Openings

Hotel Dining Update: Balsan and Ria Delayed Again, Pelago Adds Dinner

The Elysian Hotel: still but a dream
The Elysian Hotel: still but a dream

Hotel dining might be taking over the world (as Hotels mag notes, they totally swept this year’s Esquire Best New list), but that doesn’t mean they’re not plagued by the same delays and growing pains as freestanding restaurants. Balsan and Ria, the sister restaurants (one casual, one upscale) that will anchor the dining program at the not yet open Elysian Hotel have had their opening (originally scheduled for early September) pushed back to “sometime mid-November,” an insider tells us. But it’s not all delays:

Better news is in store for the Raffaelo Hotel’s Pelago, which quietly opened for lunch a few weeks ago (after promising a mid-summer debut), and has finally caught up with itself and is launching dinner service tonight. The menu is still being tweaked and prodded, but we’ve been promised the sort of classically lavish preparations that recall the golden age of hotel dining — luxurious seafood, house-made pastas, and subtle flavors. They’re completely booked for tonight’s opening, but you could probably still swing a table for later in the week.

Hotel Dining Update: Balsan and Ria Delayed Again, Pelago Adds Dinner