Marriott Syracuse opens

My wife and I were pleased to be among the early guests at the remodeled Marriott Syracuse, formerly the Hotel Syracuse.

As columnist Jeff Kramer in the Syracuse New Times put it, "...  the Hotel Syracuse, which opened in 1924, occupied mythic status... All those weddings, anniversaries and other galas ... made the ornate edifice inseparable from the collective consciousness. When the place was shuttered as an operating hotel in 2004, with demolition a possibility, the sadness was palpable."

Marriott did a great job remodeling the facility. Walking down the hallway to our room, the doors appeared to be the historic doors, or at least, they looked like the 1920s. But the room itself was new and modern. We had a fairly low-end room on a wedding block rate, but it had a king sized bed and a sofa and a TV on a fully articulating wall mount.

At 8 am on Saturday, I wanted to get two coffees for the room. This took just a bit of effort. My point is, it should not take any effort to get a cup to go at 8 am. And it cost four bucks a cup. But, all in all, leaders and regular citizens have to be thrilled with the new hotel.

Back to that difficult coffee experience, we decided to find an independent diner after checkout, instead of eating at the hotel restaurant, and ended up at the New York Style Diner. That's where I found a print copy of the New Times. My relatives in "the Valley" were proud of me (a Liverpool native now living in Rochester) for tracking down a local favorite.