HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STAYCATION
Now that Harry Potter has settled in for a lengthy stay in Pacific Science Center, Seattle’s “It” spot for high-vaulted-ceiling dolphin murals, Hotel Monaco is outing itself as a diehard Hogwarts fan. The hotel bequeaths to would-be sorcerers and weekend warriors a deal for deluxe accommodations and discounted tickets to Harry Potter: The Exhibition. The tickets cover entrance to the Mindbender Mansion exhibit as well, and because its 40 brainteasers are about 39 more than the average person should handle at once, you won’t be asked to solve any more problems during your stay, including parking. The hotel will throw in discounted round-trip monorail passes, thereby eliminating your need to circle the same block 12 times for a spot.
Everyone knows you can’t explore the Gryffindor common room on an empty stomach, and the Purple Café and Wine Bar, two blocks from the hotel, is a great pit stop for Gorgonzola-pear pizza or lobster baked mac and cheese (which, sadly, isn’t baked by a lobster). The floor-to-ceiling pillar of wine bottles flanked by a spiral staircase is a testament to the restaurant’s extensive vino list—so extensive, in fact, that the wine menu fills 64 pages and ends with a five-page glossary of terms, most of which you’d swear weren’t actual words.
PICKY PEOPLE PICK PICASSO
The Mayflower Park Hotel on the corner of Fourth and Olive Way welcomes guests with vases of fresh flowers flanked by a gradient of beiges and muted reds underneath a grand crystal chandelier. And that’s just the lobby. The plush couches, wooden armoires, and bathrobes in every room are the kinds of cozy touches that will make you feel like you haven’t even left home (in a good way). Constructed in 1927 and family owned for 38 years, the hotel is on one of the only city corners still made up of all its original structures—among them the wedge-shaped Times building, completed in 1896.
A quick stroll through the hotel corridor lands you smack-dab in the middle of Westlake Center, which hosts the annual Tree Lighting Festival, preceded by the Macy’s Holiday Parade featuring marching bands, drill teams, balloon floats, and more costumed characters strutting down Pine and University than you’ll ever find strutting down Pine and University. (If you’re reading this after November 26, the date of these festivities, they were fantastic, right?)
Through January 7, the Mayflower Park is offering “P Squared,” a package including classic or deluxe accommodations, a 15 percent dinner discount at Andaluca (the hotel’s Mediterranean restaurant), and two VIP passes (no waiting in line!) to the Picasso exhibit now at Seattle Art Museum. They won’t throw in a set of steak knives if you call in the next five minutes, but you can enter a drawing for a chance to win another hotel package. Think of it as the Mayflower Park’s holiday mitzvah.
THE HOLE IN THE WALL GANG
The door to the Pensione Nichols, near the corner of First and Virginia, is barely a gap in the brick—the sign depicting a boy in a fez the only indication there’s anything of interest two flights up. Proprietor Lindsey Nichols, who opened the boutique bed-and-breakfast in 1989 while her mother ran a small antique shop downstairs, wouldn’t have it any other way. “We’re this little secret…you’re not quite sure what’s at the top.”
What’s at the top, aside from the friendly face of Theo, the owner’s Cavalier King Charles spaniel, is a simple, cozy corridor leading to a simple, cozy dining room with couches, a piano, and a cathedral-grade view of the Sound so awe inspiring you’ll be hit with an immediate desire to confess your sins. And the rooms? Yellow pastel safe havens bright enough to combat the perpetually gray Pacific Northwest sky.
Published: December 2010
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