23 minute read

THE BRIEFING

from Luxury London Magazine Spring 2022

by Luxury London Media

from Luxury London Magazine Spring 2022, page 124

Article from: Luxury London Magazine Spring 2022

THE GREAT MIGRATION

01

THE HOTEL

Raffles The Palm Dubai

SINGAPORE’S MOST FAMOUS HOTEL GROUP OPENS A 389-ROOM MEGA-RESORT ON THE LAST REMAINING BEACH PLOT ON DUBAI’S PALM JUMEIRAH

Words: Nick Savage

The first thing one notices when driving up the ‘trunk’ of the Palm Jumeirah is the sheer scale of the man-made archipelago. As the taxi progresses up the northern coast of the outermost ‘frond’, the sense of immensity continues when we arrive at Raffles The Palm Dubai, the second outing in the city from the luxury hotel group, which opened at the tail-end of 2021. It’s a hotel worthy of a Mughal emperor, palatial in detailing, both macro and micro.

Named Blüthner Hall in a nod to the Blüthner Louis XIV Grand Piano that presides over the space, the hotel lobby features gorgeous soft-peach marble Corinthian columns that ascend to a lofty domed ceiling generously filigreed with gold leaf. The centrepiece is an immense Venetian chandelier crafted from shimmering Swarovski crystals. It’s one of 6,000 commissioned for the property. During check-in we’re assigned a butler for the remainder of our holiday. It’s our first taste of the peerlessly attentive service we’re about to receive.

I’m here with my wife and nine-monthold for some hard-earned beach time

The hotel boasts the largest indoor swimming pool in the Middle East

after a long period of isolation from… well, we all know what. For winter sun, Dubai delivers. Our room, a Premier Ocean Suite, is perched five stories above the hotel’s 500-metre private beach, which is encircled by a golden diadem of loamy soft sand.

It is one of 389 rooms, 56 suites and eight towering private villas, all painstakingly overseen by Italian designer Francesco Molon, with sweeping 180-degree views. Each room seems to recall gilded eras ranging from Versailles to the Taj Mahal. With twin vanities, a yawningly deep bath, separate rainshower, enormous bed, well-lit walk-in closet, a bountiful balcony and 62 sqm to move around in, it was more than spacious enough for a party of two-and-a-half.

During the day, the place to be is inarguably by the waterside. However, guests will have to make the challenging decision of whether to opt for midcentury-styled, candy-striped sun loungers by the ocean, or by the pool. The latter is hemmed in by stunning Moorish tessellated tilework, soaring date palms, three bars (including a swim-up), a children’s area and the excellent Amalfi-inspired restaurant, Piatti, which boasts breezy Italian cuisine, live performances and what must be one of the best-stocked wine cellars on The Palm.

The restaurant also provides the poolside fare. You can’t go wrong with its take on the Singapore Sling (famously created at the original Raffles hotel in Singapore). At The Palm, they blend sous-vide spice-infused Sipsmith Gin with acacia honey, lemon juice and aquafaba.

The pool is a great place from which to admire the hotel itself. From this aspect it’s redolent of a birthday cake for the gods with quadruple-tiered circular balconies in the centre and mirrored windows reflecting the azure brilliance of sea and sky. When dusk descends, the exterior and fountains are illuminated with green spotlights that glimmer like emeralds.

While breakfasting at Le Jardin, the main restaurant of the hotel, which offers an incredibly ample buffet and gorgeous indoor and outdoor seating, I find myself in impeccably manicured gardens. It’s here that I meet Khan, a falconry expert. He’s keen to show my daughter Isla the aviary, and we meet a flock of raptors running the gamut from saker falcons to Eurasian eagle owls to Harris hawks. I’m even encouraged to don a protective glove and have one of the latter retrieve from my hand.

The Raffles Club on the fifth floor offers breakfast as well as aperitivi, and is perfectly appointed for the job, with generous balconies on both sides of the building. We particularly enjoy it for aperitivo hour, when one can watch the sun touch down beyond the horizon.

Matagi is the hotel’s flagship restaurant, and destination dining at its finest. Sharing common DNA with modern Japanese restaurants like Nobu and Zuma, it’s deliciously dark. Its design equally recalls Tokyo and Bali, with a statement kintsugi bar overhung with gantry, exquisitely tiled walls inset with Asian artefacts, and hanging lantern chandeliers that cast a soothing light. The fare, overseen by the hotel’s culinary director Batuhan Piatti, skews from moreish nibbles, such as crispy Alaskan king crab tacos teeming with avocado, tobiko and lemon zest, to innovative sushi rolls to more substantial mains prepared on the robata grill – think miso black cod or Wagyu A7 tenderloin.

When the food is this good and the beach is so close, a visit or two to the gym might be prudent. Raffles The Palm boasts the largest indoor swimming pool in the Middle East, a yoga studio, and all the equipment necessary to offset the caloric intake.

The hotel can also attend to aches, pains and niggles at its world-class spa. Guests enter the 3,000 sqm Cinq Mondes Spa through an Instagram-worthy corridor that feels more decompression chamber than hallway. It’s been outfitted with leading-edge technology, hydraulic and air equipment, as well as 23 treatment rooms, seven scrub rooms, two private spa suites, two traditional hammams and Japanese bathtubs.

It’s here that we’re treated to a spa odyssey that certainly cleansed mind, body and soul after two years with little travel. After a 30-minute Tahitian scrub with organic Monoi, Tiaré sugar and coconut powder, we receive a traditional Thai couples massage for a cool 90 minutes. We leave feeling almost alarmingly relaxed and refreshed.

It’s a sensation that summarises the Raffles experience quite well. In spite of its immense scale, Raffles The Palm Dubai manages to provide a refreshingly intimate experience. For anyone looking for some easilyaccessible sunshine and unbridled luxury, you can’t really go wrong.

In spite of its immense scale, Raffles The Palm manages to provide a refreshingly intimate experience

Premier suites start from £290 per night including breakfast, raffles.com

02

THE RESTAURANT

Le Relais Plaza

THE APPOINTMENT OF JEAN IMBERT AS RESIDENT CHEF AT THE RECENTLY-REOPENED LE RELAIS PLAZA RUFFLED PLENTY OF FEATHERS AMONG FRANCE’S TOP FOOD CRITICS. LUXURY LONDON HOPPED ON THE EUROSTAR TO SEE WHAT ALL THE FUSS WAS ABOUT

Words: Rob Crossan

Last year, Paris’ esteemed food critics found themselves noisily spluttering into their confit de canard. This sort of choking fit happens rather a lot in Paris, an act that, one would imagine, does very little for the starched linen tablecloths of restaurants across the arrondissements.

It’s easy, you see, to raise the opprobrium levels of Parisian critics to the heat of a rotisserie chicken spit. Anything that disturbs the idea that French dining reached its creative zenith around 1909, and therefore cannot be improved upon, will induce fury. The idea of a chef who uses both Snapchat and a spatula is just plain offensant.

And so to the howls of pastisbreathed anguish from the gourmet establishment regarding the appointment of Jean Imbert as the resident chef at Hôtel Plaza Athénée.

You’ll know the hotel even if you haven’t stayed there; it’s the one on Rue de Montaigne with the overflow of cardinal red-hued geraniums on every balcony. You might not, however, be aware of Monsieur Imbert. Winner of France’s Top Chef TV competition in 2012, Imbert has since opened two restaurants with American rapper/record producer Pharrell Williams.

Venerable food critic François-Régis Gaudry called Imbert’s appointment “bling-bling”. “He has neither the CV nor the experience for such a place,” Gaudry added, claiming that Imbert’s celebrity selfies and brand tie-ins were “extra-culinary”.

The uproar was only heightened by the man Imbert replaced; Alain Ducasse; chef at Hôtel Plaza Athénée for more than two decades and a national figurehead for all that is elegant, subtle and restrained about fine dining.

What went largely unreported among the French press was the fact that 40-yearold supposed enfant terrible Imbert was actually trained at the Institut Paul Bocuse – the eponymous, elite, higher-education culinary school set up by the late Lyonbased chef who, even before he died, was referred to by other chefs as ‘God’.

It’s also worth pointing out that French chefs have always been keen to court celebrities. Auguste Escoffier himself, the founder of French cuisine as we know it, named his peach Melba dish after his friend, the opera singer Nellie Melba. If he were around today, there’s no doubt Escoffier would be doing corporate tie-ins with Chrysler and Chevalier and comping minor-league Kardashians.

At the time of Luxury London’s visit,

the full-scale Imbert dining experience had yet to open in Ducasse’s former La Cour Jardin space. The less formal experience in the Le Relais Plaza bistro was, however, well up and running, with lunch tables some of the most in-demand and bickered-over in Paris. Though to call Le Relais Plaza a ‘bistro’ is like calling Catherine Deneuve a soubrette. For this is one of the most beautiful dining rooms in all of France.

Deneuve, by the way, is on the wall of the narrow corridor that leads to Le Relais Plaza; her signed photo is surrounded by others of Ava Gardner, Sophia Loren and Naomi Campbell, the last of whom scrawled in pen underneath her picture that the visit to the Plaza made her feel very ‘Parisen’ (sic).

The dining room is an Art Deco museum piece; apt for the city that started the whole movement back in 1925 following the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. Built a decade later, Relais is a miasma of banana leaf plants, zodiac stained glass, sunbursts, zigzags and, most spectacularly, an immense gold lacquered tree-scape fresco behind the bar.

The chandeliers are original René Lalique and they give the place the kind of honeyed, amber tinged lighting that takes you to Golden Age Hollywood more than Europe. This is a space where you can imagine corpulent executives from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer dining with a petulant Joan Crawford, all blowing cigarette smoke at the varnished ceiling over vast martinis.

And so, what of the food? Well, the Parisian food traditionalists need to radically upscale their definitions of a chef ‘disrupter’. There’s nothing radical or nauseatingly novel in manner of serving ‘cassoulet inside a Michelin tyre’ or ‘sex on le plage’ cocktails here.

Imbert has created a notably concise menu of six starter choices and 10 main courses; a welcome change from the vast, bland ‘international’ style brasserie menu here before; one that was seemingly tailor-made for international guests who want every restaurant to serve the sort of food dished up by their golf club in the Hamptons.

Around me is a theatrical assemblage of Parisian figures. The Ronseal-tanned, Côte d’Azur-based octogenarian, sipping Moët with his mistress, both having flown into the capital for a carnal weekend of giflé et chatouille. The still lithe-legged matriarch, blonde bangs frozen in place, conspiring with her daughter at a corner table, both competing in a scarf war for who has the longest film spool of cashmere around their necks. An aspiring

There’s all but nothing here for veggies, vegans and the glutenfree; perhaps the closest Imbert gets to being genuinely contrarian

popstar, dressed in too-new leather, being cajoled by a despairing-looking female assistant in pin-striped culottes into ordering more than just a café au lait.

The food is, apparently, inspired by Imbert’s grandmother’s and is defiantly ignorant of contemporary trends. There’s all but nothing here for veggies, vegans and the gluten-free; perhaps the closest Imbert gets to being genuinely contrarian.

I opt for the foie gras terrine and porto jelly and am served a margarine tub-sized portion to smear on my spikeended mini baguette. Not too cold and wonderfully taut, the jelly bursts on impact with my spoon to reveal acres of goose liver that avoids the mousselike smoothness of inferior foie gras for something that glories in its own fat and doesn’t shrink from the back note of livery offal that it should possess. I ate and I ate and I thought I heard trumpets.

For main, there is a Gascon-style decadence to the dishes. ‘If I lunch on the beef fillet and foie gras in brioche pastry with dauphinoise I’m going to stay lunched for a year,’ I thought, before plumping for the only slightly less-sybaritic daily special (served every Thursday) of sausages in brioche.

Served with an admirable lack of sauces and reductions (a mere beaker of vinaigrette salad was the sole side), this was two slabs of slipper-soft brioche with a disc of pistachio-flecked sausage pressed into each slice.

Garlicy, herby and, above all, unapologetically musky and malodorous, this is the Platonic ideal of sausage mince. Lean but not emasculated of its piggyness, it’s a bold dish, emblematic of a chef whose confidence in himself has only risen in the face of a chicken-stock tsunami of criticism that serenaded his arrival here.

Imbert was working a shift while I dined. His hair is a feat of gravity; gravy brown and thick as a bramble bush, it stops just before the chandeliers. He grins at diners but never stops moving for a second as he makes a brisk tour of meet-and-greets.

By 12.25pm there was not a spare table in the place. Noticeably, since customers have actually started eating his food here, Imbert has been uncharacteristically quiet on social media, and the establishment critics have penned not a pejorative word.

21 Avenue Montaigne, 75008, Paris, dorchestercollection.com

THE OTHER HOUSE, SOUTH

KENSINGTON & COVENT GARDEN

Blurring the lines between traditional hotel, serviced apartments and private rental, The Other House will open two locations this year. Each of the two spaces, one in South Kensington’s Harrington Hall and the other in the Wellington Block in Covent Garden, will offer around 200 ‘club flats’, all of which come equipped with a bedroom, living area and kitchen. Designed to be used for both short- and long-term stays, all guests will be granted access to the Residents Club, which features a gym, pool, yoga studio and two bars.

Opening summer 2022, from £228 per night, otherhouse.com

ONE HUNDRED SHOREDITCH,

SHOREDITCH

The latest London opening from the group behind Sea Containers, One Hundred Shoreditch has been designed by Lore Group creative director Jacu Strauss, who’s fitted the hotel’s 258 rooms with vintage furniture and custom artwork. British seafood and an extensive range of all-day dishes will come courtesy of Goddard & Gibbs, while panoramic views and a foliagestrewn terrace are the lures of The Rooftop bar. There will also be a coffee shop from Ozone Coffee, and the latest cocktail bar from award-winning master mixologist Mr Lyan.

Opened March 2022, from £175 per night, onehundredshoreditch.com

03

THE OPENINGS

Home Suite Home

LONDON IS SET TO WELCOME A RAFT OF HOTEL OPENINGS IN THE COMING MONTHS. HERE’S WHERE TO STAYCAY IN 2022

Words: Zoe Gunn

INHABIT QUEEN’S GARDENS,

LANCASTER GATE

Following the success of its debut Paddington hotel, Inhabit will throw open the doors of its second site in nearby Bayswater in spring. The 159-room hotel was designed by Holland Harvey Architects and Caitlin Henderson Design, and will be set across a series of mid-century townhouses on a quiet square close to Lancaster Gate. Among the highlights will be a meat-free, largely vegan restaurant and bar, a library and an underground wellness space.

Opened March 2022, from £170 per night, inhabithotels.com

RAFFLES LONDON, WHITEHALL

Raffles London promises to be one of London’s most exciting new hotel openings in years. Housed within The OWO, the modern conversion of Whitehall’s Old War Office, the partnership will see Raffles operate a 125-room hotel, alongside offering hospitality services and facilities to 85 private residences. The development will include 11 bars and restaurants, a spa with a 20-metre indoor pool, and a 620-capacity ballroom.

Opening late 2022, rates TBA, raffles.com

CHATEAU DENMARK, SOHO

Inspired by the musical heritage of Soho’s Denmark Street, the vibe at the new Chateau Denmark will be rock’n’roll – think gilded detailing and sumptuous fabrics juxtaposed with graffiti and bold colour palettes. Spread across a series of Grade II-listed townhouses, the hotel’s suitestyle apartments will feature unique touches such as caricatures by Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten, hand-carved four-poster beds and party-ready DJ ports. Food will come courtesy of the first London outpost of modern Chinese fine-dining group Tattu.

Opening April 2022, from £510 per night, chateaudenmark.com

THE TWENTY TWO, MAYFAIR

The Twenty Two is a new boutique hotel and private members’ club on Grosvenor Square. Inhabiting a Grade II-listed Edwardian manor, the room features 31 rooms and suites designed by Natalia Miyar and Bambi Sloan, with a striking colour scheme contrasting with the building’s period features. An all-day restaurant will be helmed by executive chef Alan Christie, who has devised a modern British menu infused with southern European influences.

