St. Petersburg is a city that’s full of surprises. Add Hotel Astoria to the list. Remember when hotels treated you like you were practically a visiting dignitary? This hotel still knows how to do it. And we all know that’s saying something. A comprehensive check-in experience with a concierge at the ready to answer even the smallest request will have you lingering in the lobby for fawning.“Where is the nearest ATM?” The response … “Well, let me take a few minutes and give you your options.”
Framed with red awnings sprouting signature black “A’s”, this member of the Rocco Forte Hotels takes full advantage of its prestigious location on St. Isaac’s Square directly across the street from the namesake Cathedral. A grand lobby out of Anna Karenina makes you feel like you’re truly in Russia and that sensation itself is worth a million bucks. Valets in bold red waistcoats festooned with rows of gold military buttons literally rush to meet you, because, why? They are so happy to see you, of course!
And the lovin’ does not stop there.
Décor here is Hollywood jazz age meets Russian opulence with a decidedly downtown sophistication, like a Russian version of New York’s Plaza Hotel with the requisite crystal chandeliers in the lobby. Hallways ooze Fred and Ginger elegance with gold leaf stenciled beige walls, low hanging oversized pendant lights with giant linen shades, a bright red carpet (because after all you’re a star here), and porthole doors delicately rimmed with cakebread like a film set of Cedric Gibbons, the famous MGM art director from Hollywood’s Golden Age who shaped the look of many of those 1930s sets. Junior suites are fitted out with a delicate modern sensibility and are big enough to make you feel like you could move in.
Someone at RF Hotels really has their finger on how a landmark hotel should look today. If a room at the Hotel Astoria was a dress, it’d be something original from Barney’s or Henri Bendel in New York. Start with ecru walls and blonde hardwood floors and add snazzy patterned carpets and headboards and lots of green accents to make it all pop, like striped green drapes, a green velvet club chair and screaming lime green ginger jar lamps. Toss in an olive green sideboard and green Murano glass vases here and there and you have a real color statement all set off by a mirrored wall in the sitting area. Did I forget to mention that there’s lots of furniture in this suite? You’ll want to try every piece. Accent pieces are cool and contemporary like in a Soho loft and the silver star sconce on the wall over the mini bar adds a dash of whimsy.
A huge bath with both tub and shower is luminous in subtle shades of white marble and mosaic with black marble trim. Red embroidered spa slippers with the signature “A” beg to be taken home and amenities from Ren Clean Skincare are thoughtfully original. There is no end to the details here at Hotel Astoria, like linen sheets and an espresso machine in every room. And, when you tire of lazing in your bed, you can draw a bath and study Sean Connery’s moves with Honor Blackman in a black and white still on the bathroom wall. All this celebrity worship ties back to the hotel’s intriguingly clandestine Lichfield Bar off the far end of the lobby, which has a stunning collection of the work of English superstar photographer Lord Patrick Lichfield.
Service is exemplary here and all throughout the establishment especially at Astoria Café, their signature restaurant. Don’t dare miss taking tea in the lobby’s Rotunda salon at least one of the days of your stay.