Looking back at 2024 feels like a blur—the year feels so short and like everything only happened yesterday. I resolved to stay grounded in New York and still managed to have one of the best travel years of my life with fabulous trips to Europe and Brazil, a jaunt to Vegas and my usual, if less frequent, sojourns down to Miami and Key West.
Below, behold my extremely idiosyncratic year-in-review, highlighting the very best hotels, books, theater, arts, restaurants, nightlife, spas and more.
Hotels
Hotel of the Year – Caruso, A Belmond Hotel
For its views of the Amalfi Coast a thousand feet above sea level (pictured at top); gorgeous, gracious hospitality; perfect pasta pomodoro and pizza margherita; sublime pool, ideal for guzzling rosé and snacking on crisps and olives; and a sumptuous, spacious suite befitting a couple of princesses.
Best New Miami Hotel – The Hotel at The Moore
When the man who founded Design Miami and developed the Miami Design District opens the neighborhood’s first boutique hotel on the top floor of the historic Moore Building—which he’s also transformed into a private club and restaurant—naturally, you’d have high expectations. Craig Robins has knocked it out of the park with The Hotel at The Moore, which opened this fall. The spacious, high design suites are easily in Miami’s Top 5 most beautiful hotel rooms.
Honorable Mentions
Copacabana Palace, A Belmond Hotel for old world Rio de Janeiro vibes, poolside feijoada samba brunches and Carioca fabulosity. Hotel Fasano Angra dos Reis for tropical modern luxury and serenity on the Costa Verde (200km southwest of Rio) complete with boat days and a subterranean spa with heated pools galore. Faena because it’s the #1 best hotel in Miami Beach. Grand Pigalle Experimental in Paris because it’s so nice I checked in twice. Fontainebleau Las Vegas because it might be even more fabulous than the Miami Beach original. Casitas at Cheeca Lodge & Spa for private cottage/private beach serenity in Islamorada. Marquesa because it’s the nicest boutique hotel in Key West.
Books
Best New Fiction – Great Expectations by Vinson Cunningham
I studied with Vinson during the first semester of my MFA program at Sarah Lawrence; I was in awe of him then and remain in awe of him now. A staff writer and critic at The New Yorker, he was at work on his debut novel, Great Expectations (March 2024, Hogarth), a sort of autofiction inspired by his time working on Obama’s first presidential campaign, when I was in his class. Vinson is a nice guy, a great teacher, a sharp orator and a brilliant mind. (He was also a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in criticism and co-hosts The New Yorker’s “Critics at Large” podcast.)
I was so excited for his book to come out this year. It was such a pleasure to drop into his protagonist David Hammond’s mind and meander with him on his meditations on art, religion, politics, basketball, charismatic leaders, disillusionment, family and, ultimately, what matters most in life. To have read the book during the 2024 presidential campaign gave it an extra chilling resonance.
Best New Nonfiction – Didion & Babitz by Lili Anolik
Admittedly, I’m still in the midst of reading this book (November 2024, Scribner), but I am absolutely lapping it up. As a Didion and Babitz head, it’s a juicy read filled with revelations, yet it’s handled with compassion and clear eyes by a writer who obviously loves her subjects.
Favorite Fiction Read – The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
Most of my reading life this year revolved around 20th century literature up to 1980. To paraphrase Virginia Woolf on the pleasures of reading dead poets: they remind you of an emotion you once had as opposed to one being ripped out of your heart that very moment that you barely understand (à la contemporary poets). I think it’s a pretty good summation of my tendency to read the past.
The Transit of Venus (1980, Viking Press) by Australian author Shirley Hazzard rocked my world in half. I’d already fallen for her short stories, but this novel was a totally different animal. At first, I could hardly believe it was by the same author, the prose was dense and slow and difficult. But at some point the dam broke, her sentences washed over me and I couldn’t put it down. It tells the story of two orphan sisters from Australia as their lives unfold on different trajectories from from girlhood to old age, spanning England, New York and Switzerland. Along the way, you will experience every human emotion available. I count it as one of the greatest novels of all time.
Favorite Nonfiction Read – The White Album by Joan Didion
I fell into a Didion trance early this year, which led me to The White Album (1979, Simon & Schuster); and what a pleasant trance it was to be in. The essay collection begins with her oft-quoted line: “We tell ourselves stories in order to live…” and spans 1960s Hollywood, tales of California history and minutia, her subversive take on the women’s movement, her epic Hawaii essay “In the Islands” and her epic migraine essay “In Bed,” along with other sojourns. It’s quintessential peak Didion.
Honorable Mention – Greene on Capri by Shirley Hazzard
Shortly after finishing The Transit of Venus and before taking off to Naples on a sailing trip along the Amalfi Coast, I stumbled upon this somewhat obscure, definitely niche memoir (2000, Farrar Straus Giroux) by Shirley Hazzard, chronicling her time on Capri in the 1960s with her husband, the writer and scholar, Francis Steemguller, and her friend, the eminent British novelist and journalist Graham Greene. It is mostly writers sitting at cafés, drinking coffee, going for walks and talking about writing and other writers. But it also chronicles a fascinating history of the dramatic island dating back to antiquity, evoking a time and place I knew almost nothing about. I loved it.
Theater & the Arts
Best Broadway Musical – Days of Wine & Roses
Because powerhouse stars Kelly O’Hara and Brian D’Arcy James brilliantly captured the agony and ecstasy of the hard-boozing life in this heartbreaking musical adaptation of the 1962 film.
Honorable Mention: Suffs (through Jan. 5 at the Music Box Theatre; go see it!).
