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So a lot of Houstonians don’t really get the Hotel Granduca. Who does? During a recent visit, the proprietor of Houston restaurant blog Tasty Bits came up with one answer:
I was always curious about the people who pay $1,300 a night for a hotel suite in Houston. Who are they? What do they eat? I got my answer as soon as I arrived and saw Karl Rove waiting to get picked up in the lobby (sulfur, smoke, instant drop in temperature, and all). For a split second I thought about inviting him to join us for lunch. It’s not often you are in the presence of one of the more diabolical political minds of our generation.
Tasty Bits has more juicy commentary on the hotel:
Entering Hotel Granduca is a little like following the rabbit hole - just beyond the iron gates and right past the horse mounted statue of Adalberto Malatesta Granduca of Monfallito (?) is a different world than one might find in otherwise sensible Houston.
After the jump: What’s down that rabbit hole! Plus: tasteful commentary on lunch at the hotel’s Ristorante Cavour.
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Read more about: 77056, Galleria, Hotels, Restaurants, Theming, Uptown, Uptown Park
March 28, 2008 – 11:34 am
Interfin Companies president Giorgio Borlenghi, who developed Uptown Park and the Hotel Granduca, explains how it’s done:
. . . developers must not forget the principles we Houstonians like so much such as ease of access to the various components of the building and plentiful and readily available parking. As an example, when we planned Uptown Park, we decided to keep it exclusively retail to allow our patrons to park directly in front of the shops and restaurants without having to deal with multistory parking structures.
Keeping Uptown Park “exclusively retail,” of course, meant that his luxury hotel had to go across the street:
I created Hotel Granduca as a unique, elegant and extremely exclusive boutique hotel for the Uptown/Galleria area. I wanted it to be very different from all the other hotels: It had to feel very Italian, of course, and to have a true residential setting, so that it could be someone’s home away from home. What surprises me is that a number of people in Houston are still not understanding this very European concept and somehow think that Granduca is not a regular hotel, but some type of apartment building.
Photo of Arturo’s Uptown Italiano restaurant in Uptown Park: Flickr user heyjebbo
Read more about: 77056, Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategy, Galleria, Hotels, Mixed Use, Parking, Parking-Garages, Real Estate Marketing, Retail, Shopping Centers, Uptown, Uptown Park
