Mary Panttaja

The sign out front says Bed and Breakfast, but its called 414 Hotel. I found it by buying the Rough Guide to New York City to find out what they recommended in the less expensive range of hotels. Looking at reviews of other cheap hotels on line was very disconcerting—raves and awful pictures of mold giving conflicted and confusing images. But the 414 Hotel was listed in the Rough Guide as the best of the cheap hotels. (Cheap is not a good word for this place; it’s too clean, nice, and elegant for that.)

It has been created from two townhouses that have a little garden patio between them, where you can sit in the evening or morning air. The rooms are nice, modern decor (even a gigantic flat screen tv on the wall), full baths. Service is excellent. The only down-side, really is the dark gray covering the walls in the hallways.

It’s a west-side style neighborhood (sensible, since it is on the west side) though a little more business-like than the cozy upper west side. The block is lined with trees and homes, and the next block has an array of restaurants. It was only a three block walk back from our play last night, which is a dream after a long night at the theatre.

We will try to stay here often, though they seem to be pretty booked in advance.

We got a bit of exercise this morning, walking from midtown to Chelsea for a meeting (about 2. 5 miles). We are also having coffee later with our nephew, Andrew, who works for TPM Media as an associate editor for this important political blog.

PS. We are sitting at an outside table in the Chelsea district (southern end of Manhattan) on a beautiful summer-like morning, not too hot yet. The restaurant is called Pastis. Jim has his network working and we’re both working on our blogs. What a way to work, eh? LM