THE FACTS ABOUT THE LOWELL

USA New_York

The Lowell certainly delivers on details, with Frette bathrobes for children, open hearths with log fires in 33 of the 47 suites, and milk, cookies and games for the kids on arrival. General manager Heiko Kuenstle makes it his business to take wet furs from the shoulders of his guests as they come in from the cold, and the concierge is quick to bring over glasses of mulled wine. This is easily New York's cosiest hotel, helped by its intimate size (a total of 70 rooms with no more than six on each of the 17 floors) and almost twice as many suites as doubles. The Art Deco building feels more like a private apartment building (on East 63rd Street, between Madison and Park). It is mostly residential, and it's easy to feel cocooned in the small, silk-panelled lobby, dark, wintry bar and clubby steakhouse restaurant, The Post House, which serves delectable Maryland crab cakes, steamed lobster, Cajun and Porterhouse steaks. The country-house-style rooms have plush carpets, chintz-covered sofas and fabulous all-marble bathrooms, about two-thirds of which have been upgraded with separate showers (the remainder are due for completion within a year). The Garden Suite has pretty, rose-pink floral prints and two terraces, and the newly-decorated and well-proportioned Suite 9a, with its creamy sitting room furnished with tasteful antiques. For a more contemporary style, the new Manhattan Suite, formerly known as The Gym Suite (after Madonna had it converted for the year she lived at the hotel) has two terraces and windows overlooking Park Avenue. The second-floor restaurant, The Pembroke Room, is unremarkable, although it remains popular with Anglophiles for its afternoon teas (proper scones and clotted cream). The service is uniformly discreet and everyone, from John Galliano to a frazzled family running late for a flight, is treated with the utmost respect. CONTACT The Lowell, 28 East 63rd Street (00 1 212 838 1400; fax: 319 4230; www.lowellhotel.com). Doubles from $599; suites from $898