January 2020
For the previous year, we had watched with anticipation as a former convent — and later a music conservatory — was transformed into downtown St. Paul’s first boutique hotel. Things seemed to be moving slowly, at least based on our observations from the sidewalks and peeks through the windows. But then one day, right before the holidays, the Celeste was open for business. We got there within the first few weeks to have a New Year’s Eve drink in the bar, and a few days later we made plans for a birthday celebration and overnight stay. In the darkness of a January late afternoon, we walked the 10 blocks from our house to the hotel, carrying nothing more than a few toothbrushes.
Good bones
Completed in 1909, the Beaux-Arts building is an architectural gem. During strolls around the neighborhood, we had often admired the building’s curved double staircase that leads to the front entrance, its sixth-floor that we knew was once an open loggia, and its copper cornice. Prior to the announcement that it would become a hotel, the building was still graceful and elegant, but its age was showing, and we were thrilled to learn it had been purchased and would undergo renovation.
Exterior renovations ended up being fairly minimal. Inside, an attempt was made to save — and highlight — some of the building’s best features, including arched ceilings, terrazzo floors, and lovely woodwork. Our room had what looked to be its original door with a built-in window (nuns don’t need a lot of privacy; the window had new mirrored glass), double closets, oak floors, tall wood trim, and sash windows. Breakfast was held in what used to be the convent’s chapel, and at least three separate stairways with worn stone floors were fun ways to navigate around the building.
Attention and investment still needed
We appreciated the hotel’s many references to its past. But pulling this off takes a lot of attention to detail…and a lot of money. In our short stay, we saw several indications that one or both of these were missing. Throughout the property, we saw what appeared to be construction dust, the windows were spotty, and the mail slot at the front door was filled with trash. It was almost as if, in the rush to open, the all-important final punch list had been neglected. We’re hoping the hotel is still at work on some of these easily-fixable details.
A few other shortcoming would take more effort. The ceiling in the breakfast space was already peeling under its fresh coat of paint. This made us wonder if substantive repairs were passed over in favor of cosmetic touches. And — perhaps the oddest choice — the TV in our room was mounted over one of the closet doors, making the door mostly inoperable. (The room actually had really good storage if the TV weren’t blocking half of the closet space.) We know guests expect clear views of the TV from their hotel bed, but the placement of our TV truly detracted from the room’s aesthetic.
Next time a suite?
We booked a king room with a state capitol view. From our house, we can just see the gold statue that adorns the front of the capitol, so we thought it would be fun to see the whole building, which glows at night, from our hotel room. The room did, indeed, boast a stunning view of the capitol, which we could see from the very comfy bed. The bathroom didn’t have body lotion or robes, which we tend to count on, but it was brand new and functional, and for one night, we didn’t need those amenities. During this stay, we didn’t visit the bar, but it seems already to be establishing itself as a cozy spot for a cocktail or glass of wine.
If we stay at the Celeste a second time — we will give it another chance once it has settled in a bit — we’ll likely book a suite. The prices are quite a bit more, but not relative to other urban hotels, and the suites not only look terrific, they have the kinds of amenities (soaking tubs and Nespresso machines) that we’ve come to expect in boutique hotels.
Stay details:
- Celeste of St. Paul
- Location: Exchange Street, downtown St. Paul
- Our stay: One night, January 4, 2020
- Our room: Executive King Capitol View
What we ate, what we did:
- Dinner at Meritage
- Watching Blue Planet on BBC
We arrived at the Charmant at about 3:30 pm on Thanksgiving day and were pleasantly surprised to walk into a bustling scene — at the registration desk, at the lobby bar, and in the hotel restaurant and coffee shop, both of which were hosting Thanksgiving diners. The Charmant seemed like the place in town to be.
When we made our booking shortly before Thanksgiving, we had only a few choices for rooms, possibly because the hotel was full or possibly because it just operates at limited capacity during the holiday. We put in a request for an upgrade and got a call the day before Thanksgiving that a river “vue” room had become available; the Charmant staffer promised us a nice view of Christmas lights in the park, which sounded fun.
The room wasn’t overly large, but it worked well and included high-end touches, including quality furnishings and a bathroom with double sinks, an oversized marble-lined shower, and a window. With the exception of robes, which were delivered on request, the room had everything we could need.
Drinks and dinner (not turkey) at the 
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When we choose a hotel, we spend at least some time figuring out the kind of room we want to book. As we’ve discovered, the particular room can make a big difference in a stay (see our entry on 
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To earn membership, each property must demonstrate its own particular “art of living” through luxury, top-quality amenities, outstanding dining and a passion for hospitality. But a property must also be a living expression of its particular place, and it must serve to enrich that place, contributing to its culture, its evolving history and its environment.
We arrived at Canoe Bay late in the afternoon on a very cold (many degrees below zero Fahrenheit) Friday in January. The staff member at reception greeted us with genuine warmth and enthusiasm, letting us know there wasn’t a better place to snuggle in for a cold winter weekend than the cabin we were checking in to. She also told us we had been upgraded to a “treetop” cabin and then invited us to follow her colleague who would escort us to our cabin and give us a brief tour of its features.
hills. Fun to see various animal tracks in snow.
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Our dinner reservations weren’t until 9 pm, so we headed down to the hotel bar for a drink. Deciding the air conditioner noise would make for a long night, we stopped at the front desk to inquire whether a maintenance person could take a look. We will say that the staff was terrific and quite apologetic. After enjoying a well-made cocktail on the sprawling plantation-style porch, we learned that the air conditioner was down for the count, and the staff wanted to move us to another room.
The Mandarin Oriental chain is, in our minds, a step up from the Hiltons or Marriotts of the world; both the Las Vegas and Miami M.O. have a distinctive identify that we don’t find in most of the big global chains. We know some hotel guests like to know what to expect — they like the sense of comfort that a chain can offer — but that tends not to be for us. Still, being a corporate property has its advantages. And the MO-Miami was able to lean on the corporate muscle to dial things in close to just right.
hotelling.org 