Luxury Interiors: Inside Hotel Ulysses Bespoke Bar

Baltimore's Brilliant Buzzy Bar

An undersung American city, a heavily-veneered café, an escape from réalité. At Baltimore’s new Hotel Ulysses, there is a decadent bar with mirrored ceilings, plush rouge carpets and bespoke George Smith banquettes running the curved perimeter.

Ulysses was imagined as a sort of “embassy where travellers can meet locals, where the best of visitors can meet the best of Baltimore,” according to Ari S. Heckman, who co-founded the cult hotel chain Ash in 2008 alongside Jonathan Minkoff, before the New York-based hotelier became a trio with Will Cooper as CCO in 2011. To achieve such a space, where people can linger and enjoy the low-lit, cosy social hub, tucked beneath the newly renovated hotel, stylish bespoke seating was created by George Smith to maximise the capacity and take advantage of curves of the architecture. The seating creates organic and fluid shapes, adding to the glamorous bohemian feel of the bar itself.