"For its 19th venture, CH Projects is journeying across San Diego Bay to Coronado, where the hospitality group is set to open its second hotel project. Working again with the Brooklyn-based Post Company, which helped CH Projects founder Arsalun Tafazoli achieve the maximalist fever dream that is the Lafayette Hotel & Club, a 2023 Eater Award winner, Baby Grand is landing on the peninsula across from the historic Hotel del Coronado. Currently scheduled to be unveiled in early 2025, the $17 million, 31-room hotel is guaranteed to be immersive, with the group turning a former parking lot into a wild jungle scene, with palm trees, climbing vines, rock formations, and a two-story waterfall as the backdrop for an all-day restaurant and bar. Its guest rooms, lined with wallpaper depicting bygone fictional civilizations, will feature beds with giant clamshell headboards and the oversized minibars that have become a Lafayette Hotel signature. An interactive sculpture in a corner of the lobby will reveal the entrance to Fallen Empire, an oyster bar and lounge combining late 50s vibes with 80s glam, told with mirrored walls, crushed velvet banquettes, and a mosaic floor with an undersea theme. Baby Grand will also have a yet-unnamed omakase-style restaurant on the property." - Candice Woo
