BlackBook Magazine

From the London West Hollywood to the Pantheon in Paris, these contradictions promise luxury and decadence aplenty.

Encanto Beach Club at El San Juan Hotel & Casino
Strip House at Condado, San Juan, Puerto Rico
elsanjuanhotel.com, condadoplaza.com

San Juan has been edging toward new-world trendiness for some time, and there’s nothing that says “new world” louder (or more specifically) than a high-powered beach club. The brainchild of nightlife guru Stephane Dupoux (Buddha Bar, Cielo), Encanto Beach Club is all about modern extravagance—the poolside cabanas feature WiFi and flat-screen televisions (in case you find looking at half-naked sunbathers a bore). And the club offers gambling lessons, on the house, as well as Spanish lessons, on the casa. Also of note in Puerto Rico’s capital is the new Strip House restaurant at the Condado Plaza Hotel & Casino (above). The interiors, by David Rockwell, are gorgeous—and the spinach, you ask? It’s done up with truffles and cream. Rico, suave.

The London West Hollywood Hotel
Los Angeles
thelondonwesthollywood.com

Take that, Hollywood! Silver-tongued Brit chef and ubiquitous reality-TV hooligan Gordon Ramsay finally touches down in Anglophilia, USA, at the glamorous new London West Hollywood hotel (above). Fellow Brit David Collins—he of the Blue Bar at the Berkeley notoriety—lent a heavy hand to the interior design scheme, but it’s sure to be the hellion of Hell’s Kitchen who steals the show with his French-inspired, Michelin-starred contemporary provisions. The F word is… fabulous.

Palms Place
Las Vegas
palmsplace.com

This imponderably luxurious new hotel and condominium tower is a spectacular exercise in branding. Palms Place is sure to become swinger ground zero, with guests and residents trading lascivious glances in the imminent lobby bar. Add to that a massive swimming pool, high-tech spa, and all manner of Euro-y tanning facilities, and, well… Frankie’s Vegas it ain’t.

Philippe at the Gansevoort South Hotel
Miami
philippechow.com

Everyone who is anyone has been fed by Philippe Chow (of Mr Chow fame), who brings his contemporized Chinese eats to Gansevoort South’s first adjunct (above) this month. The seriously chic result: A massive but sexy space with a private wine cellar and an open kitchen, for watching the magic—by which we mean cooking. 

Shoreditch House
London
shoreditchhouse.com

Was it so long ago that SoHo House defined charming English snobbery for a whole new generation, one not raised on Evelyn Waugh and Edith Wharton? Now it (and founder Nick Jones) caps a decade long revival of grubby industrial East London by spawning Shoreditch House, complete with heated rooftop pool, bowling alley, and that same-old pishy-toshy attitude. But bad behavior just isn’t what it used to be, so expect it to more likely spawn Damien Hirst and Damon Albarn drinking stories, rather than invoke a 21st Century Brideshead Revisited.

Le Café du Cinema
Pantheon, Paris
cinemapantheon.com

Tea with Mlle. Deneuve? Really, you must. The Gallic screen goddess’s interior design debut (what can’t she do?) is now Paris’s sexiest café and salon—and her good taste is your bonne chance. Located in one of the capital’s oldest cinemas, within eyeshot of the magnificent resting place of lots of famous dead French people, it is stuffed with vintage furniture, Dietrich photos and film tomes, and, doubtless, many fashionable Parisians. It’s sure to make lunching at Le Costes seem dreadfully last week. (A New York branch is planned for 2008.)

Adour at the St. Regis
New York
stregis.com/newyorkcity

An impending makeover of the majestic St. Regis in Washington, D.C. is certainly something to dread, but the hotel’s New York cousin was in desperate need of a visit from Dr. Chic, who arrived there in the person of mortgage-payment-prix-fixe food baron Alain Ducasse. In the hotel’s new Adour eatery (above), designer David Rockwell gives the place a dose of playful cool, with a genuine “interactive” wine bar (sip your way through a wine primer); and M. Ducasse and Executive Chef Tony Esnault promise culinary transcendence. In 2008, more than anything else, you wanna be Adour’d.