Hidesign's pet project:Promenade






With its great location and style, Promenade, Hidesign's designer hotel, is the latest elite landmark

It's been named after the promenade and is brand new. But a few years of the salty breeze and the long Pondicherry summers, and once the walls and the novelty have faded, you may just not notice it.

That's exactly the idea, says Dilip Kapur of Hidesign of his new designer hotel. He wanted it to blend in so gracefully with its surroundings that instead of his Mumbai designers he chose Pondy's own architect and renowned ceramist Ray Meeker.

Unlike Kapur's first hospitality venture Dupleix, this is not heritage. It is smart and contemporary but thankfully does not have the antiseptic aesthetics of what's commonly sold as `modern design'. "The challenge," says Kapur "was to translate a brand like Hidesign, India's leading leather bag company, into a hotel that has a fashion buzz to it."

The spaces are airy, the décor, simple and sophisticated. A liberal use of teak and the stone floors add to the warmth, and there's leather too naturally: on the chairs, above the head rest, and put to clever use in the lift by Bangalore-based designer Ram Sinan.

After all, it's the first `Hidesign Hotel'. With 30 rooms available at prices ranging from Rs. 2,800, Rs. 3,500, Rs. 5,000 to Rs.7,000 for a suite, the Promenade has two restaurants and a bar.

The Blue Line restaurant will have a mixed Asian menu with a Chinese bias, and the staff will be happy if you stop to appreciate the style their buffet is served in. Those mandatory little stoves have been done away with. The inducts (stone tiles that do all the heating without a flame) imported from Switzerland and "absolutely the latest and very expensive," are, as the manager says, impressive.

But what's potentially awesome is the rooftop restaurant, Lighthouse. With a blue mosaic floor, the sky overhead, the sea in front and just the old lighthouse looming on one side, it creates a Mediterranean ambience straight out of some romantic novel.

Difficult to replicate unless you have a more than hundred-year-old lighthouse right next door.

A similar lazy tropical atmosphere has been created on the ground floor courtyard that overlooks a small sunken pool, by world famous landscape artist Made Wijayan. With a reasonably priced menu, Kapur expects the place to be the hangout not just for in-house guests but also for Pondicherians.

Considering his successful track record (the boutique hotel Dupleix, and the Casablanca boutique) and the new hotel's great location and style, Promenade has become a hot destination for the city.