Since we've stayed at many Schrager hotels, we knew that he blows his budget on the public spaces, and that the rooms basically suck, so we opted for the biggest suite we could get our hands on. The typical Schrager hotel room is high on quirky design notes, and the size of our closet. The suite is obviously much bigger, in fact quite spacious, but one drawback is I think each room gets the same number of quirky design notes. So a big room turns out rather dull, with just a sprinkling of the Schrager magic separated by vast plains of beige. Clift Hotel: Overall- 7(Room-7, Facilities-8, Service-6)

The hotel's star attraction is the Redwood Room, a holdover from the old hotel. It's now a trendy bar and the Asia de Cuba restaurant. Actually I'm not sure if it's all that trendy since it didn't seem to have much of a crowd, but in any event it's a great looking space. We had lunch at Asia de Cuba while we were waiting for our room to be ready. The whole room is supposedly panelled with the wood from one redwood tree, and it makes quite a stately impression, especially when combined with the lofty ceiling heights. It was even more stately because we were the only customers.



As astute readers will remeber, we've eaten at this restaurant in New York and London, and as usual enjoyed the food. We shared a great plate of dumplings, for the Asia part of the name, then I followed with the Cuba part in the form of a big greasy Cubano sandwich wth some nasty yucca chips. Very filling, but the room is the real show stealer here. (Food-15, Decor-20, Service-15)

126. San Francisco

We checked out on Friday, and had an uneventful flight to San Francisco. We stayed at the Clift, yet another Ian Schrager hotel, located close to Union Square in a slightly seedy neighborhood. (Although most of San Francisco has that borderline seedy feel to it, so this neighborhood may have been par for the course.) (And don't worry Stoli, I know San Francisco is near and dear to your heart, so I'll keep snide comments to a minimum).



Unlike most Shrager hotels, this was a renovation of an older, down at heels hotel rather than a new construction, so it had a more eclectic design than most of his hotels. The lobby was typical, dark, with inappropriately throbbing dance music in early afternoon, and enormous furniture thrown about the room.