"The third installment from Adjara makes the local rock-and-roll hotel group’s Rooms and Fabrika properties—both game-changing, both achingly cool for their time—feel like warm-up acts to headliner Stamba. Occupying a Soviet-era printing house, the hotel struts that building’s original Brutalist bones, from its unpolished concrete beams to its double-height ceilings and gilded bathtubs fit for Tamar the Great. It’s far more glamorous than the cozy, vintage-Brooklyn-style interiors that Rooms ran with in 2005—and the rooms here are much more spacious. The overall feel is far from austere, because of the floor-to-ceiling shelves of antique books, collection of tropical plants that borders on a mini rainforest, and sumptuously upholstered furniture—good luck getting back up after sinking into one of those wool-lined moon chairs. Gadgets and McIntosh stereo systems make it easy to stay behind guest room doors, but then visitors would miss out on the chandeliers and red-clad croupiers of Casino Aviator, which recalls the louche gentlemen’s clubs of the USSR. Drinks on the gambling floor and in the lobby-level Pink Bar put the focus on locally distilled spirits such as Sarajishvili brandy. Any morning-after headaches are cured with an adjarian khachapuri, or egg-crowned cheese bread, baked to order at Stamba Café. Tbilisi has emerged as one of Eastern Europe’s most dynamic cities, and Stamba cranks the energy levels up a notch. FLASH POINT The hotel has its own Bell 505 Jet Ranger X helicopters: the fastest way to hop up to Rooms Hotel Kazbegi, the group’s chic chalet high in the Caucasus. +995 322-02-11-99; stambahotel.com. Doubles from about $200." - CNT Editors
