Mama Shelter Hotel
This designed hotel is called Mama Shelter, where the rooms start at 79 euros, and is the latest favorite address for usually spendthrift editors having to watch their expenses. During the couture show in January, it was no-vacancy hot spot, and for this month only the 299 euro rooms are still available. But Mama Shelter isn’t exactly an exercise in deprivation: every room comes with its own iMac, free WiFi and, of course, all the gold leaf and Lucite you’d expect from Starck.
The restaurant is a virtual party every night — the food is merely decent bistro fare, but the drinks are very special. What the hotel lacks (fawning lobby attendants, for example — you check yourself in at a kiosk), it makes up for with its buzzing 20th Arrondissement location. There’s excellent cooking down the street at Cafe Noir, and there are ultrahip French bands on the stage at La Fleche d’Or. The Trigano family, which owns the hotel, has said that based the success of this first outpost, they plan to expand their cheap-and-stylish concept globally. Perhaps an idea whose time has come again. Location: 109 rue de Bagnolet in the 20th district of Paris, France.
