Anne S.
Yelp
There were a few bumps at check-in, mostly due to the fact that they only have one person working the front desk, and she's also answering sales calls. She helped the person in front of us check in, then asked us to wait while she took a call to book a room for someone over the phone, then finally got around to helping us and was quite slow in doing so. We had arrived with 20 minutes to spare before our friends met us in the lobby. By the time they showed up, we were still standing there in our grubby travel clothes, our arms full of bags, desperately waiting for the front desk staffer to find more blank key cards so that she could give us our room keys. However, she was kind enough to give us four free drink coupons good for either bar, so our friends were able to go get a drink while they waited for us to go up to our room, deposit our bags, and quickly change clothes.
The Cottonwood Bar is gorgeous, although the bartender was less than impressive. He seemed quite grumpy and even snapped at another bartender (who came in from the hotel's other bar looking for a particular bottle) in front of everyone at the bar. Instead of taking our drink orders, he eavesdropped on our conversation, and then when we asked if we could order (because he hadn't circled back to us after about 10 minutes), he told us he was already making our drinks. Oh, okay...! I also asked for a glass of water, and it took about 15 minutes for him to get that for me (even though I was sitting at the bar, right there -- no travel across the room required, just fill a glass and hand me a damn water). The drinks were nice, although I think they could do with a consult from Ben Rowe over at Red Lion Lounge (see my review of the Red Lion for a full explanation).
Our hotel room was beautiful and plenty spacious for two people -- the reviewer who commented on the rooms being small seemed (from her photo) to have gotten a room with a weird angle to it, so maybe just request a room that doesn't have any weird angles. My only complaint about the room initially was that the bathroom doors are frosted glass, so light in the bathroom wakes up anyone in the bedroom. HOWEVER, I soon discovered that the bathroom lights are on a dimmer -- amaaaazing -- so can be set to come on very dimly at night/in the morning.
The lobby of this hotel is beyond gorgeous and just made me so happy every time I walked through it. The entrance also is lovely, even if the valet is a little spotty in terms of service (and none of them seemed familiar with the concept of opening the door for the female passenger).
I learned later that the Reuben sandwich was invented here, when it formerly was The Blackstone Hotel. I'll have to come back and have a Reuben, I guess!