Back in December 2010 a lawyer at a Community Board SLA meeting told us that the Cooper Square Hotel was "very close" to being bought by the same folk who run the SoHo and TriBeCa Grands. And while that deal fell through it has now emerged that the hotel actually did change hands that month. In fact, it was taken over by Westport Capital in an "amicable" loan restructuring the same day they announced the Grand deal was donzo. more ›

The Bowery in its latest, absurdly hip, incarnation is no stranger to ugly architecture. Just look at the Cooper Square Hotel, the Sculpture for Living (technically not on the Bowery), or the finger coming out of the middle of Fourth Street. And yet each time a new piece of hideous design is introduced we're dismayed once again. Which is to say, remember how the old Salvation Army on Third Street is going to become a boutique hotel? Well, Curbed got its paws on the rendering you see above. more ›

Earlier in the month lawyers for the SoHo and TriBeCa Grand Hotels told us they were "very close" to a deal to buy the troubled Cooper Square Hotel. Last week the hotel shut down its Scott Conant restaurant, Faustina, presumably to make the upcoming sale smoother. We guess they weren't close enough. This morning we received an e-mail from the hotel's reps telling us that in fact it will "not be sold to an outside party." Further, they'll announce plans for a new restaurant in early 2011. We were really hoping they were going to rename it the Cooper Grand. Oh, well. more ›

Yup, looks like the rumor that the Cooper Square Hotel is going to be sold to the same people who run the Soho and Tribeca Grands is not a rumor. That much was confirmed at last night's relatively short Community Board 3 State Liquor Authority committee meeting (only two and a half hours!). more ›

While acknowledging that Scott Conant (Scarpetta) is a "phenomenally talented chef," Times critic Sam Sifton is frustrated by Faustina, Conant's new venture in the Cooper Square Hotel. It's not the food—which is "excellent"—it's the space, which formerly housed the defunct Table 8. Faustina "offers what may be the city’s best pork chop, a shoebox-size Berkshire behemoth currently recommended for two or more diners; it might serve four, and happily," says Sifton. "You can find a wealth of interesting raw-bar small bites and bread-dippers, delicate salads and ridiculously hearty, delicious pastas... But no matter the meal, you will eat it uncomfortably, in a tough concrete dining room that juts off a large bar crowded with tall tables, in what is unmistakably an institutional setting, down to the space on the check where you can sign the bill to your room." more ›

For the better part of a decade, Scott Conant has consistently earned acclaim as one of the city's best Italian chefs, from L’Impero and Alto uptown, to his superlative Scarpetta on West 14th Street (in the space formerly occupied by the Village Idiot). Having solidified Scarpetta as one of the most popular restaurants in town over the course of the past couple years, Conant has now taken on a new challenge at the Cooper Square Hotel, where he'll attempt to reverse the critical hammering inflicted on what was formerly (briefly) Table 8. The revamped ground-floor restaurant and lounge is now called Faustina (after an ancient Roman empress), and is serving what's being described as a casual-yet-elegant "Italian inspired" shared plates menu. more ›

The Cooper Square Hotel is draping itself in glamorously gritty graffiti. They've commissioned artists Joyce Pensato, Nick 1, Vizie and Shinique to deck the walls of an adjacent building it recently bought, according to the NY Post. Vizie told the paper, "The only real unifying theme is the colors, black and white," but his section is "a tribute to a friend who died over the summer." more ›

This week outgoing Times dining critic Frank Bruni files on Table 8, the new venture from California chef Govind Armstrong located in the controversial new Cooper Square Hotel, where disgruntled neighbors have hung soiled underwear on their clotheslines to undermine the cachet. "I spotted only one sad, fluttering garment on the evening when I ate on Table 8’s street-level patio," reports Bruni. "And it did less to ruffle my serenity — the patio is a pretty, breezy treat — than the door that crashed into the back of my chair when someone decided to step outside. Placing a table for diners smack in the door’s way exemplifies the curious planning at which Table 8 excels." more ›

Neighbors aggrieved about guests chatting on the Cooper Square Hotel outdoor patio have employed increasingly gross tactics to undermine the cachet of downtown's latest fancy hotel. When co-owner Matt Moss previously promised that tenement clotheslines were exactly "the kind of thing people want to see," while paying upwards of $300 a night at the hotel, the neighbors called his bluff by hanging increasingly soiled unmentionables in full view of the patio and rooms. Last week the underwear on display was exceptionally foul, and now Vanishing New York reports that neighbors have further escalated the situation by hanging a "Douche Bag" from the fire escape. We're not really sure what a douche bag actually looks like (besides this), and we're sure as hell not about to do a Google image search on that, so it's unclear whether the item in question is literally the infamous feminine hygiene product. (And let's just keep it unclear, k thx.) What's next, colostomy bags and roadkill? Stay tuned to the Cooper Square Douchebags blog! more ›

And the great 2009 hotel war rages on: Over the weekend, we showed you hellish video depicting a cacophonous multi-media roof party at the Thompson LES Hotel, documented by an understandably disgruntled neighbor. Today we're back over to the Cooper Square Hotel, where angry neighbors have been using bullhorns and dirty laundry to fight back at loud-talkers on that hotel's patio. more ›

Over a dozen local residents who live (if you can call it that!) near the Thompson LES Hotel on Allen Street showed up at a Community Board 3 meeting last night to complain about traffic congestion, rowdy tools crowding their sidewalks, and noise noise NOISE echoing up into their windows from the newly-opened third floor rooftop pool bar. (Which, it should be noted, is open only to hotel guests—or anyone who gets a bite to eat at the hotel restaurant Shang!) How obstreperous are those bastards drinking and swimming and digesting Susur Lee's lamb chops? Well, one neighbor says their opening parties were so loud she couldn't hear her TV. Clearly, this monstrosity must be razed or urinated on at once. more ›

The food at Table 8, a new restaurant located in the Cooper Square Hotel, is meant for people who like their seasonal vegetables but also those who might want a nice steak every now and again. Chef Govind Armstrong doesn’t favor a lot of day-long stock reducing, jellifying, foaming, or nitro freezing anything in the kitchen. Instead, he'll roast some mushrooms to pair with the halibut and sorrel, or add some tiny yellow popcorn shoots to the just warmed through sweet pea leaves with prawns and pistachio vinaigrette. No tricks. more ›