Hotel Review: The Ramble Hotel, Denver

Rates

From $249

The Basics

To get to the front desk of the 50-room Ramble Hotel, which opened in Denver’s River North Art District (RiNo) last May, guests walk through what amounts to a cocktail jamboree: the first outpost of the bar Death & Co beyond New York City’s East Village. The hotel, owned by Ryan Diggins, 34, a local developer, was generally inspired by the salons of 17th-century France, and, specifically, by Catherine de Vivonne, Marquise de Rambouillet, whose own salon was known as an egalitarian gathering. “I loved what the French salon stood for, as really it was a place for everyone, as long as you had an opinion,” Mr. Diggins said. “Ramble is our shortened version of her name, and also means to wander or explore without a definitive destination.” In hopes of fostering the Marquise’s ideal of interaction and engagement, the hotel stocked the airy, ground-floor lobby with myriad seating areas for lingering, and also holds occasional art programs in its adjacent event space.

The Location

The hotel is close to RiNo’s inventive restaurants (Comal Heritage Food Incubator, where Syrian refugees make the best hummus I’ve tasted, based on their own recipes), shops (like Modern Nomad, a housewares store in a former auto body shop) and food halls (including Zeppelin Station, which opened last March). Our room faced Larimer Street, which was once a hangout for the Beat muse Neal Cassady, and can be rowdy; we listened to bachelorette parties swish by like whirligigs on 16-passenger bike bar tours. The Denver Rescue Mission nearby means revelers may be sobered by denizens down on their luck.

The Room

Decorated by Avenue Interior Design of Los Angeles, our 300-square-foot standard king guest room — overlooking Denver’s circa 1933 Benjamin Moore factory neon sign — was a victim of latter day design clichés: a sliding barn door to the bathroom, a button-tufted ottoman, a treacly framed compass. The minibar was a bit of a misnomer, as it held 375 milliliter bottles — nearly a pint — of liquor, which seemed excessive for the average traveler and not carry-on approved by the T.S.A.; options included Tito’s vodka ($20) and Basil Hayden’s bourbon ($28). Still, I loved the soft antique Persian rug on the hickory flooring, the Prussian blue walls, the scroll arm chairs in the window-front sitting area, and the Victrola Bluetooth gramophone speaker. There was a French press with fresh grounds from the Denver roaster Middle State Coffee.

The Bathroom