Forget about the standard images of Amsterdam tourism: the canal houses, the cafés, the backpackers. The Braserie & Hotel Patou is something out of a different world entirely: from the upscale shops that surround it, to the ultra-stylish chocolate-and-cream bedrooms, to the name itself, an homage to the French fashion designer Jean Patou, it’s a hotel that’s dedicated to high fashion, something that’s not exactly up there with wooden shoes in the popular conception of what’s quintessentially Dutch.
But if you wanted standard you wouldn’t be here anyway. The 12-room Patou is delightfully compact, though hardly cramped. There was some knocking down of walls involved in the renovation, and it shows — by Amsterdam standards this floor plan is practically luxurious, and the room amenities are top-class to match, right down to the linens and bath products.
You may have gathered that there’s a brasserie here, and there is — it’s ideal for anything from breakfast through a rather late lunch. And of course it’s tantalizingly close to Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel and the rest of the shops along P.C.
Hooftstraat, which are among the likeliest reasons for choosing the Patou in the first place.
author watson@mouselink.net, source www.tablethotels.com