The new Aloft Hotel by W opened this week. As a reward for my austistic son (who loves hotels) for a great first week at school, I booked a room Friday (no mean feat) and spent the night there Saturday.
The hotel itself is beautiful, somehow managing to blend industrial chic with friendliness. The large lobby has concrete floors, high ceilings, exposed duct work, lots of trendy colors and geometric lounge seating. It's one big open area that includes the wxyz lounge which has indoor and outdoor seating. We particularly liked this outdoor seating arrangement with fireplace:
Check-in was fairly quick, once the staff member learned how to do it. Easy to forgive since the hotel's only been open a few days. We checked out the pool area, which is adjacent to, but fenced off from, the outdoor lounge.
And then headed to the wxyz lounge for drinks and snacks. I loved that they had a drink called the "Tallahassee Lassie." It was tasty, as was the Classic Mojito. We tried the Asian Glazed Wings ($8), which my son loved, and Steamed Edamame ($8) which were not bad, but not as good as our favorite edamame at Masa.
The bar staff infuses three flavors of vodka in-house - from left to right: cranberry, bubblegum, and blueberry. For the bubblegum, they use a whole tub of Bazooka gum. I had a little taste; it was amazing how the flavor of the gum really transfers to the vodka. wxyz uses it to make a Bubbletini.
We also shared and enjoyed a club sandwich on crossaint and a chicken Caesar salad. Later we treated ourselves to a pint of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia, a real bargain at only $3.50 from the 24-hour re-fresh gourmet take-out area in the lobby.
For breakfast this morning, we shared a breakfast sandwich (egg, sausage and cheese on an English muffin) for $3.50, a banana and a chocolate milk.
Next up, more about our room!
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