If being a hotelier hadn’t worked out for Ian Schrager, perhaps he could have been a philosopher-poet.
The nightlife vet, who co-founded legendary Studio 54, has announced updates to his downtown Public hotel in a lengthy press release filled with bizarre branding speak that proclaims, “Luxury is humanity.”
“I’m on a mission to create a masterpiece. I may never get there, but I’ll die trying,” Schrager declares, with the release going on to state that the Chrystie Street hotel’s latest version offers a chance to “clarify and demystify the idea” of “luxury for all.”
“Luxury is now accessible to everyone who wants it … and it should be. It’s egalitarian and democratized. Luxury today is about how something makes you feel, it’s emotional and visceral, and about comfort, ease, convenience as well as being freed from distractions and hassles and allowing more free time to do the things you really care about … Absolute freedom, to me, is contentment, emotional wellbeing, feeling good, protected and looked out for,” he writes.
The lobby will be for those who “come to work but have fun as well,” with something the release dubs, a “SOCIALIZE ON DEMAND” concept. The place also compares its level of service to that of “Amazon and Apple, and how they have mastered customer service and providing support and guidance when needed in an instant. At PUBLIC, like them, we are customer and product obsessed.”
What we did manage to understand from the word salad was that chefs Diego Muñoz and John Fraser will work on restaurant LOUIS, and Muñoz will also be cooking up Peruvian-inspired cuisine at restaurant Popular. The pair will also be working together on another space, Cantina & Pisco Bar, which will turn into a Latin club. There’s also landscaping by Madison Cox.
Elon Musk recently celebrated his “Saturday Night Live” hosting gig at the downtown hotel with a cryptocurrency-themed bash, which a guest told us had girls dressed as aliens walking around with trays of Dogecoin-themed cookies and cupcakes.