If you’ve watched Gordon Ramsay’s cutthroat competition show Hell’s Kitchen, currently in its fifth season on Fox, you know the celebrity chef has a knack for pissing people off. Last summer, a public falling out between Ramsay – the only three-Michelin-star chef in London – and his protégé Marcus Wareing prompted The Berkeley hotel to change the name of its Ramsay-affiliated restaurant Pétrus. Now called Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley, the restaurant may have lost its association with Ramsay and gained a rather unoriginal name, but the fact that nothing else has changed – not the chef, his team, the elegant simplicity of the deep purple décor and circle motif, nor its two-Michelin-star rating – means that it still ranks as one of London’s top dining spots. Expect modern European cuisine with dishes like poached Scottish lobster with braised trotters and vanilla butter and roasted Cumbrian lamb with green olives, fennel, and smoked lamb bacon. Pétrus, meanwhile, is due to reopen (minus chef Wareing, of course) in a new, as yet undisclosed, London location later this year.

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Ian Schrager may have sparked a flame in 1984 with the Morgans hotel in New York City, but the watershed for the boutique hotel genre wasn’t until 1998, when Starwood launched its hip W brand. The boutique model – design-conscious, intimate, unique to its location – took off, and big brands have been trying to get a piece of the success ever since.

Starwood recently launched another group, Aloft (pictured at right), with rates on a par with budget chains (around $150/night) and loftlike rooms by David Rockwell, with high ceilings, large windows, and lots of gadgets. As with W hotels, there’s an emphasis on hangout spots, such as a self-serve gourmet café and a pool area with WiFi. Nineteen Alofts opened in 2008 (Montreal, Philadelphia, and Beijing were a few of the first), and about 30 are slated for 2009. Read the rest of this post »