One of the best-known hotel rooms in Madrid isn’t really a room at all. It’s the subject of the Edward Hopper painting Hotel Room, which hangs in the city’s Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum and captures the indelible feeling of urban loneliness.
It’s quite a contrast to the scene at the new Brach Madrid, a Philippe Starck–designed hotel in the middle of the city’s Grand Via thoroughfare. The Brach Madrid is as warm, welcoming, and cluttered as Hopper’s painting is stark.
At the Brach, it would be difficult to feel lonely, even when alone, because the atmosphere is just so cheerful. Starck describes his aesthetic as “whispers of buried memories,” but they must all be good ones because the earth-toned furnishings and walls, flattering, mid-level lighting, and leather-wrapped headboards create the feeling of stepping into a hug.
Europe is not suffering from a shortage of tasteful new hotels, but the Brach is distinguished by its personality. Graffiti is scratched into the corners of walls, which are decorated with maps, old photographs, and watercolors. In bedrooms and common spaces, the shelves are full of books, and the odd postcard is propped against them.
The hotel sits inside a seven-story building with a dazzling white stone façade that was built between 1919 and 1922 by architect Jerónimo Pedro Mathet Rodriguez. Its original wrought-iron staircase still curls up through its impeccably restored floors. But a century before that, the building was known as Masserano Palace, where a nine-year-old Victor Hugo lived. (No doubt a point of pleasure for French group Evok Collection, which owns and operates the property.)
Stepping through the doorway, visitors are greeted by uniformed staff, who promptly spring to attention and point the way to the hotel’s bar, restaurant, and pâtisserie. (The formalities of reception are banished to the second floor, which is partly illuminated by flickering candles.)
The rooftop bar, set to open this summer, will have glorious views, but for now, the ones from the balconies and terraces of some of the Brach’s 57 rooms will do just fine. My terrace was outfitted with a dining table, sunbed, sofa, and even a few weatherproof rugs, along with lamps and trees in glossy ceramic pots.
La Capsule, a wellness sanctuary with a hyperbaric chamber, a flotation tank, a hammam, and a swimming pool, is located in the basement. (Do book a massage with Laura.) An L.E.D. mask can also be borrowed for a youth-enhancing hour in one’s own room. This is all part of the Brach’s “anytime, anywhere” attitude. There are no coffee machines in the rooms by design; the management prefers to deliver a fresh cup. Room service is always available.
Dinner at the restaurant is not to be missed. Start with a Brach martini, which pairs Gin Mare with Manzanilla sherry rather than vermouth. Afterward, take a seat, admire the open kitchen, perhaps take a book from one of the shelves, and order a glass of verdejo to accompany the cod confit, Jerusalem artichokes, and hazelnuts. Finish with a soft murmur of the local saying “De Madrid al cielo”—from Madrid, next stop heaven.
The writer was a guest of Brach Madrid, where room rates begin at $480 per night
Mary Lussiana is a Lisbon-based writer and reviewer of hotels
