Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Watch Today's Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Celebrating Opening Of Roosevelt Island Cornell Tech Graduate Hotel - Panorama Rooftop Bar/Lounge Opening In July And Anything At All Ground Floor Restaurant Opening This Month

The Roosevelt Island Graduate Hotel on the Cornell Tech campus opened for business yesterday. 

This morning, the Roosevelt Island Graduate Hotel welcomed the Roosevelt Island community and guests with a ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open the hotel.

The Ribbon cutting ceremony was hosted by Graduate Hotel General Manager Bill Cutillo who said: 

It's my pleasure to welcome all of you today to this beautiful property. We gather to celebrate today the opening of the hotel.

It's the first hotel to open on this special Island. In a moment of promise and excitement for the future of New York City as a whole.

It's such a pleasure to gather with all of you to commemorate this incredible project and the future ahead. Today was a long time coming. Some of us have joined for this final stretch to bring the hotel to the market while many of you have perhaps lived here on the island for decades or have been involved with Cornell Tech since it's inception. We appreciate your passion and your dedication and we feel so lucky to be opening our doors here amid such a dynamic community, rich history and tradition 

We have an inspiring future ahead all with indisputably the best backdrop we can imagine. Each Graduate Hotel's property is anchored and celebrating the community within. This hotel is no different. From our decor which nods to all sorts of Island stories, some big and some small to our exciting food and beverage offerings and the activations that will bring the hotel to life. We hope you will continue to stop by and visit and we look forward to getting to know all of you here at Graduate Roosevelt Island and thank you again for joining us today

Additional speakers included:

 

The question everyone on Roosevelt Island is asking is when will the Rooftop Bar/Restaurant and Ground Floor Restaurant open?

We still don't have an exact opening date yet for either restaurant opening, but I am told that the Ground Floor restaurant is expected to open in the next 2 weeks and the Rooftop Bar/Restaurant sometime in July.

We did learn from Mr. Abrou that the name of the Ground Floor Restaurant is:

Anything At All
and the name of the Rooftop Bar/Restaurant  is:
Panoroma.

Believe me, the name Panorama is right on target for the Rooftop Bar/Restaurant. The NYC skyline and East River waterfront views seen from the Panorama's rooftop are magnificent. As reported yesterday:

... Last Friday, I toured the Graduate Hotel and it looks fantastic. The ground floor will have an indoor restaurant with outdoor seating and a lobby area that is welcoming the Roosevelt Island community to sit,relax, eat, drink, chat and read.

The rooftop bar and restaurant is a site to behold. It reminded me of the old Rainbow Room on top of Rockefeller Center. The views are breathtaking....

... Here's a peek today at the lobby area and ground floor restaurant....

Also:

... residents will receive a $99 rate from June 1 – August 31, 2021 (plus applicable taxes and fees) and their friends & family can receive 10% off the hotel's Best Available Rate year round and that their apartment management firms will be sharing the booking code...

Long time Roosevelt Island resident Ross Wollen was a "staycation" guest for the first night at the Roosevelt Island Graduate Hotel. Mr. Wollen reports:

We were delighted by the whole experience and look forward to when the Graduate has its restaurants and rooftop lounge open.

Our Junior Suite had a very interesting view - eye level to the very close Bridge traffic - not what we see from Rivercross. It must be said the extended Lobby and even the rooms strongly resemble a Museum and Library dedicated to Roosevelt Island and President Roosevelt, and alone are worth a visit. Our room was very commodious and every Graduate staff member we met was extremely gracious and helpful. The linens were wonderful.

I should add that our short trip to Granny Annie's for dinner was excellent too.

It was a wonderful trip wrapping up my Birthday Weekend.

The Twitterverse reported on today's Roosevelt Island Graduate Hotel ribbon cutting ceremony.

