Crystal maker Baccarat opens NY hotel

French crystal maker Baccarat has launched its first hotel in New York – a luxurious urban retreat that boasts ‘push for Champagne’ call buttons and a 20 by 25 foot wall of crystal glassware.

The 12-storey Baccarat Hotel & Residences New York is the 250-year-old crystal maker’s first hotel. Located directly across from New York’s Museum of Modern Art and steps away from Fifth Avenue, the hotel remains true to its roots boasting a 125-foot wide “corrugated crystal-like curtain” that veils the hotel’s lower levels.

Inside are 114 guest rooms which include a custom-designed Baccarat mini bar and telephone handset with a button marked “Champagne” to allow guests to order a bottle of their favourite vintage on demand.

The hotel’s modern French restaurant, Chevalier, is overseen by Michelin-starred executive chef Shea Gallante and New York restaurateur Charles Massonwill. The Bar at Baccarat meanwhile is described as an “epic space” featuring barrel-vaulted ceilings, a 60-foot bar and an outdoor terrace overlooking the MoMA. It will serve hand-crafted cocktails, aperitifs and fine wines with guests able to sip from 15,000 pieces of mixed-and-matched Baccarat crystal stemware.

Entering the lobby, guests are met with a 20-by-25-foot wall adorned with more than 2,000 of Baccarat’s most iconic glasses, the Harcourt. Each custom-sized glass has been laid horizontally, and lit by an LED light to create a 24-hour light show.

The hotel also features a 50-foot indoor pool, an elite fitness training facility and the first Spa de La Mer in the United States.

“We are so thrilled to bring to life the new ‘House of Baccarat’- to take this legendary brand which has for centuries stood for perfection in crystal, and has never been compromised, to create its first modern lifestyle hotel masterpiece”, said Barry Sternlicht, chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital Group, the hotel management company that owns Baccarat. “I wanted to celebrate light, and to produce a hotel that glowed, and was shimmering, sensual, elegant but still functional, fun, comfortable, and not overly formal”.

“The hotel has every possible amenity a privileged client demands”, Sternlicht added. “Our goal is to offer perfection of service that matches Baccarat’s perfection in the production of crystal.”

Baccarat, founded by King Louis XV in 1764, employs nearly 550 people at its factory in Baccarat France near the Alsace-Lorraine border. It has produced glassware for kings, queens, tsars, sheiks, emirs and sultans, modern moguls, designers and rock stars.

Baccarat plans to open a second hotel in Rabat, Morocco, next year, followed by hotels in Dubai and Doha.