Best Off Broadway Play – The Night of the Iguana
While this production starring Tim Daly (aka Joe from Wings) didn’t quite rise to the emotional occasion, just listening to Tennessee Williams’s haunting, lyrical dialogue between the ruined Rev. Shannon and the remote Hannah Jelkes in the third act as this great strange play froths towards its climax was a worthy night of theater.
Honorable Mention: Sally & Tom.
Best Off Broadway Musical – Teeth
By Anna K. Jacobs and Michael R. Jackson, this vagina dentata musical is a wild, brilliant romp (through Jan. 5 at New World Stages; go!).
Best of Dance – Day for Night at Little Island
Choreographer Pam Tanowitz carries on the legacy of modern dance pioneers Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham with her own rigorous, athletic imprint, on full display in this gorgeous world premiere at the amphitheater at Little Island this summer.
Best Concert – Dead & Company at the Sphere
Look, it was the best concert of my life (supplanting Bob Dylan at the Beacon in New York). Dead Forever, indeed—they’re returning to the Sphere for a 2025 residency starting in March.
Best Visual Arts Event – Art Basel Miami Beach
I’m back on the Basel wagon and have had a blast the last two years. Untitled, a fair I’ve mostly overlooked since it debuted over a decade ago, was my surprise highlight this year. A dynamic showcase of international contemporary galleries, the art was edgy, beautiful and provocative. I’d say it’s the new go-to, must-see fair beyond Basel at the convention center.
Spa
Best New York Spa – QC Spa
A godsend for frazzled New Yorkers. There are more than 20 spa experiences, including outdoor heated hydrotherapy pools and a maze of indoor steam rooms, saunas, bathing experiences and relaxation rooms. There’s also an onsite café and bar when you need a little nourishment and massages are available. Book an all day pass and stay late.
Best Miami Spa – Tierra Santa Healing House at Faena
Holy mackerel, it’s heaven on earth. Plan to arrive at least an hour before your treatment to achieve nirvana in the wet spa. Circuit through a gorgeous mosaic tile domed hammam, steam room, sauna, ice room and heated marble slab. It’s beauty and decadence on an intimate scale. The treatments are “shaman-developed,” so prepare to bliss out to the max. I indulged in a deep tissue cacao massage on my last visit and it was divine.
Honorable Mentions
Lapis Spa & Wellness at Fontainebleau Las Vegas for its fabulous amenities. Copacabana Palace Spa, while light on amenities, I had one of the best, most attentive deep tissue massages of my life there.
New York
Nightlife
Best Hotel Bar – Lobby Bar at Hotel Chelsea
You’ve already heard me wax poetic.
Best Cocktail Bar – Nubeluz
Cocktails in the clouds inspired by clouds by José Andrés on the 50th floor of The Ritz-Carlton Nomad with panoramic views of Lower Manhattan and dreamy interiors? Sí mami.
Honorable Mention: Mace.
Best Restaurant Bar – The Grill
The opulence, the grandeur, the food, the hospitality. If I was a midtown business girl, I’d be there every day.
Best Nightclub – Jean’s
It was fun.
Best Seasonal Bar – Grand Banks
Still nothing better than cocktails aboard a historic schooner rafted to a pier in Tribeca.
Best Wine Bar – La Compagnie Flatiron
So chic, so pretty, so easy. Such good wine, such good food. So French.
Best Dive – Ear Inn
One of New York’s most historic bars is also its diviest, surliest—in the best way.
Best Makeout Bar – La Esquina
A 100 percent guarantee.
Restaurants
Restaurant of the Year – Misipasta
Call me crazy, but was my favorite meal of the year a casual backyard patio affair at this easy-to-walk-in Williamsburg café by chef par excellence Missy Robbins?
Well, every dish blew my mind: prosciutto di parma paired with fontina gougéres, mozzarella in carrozza, an artichoke sandwich, ricotta and pistachio-filled mezzaluna, spaghetti with lemon, bottarga and garlic breadcrumbs and a crazy good chocolate panna cotta.
Honorable Mentions
More transcendental delicious meals: Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi, Shukette, Ci Siamo, La Mercerie at The Guild.
Best Salad Restaurant
abcV for sit down; Isle of Us for fast-casual.
Best Pizza – Roberta’s
And at their weird new Penn Station branch, no less.
Best Seasonal Restaurant – Red Hook Lobster Pound at Rockaway Beach
It’s my favorite lobster roll, okay?
Best Pre-/Post-Theater Restaurant – Joe Allen
Because who makes a better martini, cheeseburger and chicken Caesar salad in Times Square or anywhere? Old school New York tavern, easy come, easy go vibes, stellar hospitality.
Upper West Side
Hoteligence is HQed on the Upper West Side, thus a few faves from the hood.
Best Restaurant – Essential by Christophe
Because my friendly neighborhood Michelin star restaurant has a nice bar with a perfect martini and their sea urchin with gold Ossetra caviar in cauliflower puree is a thing of beauty; every bite literally bursts with flavor.
(Btw, the restaurant’s eponymous chef Christophe Bellanca is at the helm of the café inside the newly opened Louis Vuitton flagship on Fifth Avenue, which I can’t wait to check out.)
Best Bar – Hi Life
This award says a lot about the quality of bars in the neighborhood. But it’s the perfect dive: strong martinis; mile-long menu where pigs in a blanket, nachos and sushi are your best bets; Yankees game viewing; kooky ass locals.
Best Bakery – Orwasher’s
It took me three years to understand that Orwasher’s is the best bakery on the Upper West Side. I’m currently in a state of obsession, which needs to break soon before I gain 100 pounds—but not before I get some sufganiyot, aka jelly donuts for Hanukkah, which they fill by hand when you order them. Lemon curd in a sugar donut, raspberry preserves in a chocolate covered glazed… omg, they are so good!
