Ken Scrudato
April 22, 2008
If you want to genuinely flaunt the scope of your grand ambitions, simply open a hotel in Atlanta while also opening another all the way over in Istanbul. The relentlessly multiplying W Hotels brand curiously pulls off a simultaneous trick in cities so radically different…well, they just are. In the buzzing Midtown area of Georgia’s capital, the city’s second W opened on April 1, perhaps hinting that this relentlessly business-minded town might actually be loosening its tie a bit. On-site will be a Bliss Spa, a Whiskey Bar, and an outpost of Jean Georges’ exotic Spice Market restaurant, a sort of holy trinity of modern epicurean living. And over in Turkey’s most swinging city, score another victory for those high-living secularists (in the ongoing philosophical struggle with their Muslim countrymen). The city’s first W Hotel, opening May 6, will be an unapologetic bastion of Occidental indulgences. With yet another branch of the Spice Market empire, a signature spa, and sleek, high-ceilinged rooms--some with private terraces and gardens--it’s not likely to draw a very, um, pious clientele.
PROJECT: STRAITS ATLANTA
