The Best B&B Getaways: The Inn at Irving Place

As the brownstone’s imposing door, marked only with an equally imposing door knocker, swings open, you’ll be sure you’ve accidentally stumbled into a high-society soiree. In a way, you have: An antiques-crowded lobby and the adjacent Lady Mendl’s tearoom are gathering spots for Manhattan
ladies who take high tea, and a frequent venue for joyous bridal showers and intimate weddings. Which means the honeymoon suite — the staff’s nickname for the lovely Madame Olenska room, complete with a cozy brocade windowseat and a four-poster king-size bed wider than it is long, piled with Frette linens and more than a half-dozen pillows — is the most coveted. The inn, housed in two dignified circa-1834 townhomes, is seemingly out of place (the way everything in New York is) on a block with trendy raw-food restaurant Pure and Mario Batali’s always-packed Casa Mono, and it basks in its Age of Innocence anachronism, offering discreet, solicitous service. As we emerged back onto the busy Manhattan street, a passerby asked: “Wow, does she live there?”


Book it: 56 Irving Place, 212-533-4600, innatirving.com.

Rooms: 12. Rate per night: $325 to $645.

Snacks: None, besides the mini-bar.

Meals on-site: Breakfast, a simple Continental affair enjoyed over your complimentary New York Times.

Don’t miss: A martini, to unwind, at the inn’s classy Cibar Lounge.

And speaking of drinks: The inn was once a speakeasy. While away the hours: It’s New York. Greenwich Village, SoHo and the Flatiron District are within walking distance, and you’re a quick cab ride away from … everything.