Hotel Chatter

Who's thirsty? It's time for another installment of our Summer Cocktails series. All summer long we'll profile fun new summer drinks served at hotels around the world. Got one we should know about? Send us the recipe with a photo of the drink. Otherwise, enjoy and @reply us when you're wasted!

Man, are we going to miss Summer Fridays. It's our favorite part of the week, not only because, well duh, it's Friday, and duh, it's time for a cocktail or ten—no, we're also going to miss them because oh, we do love making all these bad puns that seem to come free of charge with our Summer Cocktails.

And here's one just brimming

After a long, leisurely dinner in one of the private dining rooms at Andaz Wall Street's Wall & Water last night, we couldn't even fathom the concept of dessert. We'd already sampled plates of charcuterie and cheeses, and feasted on Roasted Young Chicken with peas, fava beans and morels stew, Grilled Wild Striped Bass with broccoli raab and a delicious Grilled Skirt Steak with red onion, green tomato salad and baked sweet potato ("so much better than real potatoes," according to one person in our party.)

We know, right? Totally stuffed! But then we saw this vision in a row of ramekins. A dainty lineup of six different desserts which had us forgetting we were full in

Boobs. That's what the German Oktoberfest celebrations is all about, right? Wrong, but we're at least close. On September 18th, Munich will tap the first kegs to kick off the month-long festival of beer, brats, bretzeln (pretzels) and yes—boobs too. You see, the Bavarian traditional costume for women is a Dirndl, a highly decorated peasant dress of sorts, which is typically specially made and heavy on the cleavage-baring.

If you're thinking of heading to Munich for Oktoberfest this year and you like the look of these Dirndls, the the Rocco Forte Collection property The Charles Hotel at the center of the city has a deal for you: their "Dressed for Oktoberfest" package.

Is that the death knell for the Hotel Pennsylvania we hear? Yes, we know, we've braced for this before, but this latest turn of events sounds to us like the end is nigh: the City Council has approved Vornado Realty Trust's plans for a 1,200-foot office tower for the site.

As The New York Observer reports, a Vornado spokesman says the building would be an "outstanding addition to New York's iconic skyline" but many New Yorkers disagree. The loudest opposition is coming from Empire State Building owner Anthony Malkin, who worries about the new skyscraper stealing thunder from his own.

Last week we were mulling over the new Hotel Athenée in Paris, this week our attentions are focused on another new property in la cité of light.

hLike the Athenée, the Marais Bastille is a new hotel opening in an old property of the same name (it used to be a Best Western). It’s been decorated by Michel Jouannet, who also did the cute Villa Madame in Saint Germain, and from the website, it’s looking lovely – bright primary colors mixed with white walls and outré art on the walls.

Last week, we took a break from the difficult work of sleeping

We know it's Thursday and you've probably had a rough week and hearing about the latest grossest thing found in a hotel room is not what you want to hear right now. But you are going to want to hear this story, if only to make sure that on your next hotel stay you triple-check that the room is clean.

A family staying at the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Atlanta checked into the hotel late at night on Aug. 1 and noticed that the room didn't seem too clean. The AJC reports:

[Guest Carmen] Jones said she and her cousin checked into the 175 Piedmont Avenue hotel around 7 p.m. on July 31 after spending

A few years ago Thompson Hotels was rumored to be working on a Puerto Rico project with hotelier Jason Pomeranc slipping to Travel + Leisure that plans were in the works. But we haven't heard anything about this hotel for quite sometime. Until yesterday.

A reader emailed us about the renderings on the Studio Gaia website which we wrote up last March. (This is the same design firm where we found the renderings for Thompson Toronto as well.) So we decided we should probably check in on this hotel again.

Sadly, there's no good news here. The Thompson San Juan is not happening anytime soon according to our sources. There was a possibility

Eco-conscious travelers heading to Maryland over Labor Day weekend can bunk at Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott - Baltimore Inner Harbor, the city's first green hotel.

The limited-service Fairfield Inns aren't exactly the most exciting of Marriott's brands. But the Baltimore outpost tries to make itself stand out from the ho-hum hotels by monopolizing on its building, converted from a brewery, and adding a bar, and by going green.

Finding a hotel is often only one part of your trip. The other half is getting there. And our bro Jaunted does a bang-up job of covering the latest news and trends in the travel world. Out in Vegas, VegasChatter is keeping us informed on what's going down in Sin City.

VegasChatter
· An Interview with a Vegas Legend: NORM CLARKE
· 10 Things Dudes Should Not Do In Vegas
· No Cheap Shots About Cheap Trick - It's Really, Really Good
· Cover Your Ta-Tas at the Flamingo's GO Pool

Jaunted
· Will Facebook Places Become a Source for Travel Tips?
· The Next 'Survivor' Secret Location Revealed: Nicaragua