that saved the world," alongside a cocktail menu with over 50 gins and vodkas and an extensive wine list.