The Palm Court, social center of the new Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid
Three years is nothing for a century-old hotel, but The city of Madrid has been long, very long these last three years without its Ritz which has just reopened after a complex restoration that has showered it with light, joy, art, lots of art, and the contemporary elegance of the Mandarin Oriental group.
Of course this Mandarin Oriental it doesn't look like any other. This is still that: the Ritz.
"This is a hotel with its history, with its legacy, an iconic hotel very connected to the city of Madrid and now, after this restoration, perhaps with contemporary touches, but always respecting 1910 and what César Ritz created then”, Australian Greg Liddell, general manager of the new Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid, tells us, more than satisfied with the result.
Deessa, Quique Dacosta's gastronomic restaurant
The result is noticeable, and boy is it noticeable, from the entrance doors, which today measure four meters again to give a big welcome, as its guests and visitors deserve. Also in the opening of a second access, the one on the façade facing the Padro Museum, which in recent times has been closed and which today also allows you to see the museum from the same lobby.
Because entering the new Mandarin Ritz is to feel the Prado, almost touch it.
There, in its rooms dedicated to Spanish Golden Age, to the baroque, to Velázquez It is where they have found the inspiration for the restoration the architect Rafael de La-Hoz and the French interior designers Gilles et Boissier.
The challenge: reinvent yourself by finding the new in the old. Change everything so that everything stays the same. For this they have also recovered the great glass vault of the Palm Court, social heart of the hotel, that had been hidden for 80 years.
Quique Dacosta and his team are also in charge of the proposal of the garden and the picnics
Natural light, lots of plants and sets of mirrors next to the tables. Geometry of Thought, the artist Juan Carlos García Pérez has called this ability to observe without looking. A tribute to Las Meninas by Velázquez and perhaps also to Mata Hari, who stayed on her day at the hotel under the name of Countess Maslov – Maslov is the Russian captain for whose love he became a spy – to whom the Deessa restaurant booth is dedicated.
In a corner of the Palm Court still the white piano that arrived at the hotel to satisfy the whims of Frank Sinatra (according to legend, in record time), back in the 50s.
ART THROUGH THE VEINS OF THE NEW HOTEL
The history of the Spanish Golden Age guides the art collection curated by Visto for the Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid.
The first piece that we find as soon as we enter the hotel takes us to the neighboring Retiro Park. Suspended from the ceiling of the lobby, Remolino del Retiro, The work of the London-based Spanish studio Haberdashery, it is a garden of nickel and brass leaves. Leaves of strawberry tree, jasmine, magnolia, olive... Those built in brass, in a golden tone, are species from Madrid. Those of nikel, the silver ones, species originating from other parts of the world and that, for one reason or another, ended up in the Retiro. But here, in Madrid, everyone, everyone is welcome. On sunny days, the sensation projected by the shadows is that of being in the middle of the forest.
Royal Suite Bedroom
And the last piece of art that guests will see before leaving the hotel decorates the wall of the check-out space –welcome and check-in takes place in the rooms– and it is a Danza Albanicos, performed by Factum Arte, which speaks of this language that is so particular, so Spanish, and that in turn reminds the movements of a flamenco dancer.
Between one moment and another there is much more art. There in the Palm Court is the tapestry of the Spanish textile artist Clara Sullà, a contemporary version of Goya's series for the royal monastery of El Escorial, also exhibited in the Prado.
presiding the Pictura bar, the gallery of photographic portraits made by Paula Anta from Madrid to personalities of the current artistic scene –the choreographer and video artist Melania Olcina, the writer Elvira Lindo, the jazz musician Jorge Pardo...– using the visual codes of baroque painting.
On the walls of the 153 rooms, partial fragments of works exhibited in the Museo del Padro about which we will find detailed information waiting for us on the pillow when we go to sleep.
Turret Suite Living Room
And in the Deessa restaurant, the two "moons" of salt from Torrevieja with which the artist Rachelle Reichert pays homage to the connection with nature in Quique Decosta's cuisine.
And it is that art also inspires the extensive gastronomic offer of the hotel, one of the strong points to attract the people of Madrid to its interior. “We have invested heavily in the world of gastronomy to connect even more with the city of Madrid. And I think that this is going to give us a fairly strong connection with the people of Madrid”, confesses director Greg Liddell with confidence.
Or is it gastronomy that inspires art?
THE GASTRONOMY OF QUIQUE DACOSTA OR THE REASON WHY WE WILL COME MORE OFTEN
We can find that same El Retiro whirlpool and that reinterpreted tapestry on Quique Dacosta's menu. Or rather, in the menus, well the chef is the gastronomic director of the five gastronomic spaces of the hotel, in addition to breakfasts, room service, afternoon tea, events...
Dacosta, who on this occasion changes registration and puts its creativity at the service of the Madrid pantry, joined the project five years ago, when the old Ritz was still open, and highlights the joint work carried out in collaboration with architects, interior designers, project managers, sommeliers, oenologists, bar tenders... to **create a common space of languages that intertwine and nurture each other **offering a unique experience.
The spa is run by The Beauty Concept
“It is evident that we inhabit a environment that determines how my cuisine is expressed. This is a protected building, a palace, and this is the skin I live in here, in Madrid. Therefore, all values that are implicit in my job are now reset, taking into account that the location, the setting and the pantry are different and, therefore, the flavors too", the multi-starred chef tells us, and goes on to explain what awaits us at the Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid: "At Deesa there are two menus: one in which customers can find part of the most representative dishes of my professional career and another, Contemporary Quique Dacosta, where we find these reflections of building with space in mind".
The Picture Bar. Above the bar, the gallery of portraits made by Paula Anta from Madrid
"But there is also a classic restaurant where we wanted to look at history, to what has happened in these 112 years of Ritz to bring it back in all its splendor, with that money, that classic way of serving that I believe is now trending more than ever. and it's also the garden restaurant, which is iconic and traveled by the majority of Madrid residents, and whose offer we wanted to rejuvenate, give it a more cosmopolitan, dynamic and fresh point of view. The Champagne Bar, with bites that go well with champagne. And the Pictura bar, which is the most festive, funniest place, where letting go is the leitmotif”. There, in Pictura, gastronomy becomes liquid, or cocktails become solid and, as the chef points out, “it travels in the ephemeral with bites that almost disappear”.
Haberdashery's "Swirl in the Retreat" crowns the lobby
THE SPA, FROM MADRID TO HEAVEN
The starry sky of Madrid, the same one we would see if we were sitting in the hotel garden, is recreated on the roof of the beautiful pool of the spa, a submerged palace in which The Beauty Concept specialists propose a menu of exclusive and personalized treatments whose effectiveness, this is important, are visible in a single session. “Above all, our treatments respect the hormonal age of each person. It is not the same to treat the skin of a man than a woman. There will be experiences only of relaxation or more focused on recovering health, jet lag, sleep problems...”, explains its director Paz Torralba. Facials with unique protocols, massages with pindas, personalized training that can be carried out in the gym or in the Retiro park.
The new Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid is surprisingly modern and, luckily, like the Ritz of always.