The Fifth Avenue Hotel

The Fifth Avenue Hotel

The address is 1 West 28th Street, a Gilded Age mansion turned into a 153-room, 24-floor hotel where NoMad meets Midtown, and the neighborhood does most of the talking: Madison Square Park, the Flatiron Building and Broadway are all a short walk away, yet the corner itself stays quieter and more residential than the tourist grid around it. Chef Andrew Carmellini oversees the kitchen at Café Carmellini, and in the evenings The Portrait Bar pours cocktails in front of a carved stone fireplace, a pairing of chef-led restaurant and landmark architecture under one roof that few hotels nearby can match. It has picked up two Michelin Keys and Travel + Leisure's No. 1 New York hotel title two years running, along with a One to Watch nod from The World's 50 Best Hotels. Rooms range from a 291-square-foot Standard King, fitted with blackout blinds, soundproofing and a safe, up to a 517-square-foot Studio Suite with a terrace. A member of The Leading Hotels of the World, it runs on a concierge desk, a fitness room, meeting space for small gatherings, and 24-hour reception rather than a pool or spa, so anyone picturing loungers and treatments should look elsewhere. Breakfast, valet parking at $85 a day, and pets at a fee on top of a $200 nightly deposit are all extra, worth knowing before you book rather than after. It works for someone who wants a real address and a kitchen worth planning dinner around, not for someone who wants everything folded into one flat rate. Check in at three, and the fireplace in the Portrait Bar will still be lit whenever you make it back. A Gilded Age mansion on West 28th Street, now a 153-room Leading Hotels of the World property with Chef Andrew Carmellini's kitchen and a fireplace-lit bar. Rooms run 291 to 517 square feet; breakfast, parking and pets cost extra. It suits a dinner-first traveller, not a pool-and-spa one.