The Lowell is a 74-room townhouse hotel on the Upper East Side, open since 1927 and best known for the twelve rooms with working wood-burning fireplaces. Dining runs through Majorelle and the Pembroke Room's breakfast and afternoon tea. Book it for discreet, personal service at small scale, not for resort facilities.
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The complaint file here is unusually thin, which is the verdict: service is the consistent, personal kind the rate should buy. The caveat is not a flaw but a fit, this is a small, formal, expensive Upper East Side townhouse hotel, not a full-service resort. Come for the discretion, Majorelle, and the Pembroke Room, not for scale.
The Lowell arrived in 1927 as a residential hotel, the kind that New York built before the distinction between living somewhere and staying somewhere became as sharp as it now is. The 74 rooms are individually appointed in a style that might be described as an educated British sensibility applied to Upper East Side materials: chintz, antiques, custom millwork, and bookshelves that contain actual books rather than display objects. Each room is different. The hotel's character emerges from the aggregate, not from a single statement.
The wood-burning fireplaces are the amenity no other hotel in the price category provides. Twelve rooms and suites have them. In winter, the fireplace transforms the room from an accommodation into a destination; the decision to stay in rather than venture out for dinner becomes reasonable and then easy. The terraces in the suites with outdoor access extend the usable space into the city's airspace, and on the relevant floors offer sweeping views across the Upper East Side's rooftops toward Central Park, a five-minute walk from the front door.
The Pembroke Room, named for the Pembroke tables on which breakfast is served, has been a morning fixture since the hotel opened, and its afternoon tea continues the tradition. The hotel's main restaurant is now Majorelle, a French-Mediterranean room overseen by restaurateur Charles Masson with a seasonal menu under chef Jean-Christophe Guiony, set alongside the small, clubby Jacques Bar off the lobby. The old Post House steakhouse that long held the street level has closed; Majorelle took the space, and the result is a quieter, more European table than the address used to keep.
At 74 keys, The Lowell's scale produces an intimacy that no larger hotel can replicate. The staff learn names quickly, preferences after a second stay, and the history of regular guests within a week. This is the quality that distinguishes a boutique hotel from a large hotel with boutique pretensions, and The Lowell has had nine decades to develop it.
New York's argument for the solo retreat is the city itself, but The Lowell provides the base that makes it restorative rather than merely stimulating. A room with a fireplace, the books on the shelves, the Pembroke Room for a quiet breakfast, and the immediate proximity of the Met, Central Park, and the Upper East Side's gallery culture create a schedule that can be as solitary or as engaged as required. The scale means you will not be anonymous here, but you will be left alone if that is what you have come for.
From $1,570/night. Request a fireplace room.
The main restaurant is Majorelle, a French-Mediterranean room overseen by restaurateur Charles Masson, paired with the intimate Jacques Bar. The Pembroke Room serves breakfast and afternoon tea. The old Post House steakhouse that once held the street level has closed.
Yes. Twelve rooms and suites have working wood-burning fireplaces, the amenity no other hotel in the price category offers. They make winter stays a reason to stay in rather than go out.
74 individually appointed rooms and suites, each decorated differently, with several suites adding private terraces over the Upper East Side rooftops.
28 East 63rd Street, between Madison and Park Avenues, about a five-minute walk from Central Park and steps from the Madison Avenue fashion houses and the gallery district.
Guests who want discreet, personal service in a small, formal townhouse hotel rather than full-service resort scale. It suits solo retreats, anniversaries and honeymoons; travelers wanting a spa, big pool or convention facilities should look elsewhere.
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