A turntable and vintage records.
Rockers also need to eat, and the Ace’s trump card is the team from the West Village’s wildly popular eatery the Spotted Pig: chef-owner April Bloomfield and restaurateur Ken Friedman. Their ground-floor restaurant will have a turn-of-the-century New York vibe, with curtained booths and a vintage, charred-oak floor—“like a place you have a brawl [in],” chirps Standefer—and will serve what Friedman cheerfully refers to as “nose-to-tail cooking,” adding, “eat the trotters, eat the ears, eat the head—it’s definitely not a place vegetarians are going to feel great in.”
Ultimately the Ace is betting that its downtown dream team can transcend a démodé enclave. “To us, it’s like we can be pioneers right in the middle of Manhattan,” says Friedman. “[But] I don’t want the area to become more chichi. God forbid it becomes like the Meatpacking District.” Calderwood, who lives a few blocks from the hotel, agrees. “I think we’re going to be the heart of the neighborhood. This will be a living room for all the people around it.”
