Lydmar Hotel

Imagine if Brooks Brothers decided to open a stylish, hip new hotel for young execs. It hasn’t. But that’s where Hotel Lydmar enters, stage right. The boutique hotel (opened October 2008) near the National Museum projects coolness without all the nightclub hoopla and black T-shirts. The glossy, ribald art on the walls may look like it’s lifted from a Taschen coffee-table book, but the hotel retains its seriousness. The seemingly impossible combination of cozy and slick is most evident just past the reception, where the almost always crowded bar and restaurant abut a living room with a Chesterfield sofa and bookshelves filled with a mix of wine and books. The rooms, formerly part of the National Museum archive, feel more like homey apartments than anything you’d find in a hotel, thanks to an alluring use of textured fabrics (velvet), soothing color accents, and ample sunlight.