I recently had the pleasure of staying at the Ace Hotel in Seattle, Washington. The Ace Hotel is a boutique chain that has locations in New York, Portland, Seattle, and Palm Springs. Decorated in a simplistic and modern industrial style, each location I’ve been to still somehow manages to be warm and inviting.
The Portland Ace Hotel houses a Stumptown Coffee (whose interior design is also industrially welcome and warm), a photo booth (which yours truly is particularly fond of), a self-professed “European-style Tavern” called Clyde Common, and an event space called The Cleaners. I’ve never stayed at the Portland location, though it’s been on my mind a few times. When my boyfriend and I were planning our trip up to Seattle, my good friend Sarah Fosmo suggested the Ace Hotel, which happens to be the original Ace. We were not disappointed.
Tempted to get a bigger room with its own bath, we eventually settled on the “European-style lodging”, ie the bathrooms are down the hall. For a savings of $80, it wasn’t a hard decision. That $80 I knew would go much better toward drinking, eating, or shopping at Seattle’s H & M.
To get to the hotel from the Amtrak station, you walk left down to 1st Avenue, and just follow it for about a mile and a half. You could try taking a bus (free) or cabbing (quick) but the walk was rather nice, and we got to see a lot that we wouldn’t have otherwise. I think walking in a city is the best way to get around. Even your own city! Once we arrived, we headed up the kinda spooky narrow wooden stairs to the front desk.
Our room was small but adorable. With little touches like a journal, ceramic coffee mugs and Clif bars (for purchase), we immediately made ourselves at home. The front desk attendant had the awesome-est thickest New York accent in the tri-cities and was really accommodating and friendly. We had nothing less than stellar service the whole time we were there.
This probably helped.
The bathrooms—oh the bathrooms! They were spacious and luxurious and all came equipped with Rudy’s shampoo, conditioner and body soap. I would shower three times a day if my bathroom at home was that big and comfortable. (My bathroom at home might fit half a 5 year old and is the exact opposite of comfortable.)
In the morning, we wandered down to the continental breakfast that is included with a night’s stay. I didn’t have high hopes, as most breakfasts at hotels have stale bagels, bruised apples, and maybe some extremely un-vegan muffins or doughnuts.
That teaches me to fret.
The breakfast set up had fresh-brewed Stumptown Coffee, soymilk (!) in a really cute container, crunchy granola (no hippy jokes, please), orange juice, un-vegan-but-sweet-looking waffles (Rob’s was a dismal failure, but he still ate it.), and whole wheat or sourdough toast with butter or jam.
95% of the breakfast was vegan, and it was all vegetarian. I was one happy camper.
When we went to check out, we peered at their magazines and their gifts for sale. They sell boxes of water (first time I’ve seen them, check out the link, they’re way cool!), Rudy’s haircare products, and a million other sophisticated-yet-cutesy products. The complimentary magazines included my absolute new favorite: Imbibe. All about drink. Coffee, tea, bitters, beer, cocktail recipes… it’s a personal utopian magazine for me. Just in that one issue, I’ve discovered that I need to try Elysian Pumpkin Ale, NEED to make my own amaretto out of peach or apricot pits (I’m bringing amaretto back, just you wait), want to try to make my own tea blend, and really need to learn how to make my own bitters.
The night, including breakfast in the morning and a copy of the best magazine in the whole world, cost $108, including tax.
The Ace was definitely one of my favorite parts of our trip to Seattle. Here are a few other snapshots:
