New York for Insiders: New hotel Ace has rocker vibe and hyped chef April Bloomsfield on-board

The newest and coolest cat in the NY hotel scene is the Ace, which, as W magazine puts it, sits "on a less-than-fashionable corner of Manhattan: the intersection of West 29th Street and Broadway, which teems with bootleg fragrance shops and vendors hawking pleather belts for two bucks a pop."

Is it Koreatown? Flatiron? Somewhere in between? Who knows!

Nothing like a hip hotel to change around a neighbourhood... uh, hello, Bowery?

The Ace is unabashedly young and rock'n'roll, and even sells guitar strings:

I love how they display their for-sale wares...

The art was commissioned specially for the hotel, by owner Alex Calderwood himself.

Calderwood is the man behind the Ace brand. He started it with a small hotel in his native Seattle and now owns branches in Portland, Oregon and Palm Springs, CA.

The aim? To be cool but not overly expensive. There are even a few rooms with bunkbeds for the cash-strapped hispters...

The Ace's restaurant Breslin hasn't opened yet but is already causing waves. Why? Because it's owned by hyped chef April Bloomsfield and partner Ken Friedman, of Spotted Pig fame (never mind that their seafood boîte John Dory just shuttered, the pair always garner great press).
New York mag's Grub Street blog showed a couple of days a go some beautiful renderings of what Breslin will look like. As for the cuisine, think gastropub with a heavy nose-t0-tail slant.

Here's the Ace's bar, already open for business:

I love the quirkiness of the décor...

But I think the rooms remind me a bit of university rez. Despite the vintage fridges, Gibson acoustic guitars, turntables and vinyls sprinkled throughout...