Las Alcobas

A single door on Avenida Presidente Masaryk, the Polanco avenue lined with jewellers and fashion houses, leads into Las Alcobas, Mexico City. Nothing on the pavement announces a hotel. The entrance could pass for one more boutique, and the lobby beyond it is the size of a private sitting room. That discretion was the point when the house opened in 2009, and it still separates the house from the other luxury hotels in Mexico City, most of them towers on Paseo de la Reforma.

History

In 2009 the capital had large hotels in Polanco and along Reforma but no small house run at the level of a European townhouse hotel. Las Alcobas, whose name means the bedchambers, was conceived to fill that gap. The owners gave the interiors to Yabu Pushelberg, the studio of George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg, and opened with a restaurant by Martha Ortiz, one of the most recognised cooks in the country. Her Dulce Patria took the ground floor of the adjoining building and became a destination in its own right. In 2015 the hotel joined The Luxury Collection, the roster of independent houses marketed by Starwood and later Marriott, which brought a wider clientele without altering the character of the place. A second Las Alcobas opened in St. Helena, in the Napa Valley, in 2017.

Architecture and design

The building is a narrow modern block, and Yabu Pushelberg treated it as a residence rather than a hotel. Warm timber, leather and bronze set the tone in the lobby; corridors are quiet and short. The studio's signature is restraint, and here it shows in the proportions of the rooms, the hand-finished joinery and the absence of anything that looks like hotel furniture. Light comes from the street side on the upper floors, where the avenue's trees are at window level.

Rooms and suites

There are 35 rooms and suites in all, which keeps the staff-to-guest ratio high and the atmosphere domestic. Each room has a dressing area and a bathroom with a separate rain shower; several have a deep tub. The suites add a sitting room, and the largest look over the avenue. Beds are dressed in linen rather than polyester, the minibars are stocked with Mexican products, and a pillow menu and in-room check-in are standard. Guests tend to be repeat visitors on business or long weekends, and the hotel keeps notes on their preferences.

Dining

Anatol, the hotel's own restaurant, opened on the ground floor in 2013 with a short menu built on Mexican produce and a wood-fired oven, and serves breakfast through dinner. Dulce Patria, next door, is Martha Ortiz's statement on Mexican cooking: dishes composed like still lifes, a dining room in pink and gold, and a menu that moves with the national calendar. Guests of Las Alcobas can book it through the concierge, which matters on weekend evenings. The hotel bar is small and used mostly by residents.

Wellness

Aurora Spa occupies a compact space with treatment rooms and a steam room, enough for a hotel of this size, and offers massages and facials based on Mexican botanicals. There is a fitness room with cardio equipment. The house has no swimming pool.

Weddings and events

Las Alcobas is a hotel for private dinners rather than receptions. It has no ballroom. A private dining room and the restaurant can be reserved for small meetings, board dinners and family celebrations, and the concierge arranges larger gatherings at venues nearby. Couples who marry in Mexico City sometimes use the hotel as the family base, with the ceremony and dinner elsewhere in Polanco.

Location

Polanco is the city's most comfortable district for a visitor: broad pavements, embassies, galleries and the best run of restaurants in the capital, including Pujol and Quintonil a few streets away. Chapultepec park and the Museo Nacional de Antropología are about fifteen minutes on foot. Museo Soumaya and Museo Jumex, in the newer Nuevo Polanco quarter, are a similar distance. Benito Juárez International Airport is between thirty minutes and an hour by car, depending on the hour; the Polanco metro station is within walking distance, though most guests use the hotel car.