Perhaps it is the Holden Caulfield in me, I have a similar distaste for “phonies” but I maintain a certain attraction to sipping cocktails in hotel bars. There is something refined about it, the patrons tend to be, if not worldly, at least on an expense account. One can enjoy libations served by slightly more polished, waist-coated bartenders with their offering of mixed nuts, and the surroundings are generally, swank.

Of course, the drinks can be considerably more expensive, but rarely have I found catwalk quality cocktail waitresses in little black dresses and thigh-high boots serving rounds in my local watering hole. Deep down there is also an underlying sexiness to consuming hard spirits in such close proximity to floors and floors of king-size beds.

New York City is blessed with some of the greatest hotels, and not coincidentally some classic hotel bars; the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis with its naughty Maxfield Parrish mural, the Plaza’s Oak Bar and a bevy of hipper-than-thou Whisky Bars. Over the past few years mixing and mingling in hotel bars has risen in popularity faster than a stripper at a Shriner’s convention. With the increase of those lobbying for an evening in a lobby bar unfortunately too has come the omnipresent velvet rope and bodybuilding bouncer, complete with the prerequisite black turtleneck and Janet Jackson World Tour headset.

A perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of the lobby bars of the new boutique hotels is the dark and quiet lounge at the Gramercy Park Hotel. Located at the foot of Lexington Avenue directly across the street from the lovely, albeit forbidden, Gramercy Park, this hotel bar has very few of the annoyances found at the newer, hotter, and true, hipper establishments.

You won’t need to shout over trip-hop being blasted through an elaborate sound system. Nor will you be forced to stand three deep at the bar, as an actor/model/bartender attempts to make a lowfat Cosmo for a B and Ter who owns the first two seasons of Sex in the City on DVD. This is perhaps an anti-hotel bar hotel bar, the surroundings are not necessarily pretty and the patrons may actually be guests of the hotel, but I rarely have any reservations about stopping in for a cocktail. – C.M.