Now Booking The Bohemian, Savannah

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Now Booking The Bohemian, Savannah
October 8, 2009
By Joshua David Stein
The Moment

Savannah, Ga., is a city of Spanish moss-choked squares and an unending cavalcade of hotels. Half the town, it seems, is hotel lobbies. So the most surprising thing about the Bohemian, which opened this summer, is how necessary it seemed.

Set on the steep banks of the River Savannah, the 75-room hotel is the first ground-up construction on the waterfront in 17 years. (The hotel boom has mostly been inland.) With its cast-iron and brick facade, it could have been there for ages, while its neighbor, the beige monolithic Hyatt, could only be a product of the 1980s. Inside the Bohemian, the nine floors drip with art — more than 250 pieces — one of the signatures of the Kessler Group, the Bohemian’s owner. Many works are by the hotel’s featured artist, the Miami-based Richard Gore, whose work comes across as that of a slightly less skilled N.C. Wyeth. But the lobby — which contains, among other things, two giant wooden balls, a mermaid sculpture and a painting of two fishermen setting out to sea — manages to contain multitudes and still not fall into the rococo country-inn cliché.
the bohemian bathroomCourtesy of the Bohemian The Bohemian pays homage to local history with furniture reminiscent of the first settlers.

The Kessler Group also runs the Mansion, Savannah’s other nice boutique hotel, and a slew of regional resorts; it is to the Southeast what Misters Goode and MacPherson are to New York City. Like at the Bowery, the Bohemian channels the local history through a modern design aesthetic. In my room a custom-made carved wood sculpture supporting a marble sink depicted a square-rigged schooner reminiscent of the Anne, which brought the first settlers to Savannah in 1733. The headboard was colonial chic, thick purple velvet in a heavy dark wood frame. Oyster-shell sconces lighted the bathroom. From the balcony you could watch ships glide past, laden with shipping containers — little else seems to have changed, besides, of course, the in-room wi-fi.

Where the hotel really excels and almost goes over the top, is at the Rocks on the Roof, its rooftop lounge and one of the city’s boîtes of the moment. Glass garage doors — à la SoHo’s Delicatessen — lead to a balcony overlooking the river, where the bar serves drinks with glow sticks and calamari to a crowd of nouveaux bohemians. One of the draws of the place for locals is that it replaces the molasses-slow pace of Southern life with a truly urban scene. During the weekend, a line extends three deep from the bar down the hallway and spills onto the street. Just like Studio 54. Kinda. As a guest, the boom-tsk-boom-tsk beat and the pleading with the bouncers might be a bit much. Better to head off into the squares and pass midnight in the city’s gardens of good and evil.