American Holiday - 4
Four Seasons One Dalton is the Boston hotel that makes you feel young again, or still young. Although this is a business hangout, the ambiance at its signature Zuma restaurant is 20s achievers and 20s heirs, kids who might be studying at Harvard, but thanks to daddy, have enough money to hang out here every night. In fact, although this is Four Seasons, you could also rename it the Arjun Waney Boston base since, with Rainer Becker, he owns Zuma and, with Bob Ramchand, he owns world licensing rights to La Petite Maison, and as of the end of this September, he will be running both outlets here in this hotel.
There’s been Zuma here from the 2019 start of the hotel , and now there will also be a La Petite Maison, known as LPM, a light and welcoming all-day brasserie, upstairs and absolutely charming (Girlahead was privileged to have a quick look).
The 215-room Bill Rooney-designed hotel opened seven years ago, on floors 8 to 20 of New England's tallest building, a triangular shape with rounded apexes that architects Pei Cobb Freed that pushed up to 60 floors (above the hotel are 174 extremely desirable residences, designed by Thierry Despont). Every August a team of acrobats flies north from New York to spend two weeks window cleaning, top to bottom – those residents bought partly for the views. The whole design and construction project was obviously a great success for developers Carpenter & Carpenter, led by the highly regarded Dick Freeman: they sold all the residences, and shortly after it opened the King of Bahrain’s Premier Group bought the hotel, for a reputed $268 million. His Majesty obviously loves this brand. He also has Four Seasons Hampshire as his English country estate hotel.
The art throughout the hotel is spectacular. As a small booklet shows, there are two female art curators, led by Kate, Chertavian, who looked after David Bowie's art collection. Girlahead’s favourites are the trio of pale grey bookshelves, 1.5-metres high and set into the white walls between three doors in a circular walkway-room on the ground floor. Each book is bound in unique highly-coloured patterned batiks, Africa over-kill. The Nigeria-born artist Yinka Shonibare, used Dutch wax-printed cotton textiles with gold foil names. There’s a sibling, by the way, in the reception lobby of Cain International's London offices.
In suite 1812, the art is much more muted - just as at Four Seasons New York Downtown, the art is looking out of the window at a tall block with perfectly proportioned verticals and horizontals of the concrete separators between windows. There’s lots of moles, and greys, and white-flecked black marble and some shiny tiger wood in what is essentially a very practical space, total size that of a padel court There's a work desk. In fact, there are quite a lot of horizontal spaces. The sofa, a soft grey, is the right height for sitting on and working. Switches and tablets are easy to operate, unlike the flip phones. Other picky gripes would be the inability to see sockets and USB ports in their all-black settings, and the complete lack of bathroom hooks to re-use towels. There’s a sexy egg-shaped corian tub, open to, or closed off from, the bedroom: toiletries, Frédéric Malle by Groupe GM, are at least wall-set at an acceotable height.
Dinner at Zuma with the hotel’s Egyptian-Turkish GM, Ahmed Zacout, truly was delightful. As in Dubai, at One Zaabeel, there are lots of different seating areas. We were in a corner right next to the glass partition, 1.5 meters high, separating the dining area from the cooking area, where, in total silence, four young chefs, all of them Asian, worked non-stop. The meal was a non-stop flow of dishes for two. Highlights included sashimi with beloved toro, a vegetable tempura, and the most marvelous skewers of Wagyu. Dessert was a chocolate bombe that was completely irresistible (did we want the leftovers boxed?), with Domaine Ott rosé and ice on the side. And the buzz of the people and the friendliness of the young female waitstaff all made one want to return – soon.
It's not really fair to comment on breakfast as it's temporarily – until 31st August - being served in the lobby lounge. Breakfast at the moment is necessarily a little bit scrummed because there isn't enough space, particularly when one of the fathers of young children comes in with a baby buggy. The yogurt parfait was beautifully served in a shallow black oriental bowl. Since that and an omelette and two flat whites produced a total bill, with service, of over $80 it might be an idea, naughty as it is, to go back to the gym, swing a few weights and pull the Peloton rower, make a cup of coffee and take a 200-calorie chocolate-backed READY Clean energy bar.
Whatever, Girlahead felt thoroughly energised by this with-it place. On the way out she was shown a trio of antique grandmother clocks, exactly framed on a lobby wall. From batik books to historic timepieces via Zuma bites – and a darned good sleep – it’s nonstop experience.
