When it shuttered in 1986, Maylie’s had been serving Creole cuisine for more than a century, so Kyle Brechtel, who acquired the restaurant’s historic building in downtown New Orleans, was keen to preserve that heritage. In 2018, the president and CEO of restaurant group Brechtel Hospitality reimagined the space as Copper Vine, a wine-fueled gastropub designed by local firm Studio West.

From the beginning, Brechtel yearned for it to double as a cozy inn, and when a neighboring space became available, he once again tapped Studio West to make his dream come true. “Inns are the oldest forms of lodging, but what does that feel like in today’s world? I wanted to offer a current, fresh version of a tavern,” says Brechtel. Now called the Copper Vine Wine Pub & Inn, it spans 11 guestrooms, 10 of which are situated in a contemporary wing constructed over the adjacent parking lot, as well as the centerpiece terrace suite born from the old attic.

The bar at the Copper Vine Wine Pub & Inn in New Orleans, now home to an 11-room hotel

Brechtel was adamant that the contemporary structure would deftly connect with those rich details, so Studio West forged an organic dialogue between old and new by embracing high ceilings, warm materials like copper, and various drapery motifs from locally based Pavy Art + Design Studio that stand out against blue-gray, sage green, and terracotta hues. Local artists’ pieces curated by Claire Elizabeth Gallery in the French Quarter also tie the spaces together. “It’s another thread that brings texture and hominess,” explains Brechtel.

Indeed, it seems hotels are the next logical step for restaurateurs, as a handful of veterans are now taking a gamble on the hotel world. Chef José Andrés, for example, is teaming up with Thor Equities to launch the 67-room Bazaar House by José Andrés. The property is expected to come online in 2027 in Washington, DC, and it will feature amenities including a members club, multiple Andrés-curated F&B venues, a wellness center, and more.

A 150-year-old Hamptons hotel has been reimagined as LDV at the Maidstone

Also consider LDV Hospitality, known for Italian restaurant Scarpetta, which emerged in New York’s Meatpacking District in 2008 and now has locations sprinkled across the globe. Earlier this year, president and founder John Meadow, along with partners Irwin Simon and Mayank Dwivedi of ISMD Management, transformed the iconic, 19-room Maidstone Hotel in East Hampton, New York, into LDV at the Maidstone.

The addition of the property, which Meadow deems a distinctive treasure asset that “at its core is a restaurant plus rooms,” to the LDV portfolio “is a very compelling business proposition,” he points out, and he’s eager to create more.

Likewise, Arizona restaurateur Sam Fox, founder of Author & Edit Hospitality, joined forces with Scottsdale-based Nelsen Partners Architects & Planners and longtime collaborator Testani Design Troupe on the Global Ambassador, a Phoenix hotel that opened in late 2023 with 141 European-inspired guestrooms featuring marble and custom walnut millwork.

Drawing from Fox’s expertise developing 150 restaurants over the years, including such concepts as the fast-casual chain Flower Child and the AvroKO-designed Twelve Thirty Club in Nashville, the Global Ambassador’s bold identity centers on food and drink. The hotel is built around its F&B offerings, which include Le Âme steakhouse, Le Market bakery and bistro, Mediterranean rooftop hangout Théa, the poolside Pink Dolphin, and the lobby bar. “My restaurant experiences are woven into the hotel,” Fox says. “It was an obvious evolution of what I wanted to do.”

Rich hues adorns Le Market at the Global Ambassador in Phoenix

On California’s Central Coast, Brandon Ristaino and Misty Orman of Good Lion Hospitality took over the 17-room, 1952-built Petit Soleil bed-and-breakfast in downtown San Luis Obispo—a departure for the husband-and-wife team who are known for bars and restaurants throughout the Santa Barbara and Ventura area.

With the help of Santa Barbara-based MN Studio, the revamped design—unveiled in January—now showcases a cocktail garden, firepits, and a lobby bar marrying a ceiling covered in floral wallpaper with navy-tinted velvet banquettes. “We achieved a cozy space where one could enjoy a pastry and coffee in the morning, a spritz during check-in, and a Manhattan as the night grows long,” explains Ristaino. “We wanted this hotel to continue to be part of the fabric of San Luis Obispo, and to serve our locals and traveling guests with as much integrity and love as the hotels founders had done.”

Animal prints add a sense of playfulness to the bungalows at the Lafayette Hotel & Swim Club

Further south is the first hotel from CH Projects, the restaurant group whose portfolio boasts 18 distinct F&B concepts. The 141-room Lafayette Hotel & Swim Club in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood stars a lobby bar set underneath a glass atrium, rattan clamshell chairs by the pool, and Quixote, a monastic mezcaleria housed in a rebuilt Mexican church, all courtesy of Brooklyn, New York, and Jackson, Wyoming-based Post Company.

“Hotels are a natural extension of our existing body of work,” says CH Projects founder Arsalun Tafazoli. “We operate on the core premise that life is hard and we are all doing our best. We treat our projects as our mode of artistic expression, hence we try to design spaces that have an element of escapism. There isn’t much of a difference going from restaurants to hotels, but we get to go deeper with our guests since they can spend a whole weekend with us.”

A rendering of the lobby at the forthcoming Municipal Grand hotel in Savannah from Midnight Auteur

A similar cultural hub mentality drives a new venture founded by David Kaplan, Alex Day, and Ryan Diggins. Kaplan and Day met Diggins, owner of the Ramble Hotel in Denver, when they opened an outpost of the popular New York cocktail bar Death & Co. there in 2018. Their likeminded vision for all-day lobby bar revelry has now spawned the Midnight Auteur brand, hotels that will welcome visitors with a “thriving F&B-anchored experience,” says Kaplan, noting how that buzz “is one of the key foundational pieces to who we are and who we want to be.” Next spring, Midnight Auteur will make its debut with the 44-key Municipal Grand in Savannah, Georgia’s North Historic District.

A former 1960s bank, “it’s a gorgeous midcentury building and every single room is different,” says Kaplan. Complete with a rooftop lounge and pool, its touches of metal and blue mosaic subway tiles come courtesy of Portland, Maine, and Toronto-based AAmp Studio. Savannah was attractive to the trio because “it has this quiet, stoic charm to it,” adds Kaplan. That first project will be followed by a more rustic location in Bozeman, Montana, designed by New York firm Parts and Labor Design.

Offering a hotel with an intriguing F&B component “is not a new idea, but having it be the entirety of your lobby and guest experience is still rare,” explains Kaplan. “We think that hotel guests will want to stay at a place where there is that sense of connectivity, community, and energy.”

 

This article originally appeared in HD’s December 2024 issue.