Sweet Jane
Sweet Jane. Oh sweet, sweet Jane. You’re like the Chelsea for the 21st century. The small rooms that emulate ship cabins, and the shabbily luxurious ballroom filled with Chesterfield couches and chairs add to your charm. You’re a place to party and a place to rest, a place to misbehave and gather one’s bearings. You’re decadent, yet the one of the few remnants of grittiness left in the West Village, where manicured brownstones and brutalist condominiums reign free.
That The Jane Hotel is both a place to see-and-be-seen and a bona-fide option for inexpensive accommodations adds to its Bohemian irreverence. The hotel began its life as lodging for sailors, and housed survivors from the Titanic. Later on it turned into a flophouse, and the hotel’s facade and surfaces still show traces of this past life. When Eric Goode (he of the legendary Area nightclub) and Sean MacPherson purchased the hotel in 2008, the Jane became a nightlife hotspot thanks to the enchanting ballroom and deep backstory.
Considering Goode and MacPherson also own the Bowery Hotel and the Lafayette House in NoHo, it’s no surprise they bought a star-studded cast of habitues along to the Jane. Lindsay Lohan went there. Olivier Zahm - he of Purple Fashion magazine - frequently captured his muses and himself frolicking around the moody, seductive environs. The wild nights are a bit tamer than they used to be, thanks to the complaints of cranky, cantankerous neighbors, but an evening at the Jane ballroom is an occasion to let loose no matter the night of the week.
The Jane isn’t just a nighttime spot, though. Once upon a time, a Moroccan maritime-themed restaurant called Cafe Gitane inhabited the checker-tiled room off the lobby. Gitane (part of a New York City mini-chain) closed last October and the room was in a weird transitory phase when I stayed there. Tables and chairs were moved around in preparation for a future project, or perhaps a room refresh. Nevertheless the sparse white walls and scuffed-up floors charmed, and the vintage overhead chandeliers were dimmed because the large windows let in ample sunlight. The menu was sparse, but bananas were 50 cents each, the perfect thing for travelers to spend their pocket change on.
The bellboys dressed in classic uniforms, hat included, befitting a Wes Anderson film. The lobby was filled with taxidermy and worn-out mirrors. The cheapest and smallest rooms are 50 square feet. They look out onto a large, gloomy skylight with a concrete base and at first glance the lack of sunlight and the cramped quarters look likely to cause claustrophobia. As a traveler in New York, however, one won’t spend their daytime hours in their room, which becomes cozy and loveable after the first night. After all, if you stay at the Jane and move to New York thereafter, even a closet-sized room will seem gigantic.
Location: The Jane Hotel, New York, New York