04

THE TOURNAMENT

The Richard Mille AlUla Desert Polo

AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF SAUDI ARABIA’S ALULA CANYONS, FOUR TEAMS CLASH IN THE WORLD’S FIRST DESERT POLO TOURNAMENT

Words: Kari Colmans

Translated as ‘first born’ in Arabic, it is only fitting that the grand city of AlUla provided the backdrop for the first ever modern polo tournament to be staged in a desert. Patrons and professionals from all over the world gathered for the weekend-long activities, which saw four teams unite in a visually exquisite arena.

Featuring big-industry names such as Adolfo Cambiaso, David ‘Pelon’ Stirling and Pablo Mac Donough from the Argentinian polo outfit La Dolfina, as well as the face of Ralph Lauren Black, Nacho Figueras, the prestigious event heralded the beginning of a national equestrian rollout, focussing on Saudi Arabia’s longstanding horseback-riding heritage and the sport’s deep cultural significance in the country.

While it was touch and go who would be the victor on Day One, with Team AlUla beating Team Bentley to advance to the final, Team Richard Mille then took the win over Team Saudia in the second match. Day Two saw Team AlUla come out victorious against their challenger Team Richard Mille to win the first ever Desert Polo trophy.

experiencealula.com

LOTUS EVIJA

05

THE SUPERCARS

Six of the Best

AS ASTON MARTIN, FERRARI AND LOTUS PUT THEIR LATEST HIGH-PERFORMANCE CREATIONS INTO PRODUCTION, HERE ARE THE MOST ANTICIPATED SUPERCARS (AND A THREE-WHEELER) OF THE COMING MONTHS

Words: Rory FH Smith

First revealed in 2019, the Evija represented a radical new dawn for Lotus. Not only was it the marque’s first EV, it was also the most extreme performance car to come out of the Hethel carmaker, aside from its iconic Formula One cars, of course. Firmly placing Lotus in the all-electric hypercar category, alongside the Rimac Nevera and Automobili Pininfarina Battista, the Evija is set to launch this year and boasts just short of 2,000 bhp. Limited to just 130 models, this Lotus will be a very rare sight when it hits the roads.

Expected Q2, from £1.7 million, lotuscars.com

LAND ROVER RANGE ROVER

After the covers came off the original Range 53 years ago, it’s time for the much-anticipated fifth generation to make its mark on the world’s city streets, country lanes, fields and fords. “Over time, it’s created an indelible stamp on the psyche of the country,” said Jaguar Land Rover’s chief creative officer, Professor Gerry McGovern, at the car’s unveiling in 2021. “It hasn’t changed too much – it’s evolved.” With its progressive looks, a tapered tail and cleaner interior, the fifth-generation Range Rover can rise to well over £130,000 with a few of the many options selected.

Expected Q2, from £94,400, landrover.co.uk

ASTON MARTIN DBX 707

For anyone that thought the standard Aston Martin DBX was lacking in power (with 542 bhp), the news that the marque is launching a more potent take on its sports-orientated SUV will be much welcomed. Called the 707 – which happens to be the exact figure that Aston has upgraded the power output to – the car is set to launch in the second quarter of the year when it will claim the title of ‘most powerful luxury SUV’ on the market. With more aggressive styling, a new grille, bigger rims and a more sports-orientated interior, the 707 should be a formidable opponent to the likes of Ferrari’s Purosangue or Bentley’s Bentayga Speed.

Expected Q2, from £189,000, astonmartin.com

FERRARI PUROSANGUE

The idea of a high-riding, off-road Ferrari is a little contradictory, right? Correct. But the never-ending rise of SUVs means that there’s no stopping the most iconic sports-car maker from pressing on with its most controversial model yet. Called the Purosangue – which translates as ‘thoroughbred’ – details of Ferrari’s first SUV are hard to find, but the marque’s former chief technology officer, Michael Leiters, revealed the car could accommodate a V6, V8 or V12 engine, with the two larger engines benefitting from some form of hybridisation. Lining up to compete with the likes of Aston Martin’s DBX 707, the Lamborghini Urus and the Bentley Bentayga Speed, the Purosangue will need to bring some Maranello magic to the SUV mix in order to stand apart.

