Opening Shot is a column that peeks inside new hotels, restaurants, bars, and shops with dreamy interiors.
WARREN STREET HOTEL
Location: Tribeca, New York
Designer: Kit Kemp
On Offer: Once upon a time, Downtown style was all rough and tough and black-on-black. But those days are long gone—just witness the buzz around Kit Kemp’s third city spot, a new Tribeca boutique hotel whose every inch offers up yet another color and pattern, each expertly (and ambitiously) riding the crest of a clash. The Warren is Kemp’s first project with daughters Minnie and Willow, and there’s a familiar whimsy to the almost 70 bedrooms, suites, and residences. Each is unique, but trends emerge: Large-scale headboards boast even larger-scale fabric botanical or Art Deco patterns; custom upholstery might take on patchwork, dog portraits, ancient kilim patterns, or everything at once. The floors get a turn, carpeted in Kemp’s bespoke batik. And while the focus on fabrics is a staple of Kemp and her Firmdale hospitality group, it feels quite at home here, as the area was once, even longer ago than its industrial heyday, a thriving textile hub.
Standout Amenities: The Warren is a gesamtkunstwerk for Kemp. The wide-ranging collections of art largely comes from the fruits of her travels, and she designed everything from the lampshades to the pink pepper-and-patchouli products in the marble bathrooms. Even the offerings from the Warren Street Restaurant—agnolotti with smoked sweet potato and hazelnut gremolata, chocolate mousse with passion fruit curd and pistachio—are dished up on her fine bone china tableware, either in the main room or the eye-popping, private Orangerie, whose chandeliers illuminate ceramic pots she’s gathered from the studios of artists across Britain. After dining on them, have a drink at the bar, or a quieter digestif in the cozy living room accessible only to guests.
