Berlin’s top hotels tend to be grand hotels, stately old palaces with hundreds of rooms—so the Brandenburger Hof cuts a bit against the grain. From the outside, this fin-de-siècle mansion could pass as a smaller, more intimate cousin to places like the Adlon; but the elegant facade conceals some of Berlin’s most modern hotel interiors, particularly the guest rooms themselves, decked out in a sort of Bauhaus-minimalist hybrid.
The public spaces are equally a study in period and cultural contrasts, from the Doric columns of the lobby, to the Michelin-starred French restaurant with its Frank Lloyd Wright chairs, and the delightful Wintergarten, a sort of Renaissance Zen conservatory. Meetings and conferences take place in elegant salons, seemingly throwbacks to a century ago, save for the modern touches like soundproofing, internet connections, and voice conferencing systems.
Guest rooms feature platform beds and heated floors, with chrome-and-leather furniture by the likes of Mies and le Corbusier alongside Japanese flower arrangements and historic stucco work. Service is phenomenal, intimate yet professional, and the Brandenburger Hof rivals some of its bigger competition with a cigar lounge, a piano bar, a library with a view of the wine cellar, and Asian-themed spa treatments, from massages to seaweed wraps, courtesy of beautician Ellen Brüder.
This is one modestly-sized boutique that can hold its own in comparison with the big boys; if you need bleeding-edge design or pure old-fashioned glamor, you can find that elsewhere—the Brandenburger Hof is a hotel with a personality all its own, and a quiet charm that brings guests back again and again.
author admin, source www.tablethotels.com