Expected Q4, price TBA, ferrari.com

MORGAN THREE-WHEELER

Away from the automotive arms race being waged by the likes of Aston Martin, Mercedes and Lotus, plucky British brand Morgan is busy shaping up its new eccentric three-wheeler. Carrying on Morgan’s three-wheeled heritage, which dates back to the company’s origin in 1909, the new three-wheeler is their latest take on the unusual sports car that was produced between 2011 and 2021. Equipped with aluminium coachwork, a 1.5-litre three-cylinder engine from Ford and a transmission from the Mazda MX5, the three-wheeler promises to pack a fair bit of bite.

Expected Q2, price TBA, morgan-motor.com

MERCEDES-AMG PROJECT ONE

The Mercedes-AMG Project ONE is a rare example of F1 technology being engineered for the road. Slotting in a de-tuned version of the very same 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 hybrid that’s powered Lewis Hamilton’s F1 car, the Project ONE churns out more than 1,000 bhp with an expected top speed of more than 220mph. With the British champ believed to be one of the recipients of the £2.1 million car when they eventually hit the road later this year, expect to see one or two cruising around Monaco’s casino square sometime soon.

Expected late-2022, from £2.1 million, mercedes-amg.com

06

THE STAYCATION

The Old Bank Hotel

THE INDEPENDENTLY-OWNED OLD BANK HOTEL IS THE PERFECT BASE FROM WHICH TO EXPLORE THE CITY OF DREAMING SPIRES

Words: Annabel Harrison

There’s a small coffee house on Queen’s Lane, sandwiched between Queen’s College and Teddy Hall. Buses rumble and bikes race past as students sip coffee and devour late breakfasts. I revisit this friendly little café 16 years after my first visit – following an intimidating grammar lesson as a fresher in 2004. I didn’t appreciate, back then, that it had been in operation in some form or other since 1654 – but it doesn’t surprise me to learn. In this city, even little coffee houses have big stories to tell.

As anyone who has spent time in Oxford knows, there aren’t enough hours in the day, or days in the week, to scratch the surface of its history. It’s saturated. How best to try? Walking, walking and more walking. Allow hours for aimless meandering; peer into colleges as imposingly large doors swing shut, venture down narrow twisting lanes, and look up – at spires and gargoyles and mysterious facades. On this visit I’m looking down as much as up, though, from my terrace at the Old Bank Hotel – a stone’s throw from the Queen’s Lane Coffee House. Jeremy Mogford opened this hotel and its popular Quod restaurant in 1999 but its three buildings date back to the 13th century.

I’m staying in ‘The Room With The View’, as the hotel brands it. The room has a beautiful bathroom, sumptuous bed and kitted-out coffee station but it’s the terrace that makes it unique. I sip champagne as I gaze down at students scurrying to lectures or, just as likely, the pub, and out over the beautiful All Souls’ College and the Radcliffe Camera, using my in-room telescope – yes, really – for sights further away. Included in the rate is the mini bar – stocked with four full-size bottles as well as miniatures. There’s no bath due to building regulations but other rooms in the hotel do have them (in case a bath will make or break your stay).

I enjoy satisfying breakfasts in the calming Quod (served until 11am and with kids’ options, too), befriend the lovely front desk team and read in the cosy hotel library. I walk for hours, exploring the Ashmolean Museum and climbing hundreds of steps to the top of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, built in 1280 (book tickets online), where I can, in fact, look down on The Room With The View. This emphatic reminder that occasionally, my terrace is in fact someone else’s view, comes at the end of my visit. My return trip is imminent because, as ever, I leave Oxford longing to go back.

from £275 per night, oldbankhotel.co.uk

THE CHURCHILL SUITES

If you’d prefer to be a bit further from the city centre, stay at the Old Bank’s sister hotel, the 17th-century Old Parsonage. Its Churchill Suites – Winston and Randolph, after the war leader’s son – opened last summer. Scrutinise the rare photos on their walls before penning a letter at your own leather desk or snoozing in a handmade Epoc bed. Sir Winston would approve.