60-Second Critic: The Presidential Suite

The city’s boutique hotel, where you have to wonder if all the people talking to you with French accents are actually French, just launched its new $2,000-per-night (and up) Presidential Suite penthouse. As places to crash go, it’s perfectly nice, with lots of great city views and giant LCD screens (including one in the master bath). But Presidential it’s not. Maybe gubernatorial. There’s no grand dining table (or any dining table at all) at which to sign treaties or eat goose, no fireplace by which to drink scotch and plan war. And there’s not a single pullout couch for visiting dignitaries. An 1,800-square-foot suite that sleeps just two seems silly, except, perhaps, on Valentine’s Day. C