60 Thompson

Class: First

Style: Cutting edge

Rooms: 100

Time was, a hotel’s life span was measured out in fractions of a century; now just staying around for the better part of a decade is a genuine achievement. Having opened towards the end of the early wave of downtown Manhattan boutique hotels, 60 Thompson, a few years in, can now rightly be called an established classic. The location doesn’t hurt, down one of SoHo’s swankier streets, and the carefully art-directed interiors have aged well (which is to say they haven’t visibly aged at all, unlike some other high-design vaguely Eastern-influenced properties). The soaring loft-style guest rooms are as quintessentially downtown as they come, a little bit luxe and a little bit boutique, with high-end Italian linens, 60 Thompson's Dean & Deluca pantries (we used to call them minibars) and bathrooms manage to be decadent and heavily marbled and yet stylish at the same time. Of course the rooms aren’t the whole story. A place like this lives and dies by its public spaces, which, in this case, are impeccable, from the guests-and-VIPs-only rooftop lounge to the Kittichai restaurant, an upscale Thai kitchen overseen by a Spice Market alumnus. This is the luxury boutique as it ought to be — plush but not precious, hip but not off-putting, and an authentic fixture in the nightlife of lower Manhattan.