San Diego's Gaslamp
District continues to be a hot location for new hotels, with two
properties slated to open in the district over the next few
months.
In August, the 159-room Ivy Hotel will
make its debut. Guest rooms in the luxury, boutique hotel will have
42-inch plasma TVs and glass-enclosed bathtubs. Amenities will
include 24-hour butler service, a fitness center, a rooftop pool
and Cadillac Escalade courtesy cars.
The Quarter Kitchen, the hotel's
restaurant, will serve unusual dishes like caviar tacos and lobster
pot pie.
As an added touch, the hotel has
enlisted fashion designer Tadashi Shoji to create one-of-a-kind
garments for the staff.
During the fall, the 420-room Hard Rock
Hotel San Diego is scheduled to open.
The hotel will have rooms ranging in
size from studios to rock star suites (one was designed by the
Black Eyed Peas) equipped with LCD televisions, CD/DVD and iPod
connections, a martini bar, halo-illuminated beds and workstations.
Bathrooms will be fitted with ceiling-mounted rain showers.
Other facilities are a signature
restaurant, a spa and fitness center, a screening room, a
landscaped outdoor pool deck with private cabanas, a
7,000-square-foot music venue, retail boutiques and a
40,000-square-foot indoor/outdoor banquet space.
Once a red-light district, the Gaslamp
District is now one of downtown San Diegos trendiest neighborhoods
with dozens of retail shops and hundreds of restaurants.
To
contact reporter Michael Milligan, send e-mail to [email protected].