A New York City legend in the heart of the Theater District, the Algonquin Hotel is over one hundred years old but as spry as a teenager. Better yet, the spirit of the Round Table is alive and well, forever smiling down on all who pass through the lobby.
Anthony Melchiorri. ◆ ◆ ◆
In June 1919 some of Gotham’s most famous, talented, opinionated, and outlandishly funny writers and critics met one day for lunch. They had such a good time that they met again the next day—and the day after. Their number included columnists, critics, humorists, playwrights, publicists, publishers, and sportswriters. Joining the ranks were occasional friends and lovers, among them actors and novelists of note. But the queen of the prom was Dorothy Parker: critic, poet, short-story writer, and screenwriter. She was everything the hotel was, and is, and these days, the two are inseparable. Both she and the hotel are brilliant, moody, genius, complex, tragic, and, yes, even funny. She and her peers came to “The Gonk” for lunch six times a week for the next ten years.
Like any hotel, the Algonquin will give you a place to sleep, a bathroom, and something to eat. The rooms are no more special than in most boutique hotels. They’re comfortable, sure, but they’re still hotel rooms. Except calling the Algonquin just another hotel would be like calling Dorothy Parker just another writer.
I was lucky enough to be general manager of the hotel for two years—a dream job in the business—but I came to the Algonquin kicking and screaming. When I arrived in 2004, the place was past its prime, and it looked like a career killer. The risk was huge. On my first day, I walked in thinking that with a good plan and the help of longtime employees, I could rely on history to bring back the hotel. What I didn’t realize was the depth of that history and the emotional connection that people have with the place.
The lobby was cool before cool became synonymous with hotels. In fact, this is where the “social lobby” came into being. It served as a living room for actors, dancers, directors, painters, politicians, and writers, constantly stopping by to schmooze or just hang out. On just one Saturday night during my tenure there, Andrea Marcovicci performed in the Oak Room; Tony Bennett sat in the audience; in the lobby, writer George Will was talking with friends; and Carson Daly was in the Blue Bar trying not to be noticed. Edward Albee, Christine Ebersole, Debbie Harry, Donna Karan, Martin McDonagh, Isaac Mizrahi, Cynthia Nixon, and John Patrick Shanley all made appearances, as did many more, when I was running the hotel.
The Gonk became the first hotel to use electronic keys. It developed the first hotel marketing campaign aimed exclusively toward women. It used the first red rope for crowd control. It was also home to the Algonquin Cocktail, consisting of two shots of rye, one of dry vermouth, and another of pineapple juice. The Vicious Circle was a martini crowd. That’s what they drank before lunch, during lunch, and sometimes instead of lunch. Of course during Prohibition the hotel was “officially” dry—which may explain why they met here all the time. As Dorothy Parker purportedly wrote:
But two at the most.
Three, I’m under the table;
Four, I’m under the host.
Ironically, she wasn’t much of a martini drinker herself; she preferred the brown stuff: A whiskey sour was more her style. When my team and I were working on a renovation and marketing campaign for the hotel, PR consultant Carla Caccavale said, “Here’s a place famous for martinis, so why not reinvent the Algonquin Martini?”—which we did.
We added another noteworthy first to the Algonquin’s list of achievements: the world’s first $10,000 martini. Early on, I noticed that many couples were getting engaged in our lobby, so I thought, why not make it easier for them? I hired a staff jeweler, who meets with the future groom to pick a diamond. The jeweler then oversees the setting, and when it’s ready, the couple, along with their family and friends, just happens to stop by for a drink. We deliver our famous martini to the unsuspecting bride-to-be, who discovers an engagement ring at the bottom of her glass. No other martini has produced as many howls of surprise, fits of laughter, rounds of applause, or tears of joy.
We updated the restaurant menus to reflect the Round Table years as well, thanks to owner and first general manager, Frank Case. In the Forties, he authored a book called Feeding the Lions, a reference to the literary lions who made the Gonk their second home. In it, he documented the food served during the height of their fame. All that the head chef and I had to do was sit down and modernize those famous dishes.
But the Gonk wasn’t just a writers’ spot; it was also a show business hangout. In the past, many great hotels had show rooms. I wanted to bring back that touch of history, so we made the Oak Room the Algonquin’s show room. Peter Cincotti, Harry Connick Jr., Diana Krall, and Maude Maggart have all played there. You could even say that the hotel has its own Oscar. The Round Table was the subject of The Ten-Year Lunch, which won the 1987 Academy Award for best documentary.
The Oscar is special, but how many hotels have a legendary house cat? At the Algonquin, Matilda rules the roost. Some even think that Dorothy Parker’s spirit lives on in her. Believe what you like, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Mrs. Parker’s spirit does reside somewhere in the hotel, in one form or another, because nothing surprises me about the Algonquin. There’s no other place like it in the world, and I’m humbled to have walked in the footsteps of those visionaries.
—Anthony Melchiorri, creator and host of the
Travel Channel’s Hotel Impossible and former
general manager of the Algonquin Hotel