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Chris West
Unless they suddenly get greedy, the owners of New York’s Cassa Residences should make pretty good money for the next 15 years. Cassa’s smart, not grand. It’s not asking you to pay for some fancy marble – there isn’t any. It’s not asking you to pay for the view – there isn’t one of those…
I heard recently that the UKs most renowned food critic has just tried to insure his nose. I imagine this kind of thing goes on all the time: film critics insuring their eyes, music critics their ears. Being a critic is a serious job and I also intend to take it seriously: I’ve thought about…
You can stay in a hotel worse than The Empire. You’d be unlucky to stay somewhere more disappointing. The Empire is a one hundred year old legend, part of New Yorks hotelscape and it’s just had an expensive revamp. The Empire is somewhere New Yorkers hold dear they don’t want to stay there but they…
The von Essen hotel chain has always had something of the Bond villains evil empire about it to me. There’s Cliveden, the undeniably grand but slightly louche front that 007 first encounters. But once inside, he’d pick up some information that led him onto all the other stuff: the helipad in London- for quick getaways,…
The Sir Bani Yas Island Resort isn’t the most extravagant spot in Abu Dhabi – and it’s better for it. In a territory where the first paved road was laid in 1960, but which now commissions and completes new acts of architectural bravura quicker than other countries draw up plans for a bathroom extension, the…
Here at LUSSO, we’re going to take a moment to celebrate the good that others do. The more cynical of you might want to flick forward a couple of pages and find out where your next exclusive beach break is coming from. But you’d be missing out not just on the kindness that man can…
Choose a London hotel for under £100 a night and you are hoping the physical basics are covered and you can get some sleep. Have the sheets been changed? Is the shower tray clean? Is the carpet meant to be flecked or does it have crabs? When you double that price, you’re sure the basics…
Felix Dennis has a lot of everything. His fifty-or-so magazines and websites have earned him more money than he can count over the last 30 years. Let’s say $700 million though, give or take the odd $50 million, with plenty of backstory to go with it. The crack cocaine addiction isn’t the interesting bit, it’s the…
It should be like sitting down to watch an action film where the lead role of a New York taxi driving sociopath is taken by renowned bad boy The Honourable Sir Rocco Forte: “You talking to me? Well, I’m the only one here. Who the fuck would you like to talk to? Concierge finishes at…
What is it with shoes? Carrie fantasises over them in SATC. Men spending around 800 to buy a pair at Berlutti in London’s Conduit Street automatically join a club whose members meet up in Paris salons at night to spray Champagne onto their purchases before vigorously polishing them off. And for me, one of my…