The Roosevelt Island Graduate Hotel adds:
Graduate Hotels®️ is excited to announce that Graduate Roosevelt Island opens its doors on June 1, 2021. The 224-key, 18-story hotel opens as part of the Graduate Hotels collection at the Cornell Tech campus on New York City’s Roosevelt Island. Serving as the island’s first hotel, Graduate Roosevelt Island marks the brand’s 29th property and New York City debut. Located at 22 North Loop Road, the hotel offers a scholastic retreat in the middle of the East River with bright, modern spaces and breathtaking views of Manhattan, Queens and beyond.
 
Created for travelers who seek memory-making journeys, Graduate Hotels is a hand-crafted collection of hotels that reside in dynamic university-anchored towns across the country and expanding into the U.K. in summer 2021. Each property celebrates and commemorates the optimistic energy of its community, while offering an extended retreat to places that often play host to the best days of our lives.
 
“We’re thrilled to make our debut in New York with the first ever hotel on Roosevelt Island and proud to join the innovative Cornell Tech campus,” said Ben Weprin, founder and CEO of Graduate Hotels. “Each of our hotels are rooted in the communities they serve, and we took great care in creating a highly customized hotel experience that honors the island’s rich history and has an authentic connection to the Cornell Tech campus. Now more than ever, there is a new appreciation for exploring what’s in your own backyard and we look forward to welcoming locals and visitors looking to experience New York from a fresh and unexpected vantage point.”
 
Positioned at the entrance of the Cornell Tech campus, the hotel is architecturally designed by internationally renowned design firm, Snøhetta, and New York City-based hospitality-focused architecture firm, Stonehill Taylor, with interior design from Graduate Hotels’ in-house team. The interior design of the hotel blends Old School and New Age, taking inspiration from both the rich history of Roosevelt Island and the future of technology that the Cornell Tech campus embodies. The futuristic and functional meld to create a space that’s bright, open and always interesting.
 
Upon entering, guests are greeted with a custom 12-foot statement sculpture created by Hebru Brantley that reinterprets his iconic Flyboy character and a neon Graduate sign situated above the reception desk, which is a reimagined vintage apothecary cabinet. Nods to the island’s storied history can be seen through the corridor behind the front desk, which features a gallery of black and white photographs of the Roosevelt family. The spacious lobby is lined with 5,000 linear feet of textbooks and floor-to-ceiling windows to create a bright and airy space warmed up with Persian-inspired rugs, mid-century light fixtures and pops of Cornell Big Red hues throughout. The lobby is also home to the hotel’s full-service, all-day restaurant with a statement wraparound bar anchoring the space and a variety of inviting lounge seating.
 
Graduate Roosevelt Island boasts 224 spacious guest rooms and suites including a Presidential Suite spanning over 1,100 square feet and ideal for entertaining. Contrasting the modern architecture with warm design details, the guest rooms offer a familiar, residential experience paired with unrivaled views of the East River and Manhattan skyline. The décor plays with technology throughout the ages as seen through lamps with a Morse code of the Cornell fight song on the base, a neon light fixture inspired by a science project from a Cornell alum, floating glass desks and integrated audiovisual devices. Local elements and nods to Roosevelt Island are also incorporated throughout the guest rooms. Design highlights include benches upholstered with oil painting-like tapestry of Dutch colonial life, custom art pieces created by Matt Buchholz and Brooklyn-based artist Ashley Cunningham and a thoughtfully curated gallery wall showcasing unique pieces including portraits of prominent figures in the island’s history such as Nellie Bly and Mae West.
 
Food & Beverage
Los Angeles-based hospitality team and New York City natives, Med Abrous and Marc Rose of Call Mom are the exclusive food and beverage partners at Graduate Roosevelt Island, marking the duo’s homecoming and their third collaboration with Graduate Hotels, which also includes Graduate Seattle and Graduate Nashville. The hotel includes the full-service restaurant, Anything At All, on the ground level; The Panorama Room, an extraordinary indoor-outdoor rooftop bar and lounge with unobstructed, sweeping views of the city; and, over 3,000 square feet of onsite flexible meeting space all concepted and operated by Abrous and Rose.
 
