The Fifth Avenue Hotel

The food, drink and service are impeccable and the over-the-top surroundings a feast for the senses.

The experience is one of dreamlike intimacy—the feeling that at the end of an ornate, Alice in Wonderland hallway sits your own Flatiron pied-à-terre with 24-hour butler service and an on-demand martini cart in the evenings.

If you’re in the mood for a change from the big hotel brands that run up and down the spine of Manhattan, and want to nestle into something more intimate, the Fifth Avenue Hotel is for you.

This is New York, but you might not leave the hotel. There’s in-room martini service, and downstairs is one of the city’s best new restaurants, the old-school-luxe Café Carmellini, as well as the Portrait Bar, home to some of the town’s best martinis (outside of your room).

Café Carmellini is earning buzz thanks to beloved New York City chef Andrew Carmellini, but don’t miss the Portrait Bar, a wood-paneled boîte where the cocktail menu takes cues from the staff’s travels.

The Fifth, as those in the know call it, brought new life into Manhattan’s hospitality scene with 153 rooms and suites decorated in a maximalist style by the firm of designer du jour Martin Brudnizki.

Long gone, apparently, are the days when Manhattan luxury boutique hospitality was synonymous with minimalism. From the humblest queen room all the way up to the signature suites — one named for Baudelaire — the accommodations are rich with detail and full of high-end comfort.