Midcentury decor and nods to the advertising industry’s heyday transport guests to another era. Classic beauty and a touch of sophistication prevail.
Nostalgia for the 1950s and ’60s sets the tone in the swank lobby and adjacent bar of this fashionable hostelry on Madison Avenue, the Manhattan street synonymous with America’s golden age of advertising.
Relaxing next to backlit shelves displaying vintage radios, cameras, typewriters and books, I got totally absorbed in a coffee table tome filled with midcentury magazine ads pitching everything from cereal and cigarettes to Cadillacs and Chevrolets.
Located at the corner of East 38th Street and Madison Avenue in Midtown’s Murray Hill neighborhood, the 18-story NH Collection New York Madison Avenue occupies a 1920s red-brick building with Italian-style tile rooftops. The 288-room, AAA Four Diamond property, a member of Madrid-based NH Hotel Group, opened in 2021 after a major renovation. It won Luxury Travel Advisor’s 2022 Most Instagrammable Hotel in North America award.
Food and Beverage Offerings
The MAD Lounge & Bar features modern takes on cocktails reminiscent of the ’50s and ’60s, plush velvet bar stools and live jazz music weeknights. On my Friday stay, an opera singer, performing in front of the piano room’s fireplace, serenaded guests of the smart cocktail den, a dimly lit space inspired by the Mad Men TV series about a 1960s New York advertising agency. I had never watched the drama, which aired from 2007 to 2015 on the AMC cable channel, but after my trip I checked out a DVD of Season 1 from the local library and now I’m really into it. The show won 16 Emmys and five Golden Globes.
The hotel’s Serafina Restaurant, decorated with vintage photos of New York, serves contemporary Italian cuisine and has a marble-tiled, wood-burning pizza oven. The luxurious sofas, colorful artwork, exquisite marble floor and stunning granite-and-marble bar lend a sophisticated, upscale feel. Don’t miss the elaborate, European-style breakfast buffet.
Some rooms have a terrace offering views of the Empire State Buiilding.
The Hotel Makes a Perfect Base for Sightseeing
Helping me get into a New York state of mind, my room featured one wall papered with a sepia-tone subway map and a tiled shower wall depicting the Brooklyn Bridge.
Within walking distance of the hotel (formerly the Jolly Hotel Madison Towers) are the Empire State Building, Morgan Library & Museum, Grand Central Terminal, Fifth Avenue and Times Square.
On Friday night I walked a few blocks down Madison Avenue to the Morgan Library & Museum. Housing the collection of rare books, manuscripts and art acquired by Gilded Age financier J. Pierpont Morgan, it’s one of those under-the-radar places in New York that I seek out. There’s always a Gutenberg Bible on display. The ornately decorated galleries and Morgan’s lavishly appointed personal study are reasons enough to spend time there. I chose Friday night because it’s free with advance reservations. A special exhibition of Renoir drawings, the first mounted since 1921 in Paris, was the big draw when I visited.
After the Morgan, I went up to the Empire State Building’s 86th-floor observation deck before it closed.
The NH Collection New York Madison Avenue certainly boasts an ideal location. It’s nice to be close to the action but not in the middle of it.
NH Collection Hotels & Resorts is the high-end brand of Minor Hotels, which has lodgings across six continents.
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By Randy Mink, Senior Editor
Photos courtesy of NH Collection Hotels & Resorts
