No, Donald Trump is not opening a boutique hotel in Greece
But it seems like everybody else is! So who's Making Athens Great Again?
Though it seems like everyone and his/her/their sister is opening a new hotel somewhere these days (please Ryan Reynolds, just…don’t) including Greece, Greek Column can exclusively reveal that former President Donald J. Trump will not be among them.
People tend to forget though that long before he made his mark in politics Trump was a real estate dazzler, so it’s almost a pity that his obsession with California fads like Twitter has kept his international hotel portfolio on the Palm Beach back burner. Meanwhile, not a day goes by without another announcement of a new hotel opening or soon to open, mainly in Mykonos where now a big Aman resort is set to sidle up to the beach Lindsay Lohan made famous…but in the crowded, congested, polluted but resiliently fabulous Greek capital too.
The French Accor group, qui franchement nous fait bailler. Israelis, who have a yen for snapping up distressed properties and putting them through the dumpster-to-hipster mill. Many of these latter-day inns are sprouting up in parts of town that developers really want you to think are fleek but where no Athenian I know would go for more than a drink—if anyone’s going out for a drink at all.
The thing is, the pandemic has put the kibosh on the old notion of the ‘city break’ and from New York to Dubai by way of Barcelona & Athens I honestly don’t know who is going to be filling all of these hotel rooms and for what length of time. And hey, since when is ersatz glitz and yet another rooftop bar all it takes to put new shine into old cities? It takes panache. And maybe some fish.
Xenodoxeion Milos, opening November 1, is going to have both panache and fish. As in lots. Xenodoxeion is the Greek word for hotel (no, the Greek word for hotel is not hotel accompanied by a wishful shrug, it’s ξενοδοχειο) and the hotel is brought to you by the team behind the famous Estiatorio Milos, the acclaimed Mediterranean seafood restaurants with locations in New York and lesser cities. Note: εστιατόριο is Greek for restaurant, and Taḯste me anóito means Feed me, fool! According to the website, “the world-renowned estiatorio Milos proudly presents the very first luxurious gastronomy 5* hotel in the heart of Athens. A place where ‘philoxenia’, the sacred art of making a stranger feel like home, derives from taste, iconic simplicity and world class hospitality.” Note:
“In a unique combination of luxury and simplicity that is evident throughout the 43 individually styled rooms & suites and the generously warm and attentive service, each of the bedrooms and suites are designed with Greek harmony and elegance featuring high ceilings, marble bathrooms, wooden floors, velvet soft furnishing, finest beds and linens and spacious outdoor sunny terraces some of which boast spectacular Lycabettus Hill and Old Parliament House views.”
The design team behind the new boutique hotel is Divercity Architects, the firm run by the brothers whose father, Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis, designed Islamabad. Yeah, the one in Pakistan.
We like this. We like locals. And we like fish. And we like the idea of savoring a gourmet piscine repast, a bottle or two of crisp retsina and then drifting off in a posh room a few flights above before exploring sunny Plaka or percolating Pagrati (“my new favorite!” says insider Kostis) the following morning.
While the NEW Hotel will always be this Column’s first choice in Athens (steamed pork buns with Acropolis view, reason #601!), Xenodoxeion Milos gets our vote for the hottest new table/hotel combo in town: The magical mélange of delicious fish and gracious luxury is already helping making Athens great again: Greek Column Approved!