New York’s Washington Square Hotel

Norah Jones no longer works as a breakfast waitress at the legendary Washington Square Hotel in Greenwich Village, in Lower Manhattan, but the hotel’s owners helped her get a break. She gave them a CD she’d recorded and asked if she could do a gig at their regular and popular Sunday Jazz brunch. The owners were impressed, and Norah Jones got her gig.

The hotel’s connection with musicians is nothing new, as among the people who have stayed there over the years are The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, The Mamas and Papas, John Sebastian, Roger McGuinn, Bo Diddley, Barbra Streisand, and the Ramones. It’s got literary connections too as Dylan Thomas and Ernest Hemingway have both stayed here.

When it was a hang-out for musicians playing the folk and jazz clubs of Greenwich Village, it was nowhere near as smart and plush as it is today. When Joan Baez looked back on her relationship with Bob Dylan in one of her best-known songs, Diamonds & Rust, she referred to the Washington Square Hotel – then known as the Earle Hotel – as ‘that crummy hotel over Washington Square’.

‘Crummy’ is one word no-one could use about the place today. Chic, yes. Boutique, maybe. Stylish, cosmopolitan, characterful, artsy – definitely. From the lobby which evokes 1930s Paris, to the ceramics on the walls, the acclaimed restaurant, and the lobby bar with its current photo exhibition of Marilyn Monroe portraits, the Washington Square oozes character and atmosphere. It’s still a place where musicians might stay, but it would have to be after they got their big break as rooms range from about $250-400 a night.

Washington Square Hotel Amenities
Those room rates do include a breakfast at the classy North Square restaurant, free wireless internet, and use of the fitness room. Accommodations range from Superior rooms to Deluxe and Executive rooms, the more expensive rooms being much more spacious and with views of either the city or Washington Square Park.

Washington Square Hotel Location
The hotel stands on the north-west corner of the park, and just a few minutes’ walk from Bleeker Street and the heart of Greenwich Village. Some of the music venues where the likes of Dylan and Baez played in the 1960s are still going strong. The best-known names to play at the Café Wha? were Dylan and Jimi Hendrix, while the Bitter End has hosted just about anybody who is anybody, as a list in the window shows: Woody Allen, Neil Young, Stevie Wonder, The Indigo Girls, James Taylor, John Denver, David Crosby, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Odetta, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and, yes, Norah Jones too.

If you’re more interested in exploring the rest of New York then there are several subway stops within a few minutes’ walk, giving you easy access to Lines A, B, C, D, F, M, 1, and 2. The hotel is at the eastern end of the West Village and close to the East Village, Chelsea, Little Italy, Union Square, and SoHo.

North Square Restaurant at the Washington Square Hotel
The hotel’s North Square restaurant is a culinary star in itself. Zagat gave it 24/30 for its food, which puts it just a notch short of the ‘extraordinary to perfection’ category, and that’s pretty impressive for any hotel restaurant. Maybe the rooftop garden helps, as it provides fresh ingredients for the kitchen.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H5SW0HGFqA]We were lucky to be there during New York Restaurant Week when North Square put on an excellent-value $35 three-course dinner. The Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with fennel crème fraîche and dill was superb, as were the seared scallops with an unusual beet couscous. Mains included an exceptional Wild North Atlantic Arctic Char with a delicious basil risotto and black truffle sauce, while the Butterscotch Banana Bread Pudding was – as the waitress had promised – one of the best bread puddings I’ve ever tasted.

If you’re staying at the Washington Square Hotel then your complimentary continental breakfast is served in North Square, which is more fun and lively than the usual hotel breakfast room as it’s also catering to diners coming in off the street.

North Square is open daily for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with a Sunday jazz brunch too. And who knows – you might be served by the next Norah Jones.