Once the country’s most opulent hotel, the Grande Dame of Broad Street opened in 1904 as the Bellevue-Stratford, a massive French Renaissance pile on what is now the Avenue of the Arts theater district just south of City Hall. These days the rooms are run by Hyatt, which keeps up-to-date with spacious rooms, goose-down duvets, and a full-fledged Sporting Club in lieu of the usual tiny hotel fitness room. Guest accommodations have Hyatt's immensely comfy beds and a vaguely country-mouse-in-the-city decor. It is odd, however, to find a hotel that goes out of its way to offer both smoking rooms and hypo-allergenic ones.
The hotel also offers Business Plan rooms with a more modern style and a bevy of complimentary items for the road warrior: free WiFi, free long distance, breakfast for one, and an offer to press your shirt or blouse.
Giant pearls drip from the ceilings of XIX restaurant, on the Bellevue's 19th floor, a backdrop for formal tea, fresh oysters, and dress-up dinners of continental cuisine.
Note that the Hyatt does not take up the entirety of the Bellevue building, so while the hotel doesn't consider some of the other shops and businesses to be "in-house," there are actually several other restaurants here, including on the street level The Palm steakhouse, Tavern On Broad, Bliss for contemporary American cuisine, and a Starbucks—plus a full food court of 10 casual dining spots called the Bellevue Eatery.