Abrous and Rose have tapped a talented, female-led team including Executive Chef Ja’Toria Harper, Pastry Chef Lindsey Verardo and Beverage Director Estelle Bossy to oversee all food and beverage programs. Opening later in June, Anything At All will serve breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner. Rooted in a vegetable-forward, farm-first approach to contemporary comfort food, the light-drenched indoor-outdoor space features a sustainable synergy between the kitchen and the bar whose playful, creative frozen drinks and seasonal spritzes will take center stage at brunch. In advance of opening, the ground floor restaurant offers a sneak peek of the menu with a selection of grab & go items available for takeout and delivery via ChowNow and DeliverZero, the innovative service which delivers food in reusable containers. Additionally, Rose and Abrous have partnered with Brooklyn’s Variety Coffee which will be served at the hotel in addition to the solar and battery-powered Poindexter Coffee Bike Cart that will be parked out front offering coffee and a curated selection of morning and afternoon grab-and-go items.
 
Situated atop the hotel, The Panorama Room, is the stunning 168-seat rooftop bar and lounge designed by James Beard Foundation Award-winning design firm, Parts and Labor Design. Opening in July 2021, the crown jewel of the property will evoke a sense of cinematic drama inspired by futurism creating a true destination for fashion-forward elegance in an intimate space all set against unobstructed city views.
 
"It's an inexplicable feeling to return to our hometown and have a hand in creating a bold, new destination within this great city," said Med Abrous and Marc Rose, founders and owners of Call Mom. "Alongside our longtime partners and collaborators at Graduate Hotels and the Roosevelt Island community, we can't wait to offer a sense of discovery as both locals and visitors experience our restaurant, bar, and spaces in between for world-class cocktails, inventive yet comforting dishes and enveloping hospitality."
 
The hotel’s third floor features a variety of distinct multi-use meeting and event spaces set against clear skyline views, offering the perfect venue for every occasion from weddings to off-site corporate meetings. This summer, Graduate Hotels has transformed its ballroom into a space for collaboration inspired by the iconic film BIG. Known as “The Loft” at Graduate Roosevelt Island, this pop culture moment creates an opportunity for families, local businesses and private groups to catch up on lost time in a space that sparks creative energy and taps into the power of nostalgia. “The Loft” is available for private bookings online here and families can join the fun at Family Saturdays this summer, a series of kid-friendly activities in partnership with PlayDay.
 
In 2011, Cornell won a city-sponsored competition to develop a tech and science campus on Roosevelt Island including a hotel that could serve visitors, students and the community. A selection committee of high-profile Cornell alums with ties to the hospitality and real estate industries selected Graduate Hotels for the project in 2016 for its ability to create a highly customized experience that would have a clear and authentic connection to the Cornell campus. Cornell Tech's Roosevelt Island campus opened fall 2017. When fully completed, the campus will include two million square feet of state-of-the-art buildings, over two acres of open space, and will be home to more than 2,000 graduate students and hundreds of faculty and staff.
 
Graduate Roosevelt Island proudly joins the cutting edge, eco-friendly Cornell Tech campus. The hotel furthers the campus’ ongoing commitment to sustainability through its LEED-rated architecture and the use of highly efficient materials and energy saving systems throughout the property. Graduate Roosevelt Island’s many sustainability initiatives include the LEED-certified architecture, use of recyclable materials, highly efficient heating, cooling and LED lighting systems, reduced water consumption, waste reclamation programs, healthy indoor air quality and more. The food and beverage operators are equally committed to creating environmentally conscious restaurant operations and culinary programs including: composting food scraps, recycling programs for restaurant waste, no single-use plastic products, minimizing food waste and purchasing sustainable, locally-sourced ingredients and products.

Easily accessible from the F Train, NYC Ferry and the Tramway, Graduate Roosevelt Island invites locals looking for a convenient getaway from the city and visitors curious to experience New York City from a new perspective. Rates start at $219 per night.
More info available at the Roosevelt Island Graduate Hotel website.

By ROOSEVELT ISLANDER at 7:58:00 PM

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