Stay & Play
NH Collection New York Madison Avenue
by Randy Mink
Nostalgia for the 1950s and ’60s sets the tone in the swank lobby and adjacent bar of this fashionable hostelry on Madison Avenue, the Manhattan street synonymous with America’s golden age of advertising.
Relaxing next to backlit shelves displaying vintage radios, cameras, typewriters and books, I got totally absorbed in a coffee table tome filled with midcentury magazine ads pitching everything from cereal to cigarettes.
Located at the corner of East 38th Street and Madison Avenue in Midtown’s Murray Hill neighborhood, the 18-story NH Collection New York Madison Avenue occupies a 1920s red-brick building with Italian-style tile rooftops. The 288-room, AAA Four Diamond property, a member of Madrid-based NH Hotel Group, opened in 2021 after a big renovation. It won Luxury Travel Advisor’s 2022 Most Instagrammable Hotel in North America award.
The MAD Lounge & Bar features live jazz music weeknights. On my Friday stay, an opera singer, performing in front of the piano room’s fireplace, serenaded guests of the Mad Men-inspired cocktail den.
The hotel’s Serafina Restaurant, decorated with vintage photos of New York, serves contemporary Italian cuisine and has a wood-burning pizza oven. Don’t miss the elaborate, European-style breakfast buffet.
Within walking distance are the Empire State Building, Morgan Library, Grand Central Terminal, Fifth Avenue and Times Square. It’s nice to be close to the action but not in the middle of it.
