GOSTELOW REPORT — “You simply cannot do what everyone else does: Sometimes it is necessary to go against the norm,” says Radha Arora, characterful president of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts. Where others might extend the number of keys at Rosewood Washington, D.C., and, if a restaurant change was needed, perhaps go for a plant-based concept or at least avoid stressing too much red meat in a city full of steakhouses, the Los Angeles-based Arora thinks otherwise.
Washington, D.C.-based CTF Georgetown in 2016 bought the 3-year-old Capella, on 31st St NW in Georgetown, from Castleton Hotel Partners, led by Bruce Bradley. On May 4, 2016, The Georgetowner reported that the sale realized US$65 million and that Rosewood would assume management, which it did, overnight.
The 49-room property was on the site of a former office block, but a boutique hotel on such prime land, on the south bank of the C&O Canal, could surely not be viable. What was not reported at the time, however, was that Castleton already had plans to expand into townhouses adjacent to the hotel before it sold to CTF.
“CTF Georgetown have since been buying up these historic townhouses over the last two years but rather than merely incorporating them as individual hotel rooms, we are going to add them as separate products that are adjuncts to our core hotel,” said Arora with typical enthusiasm. The six townhouses have two main floors, with additional semi-basements and attics. They are all one-bedroom, with, as he says, superb bathrooms and full working kitchens, all designed to Rosewood standards.
He has deliberately chosen as interior designer Thomas Pheasant, who now lives in Washington, D.C., where his portfolio includes Blair House and The Hay-Adams Hotel. But, says Arora, the designer previously lived in Paris and he has an acute sense for European taste.
“The townhouses will be long-lets and are ideal for foreign ambassadors and others finding their feet in the U.S. capital, or for those who simply prefer to be fully-serviced. All townhouse residents are treated as full hotel guests, and they can order up private dining. I want them to feel fully at home,” he continued.
Rosewood Washington, D.C., closes October 17, 2018, for its new look. During its six-month closure the townhouses will be completed, and while hotel bedrooms will merely be tweaked, public areas will be transformed.
“The lobby will become a vibrant and active space,” explained Arora, citing Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire, where a motor entrance brings arrivals through to Cut by Wolfgang Puck, with the bar on the right, and the restaurant on the left as you walk ahead. “I was running Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire when Cut opened, in 2006. Everyone said it would not work in Beverly Hills but it has been a hit since day one. I want the same here, at Rosewood Washington, D.C.”
The hotel’s former all-day Grill restaurant, with a popular terrace cantilevered over the part of C&O Canal currently being tided up, will indeed become Cut by Wolfgang Puck. Its designer has not yet been announced but the kitchen and front-of-house team, led by Executive Chef Andrew Skala, will all be Puck employees. Some of the hotel’s 100 current associates in all departments will be retained. Others are being transferred to Rosewood properties while some, in a city desperate for trained staff, will have no problem finding work.
Arora does hesitate, for about 10 seconds, when asked why go for “big meat” when D.C. is renowned for above-par steak houses, including, only eight minutes’ walk away, Washingtonian magazine’s 2018 Best D.C. Steakhouse, Bourbon Steak in the Four Seasons Hotel Washington D.C. The Arora answer to this is two-fold. First, Cut does not only offer outsize steaks, and if there is lots of something anyway it shows there is a market, “so why not come in and be even better?” he laughed.
This is the Tom Ford eyewear-toting hotelier who claims to see the tiniest rumpled drapes or traces of dust on furniture or hears music that is unsuited to its environment – he says jokingly that his autobiography might be called “Am I the only one who sees such details?”