seeds of glory
Set amid the charming red-brick buildings of the historic Speicherstadt warehouse district in Hamburg, Germany, the new Sir Nikolai hotel is only the fourth property from four-year-old Amsterdam hospitality brand Sir Hotels, but it possesses all the allure of an old-world grande dame.
The 94-room hotel occupies a seven-storey former seed warehouse in the heart of the city. When guests arrive, they are greeted with complimentary champagne or coffee in the Study, an intimate space decorated with Persian carpets and dark wood floor-to-ceiling shelves stocked with memorabilia and a handpicked collection of international and local reading material.
In their rooms (all designed by Dutch firm FG Stijl), guests will find custom furniture with velvet upholstery and wooden writing desks that harken back to the bygone days of luxury travel, as do the elegant marble-clad bathrooms and in-room glass bar carts stocked with on-the-fly cocktail-making essentials. Further evoking the Hamburger genius loci, the walls are hung with vintage maps of the city and curated artwork, while the bookshelves are populated with classics as well as works by up-and-coming local authors.
The hotel’s patio (set in the building’s inner courtyard) leads to Izakaya restaurant, which serves Japanese classics like hibachi plates, sushi and sashimi with a South American flare. Guests can dine alfresco on the patio, at a communal table overlooking the open kitchen, or they can cosy up at a table near the restaurant’s huge gray-marble open fireplace.
