Reopening late last year – having been rescued from a colourful history by Melbourne hospitality big guns Icon Hotels Group – visitors to Melbourne’s Adelphi Hotel could be forgiven for thinking they’d tapped their collective red shoes together three times and been transported to a flashy New York property. Step off the hurry-scurry of Melbourne’s Flinders Lane, into the Fady Hachem-transformed Melbourne institution; into a Sex and the City writer’s fantasy land; into the world’s first ever dessert hotel.
The sweet stuff is a marauding presence here; cookie dough scent assaults the lobby, jars of sweets at the check-in desk encroach your space, Liquorice Allsorts-inspired zig-zagged carpets clobber your ocular senses. The theme is taking no prisoners. We’re handed two red-striped straws and two dessert spoons as we head to our room. Once alone we find more jars: popcorn, candy floss, jellybeans – replenished each morning… two pastel macaroons are delivered with turndown service. We are besieged by sugar and spice, and by all things nice.
For a city so hinged upon design, the Adelphi is one of its surprisingly few boutique hotels – 34 contemporary rooms are homely, stylish; plush beds and heavenly walk-in rain showers ensure it’s not all style over substance. Communal areas fuse splashes of bright colours, art, and sculptures, up on the rooftop the Adelphi’s infamous swimming pool juts out two metres afront the building’s façade.
We pass up on a swim and head to the decadent 40-seat dessert restaurant and bar – the elusive straws and spoons from check-in are put to good use, as we exchange them for a complimentary glass of bubbles and gooey surprise each. Head Chef Christy Tania, trained in the French art of pastry, knows her way around a dessert – they look good, they taste even better. The Pineapple Verrine, a mix of strawberry, rum, and peppercorn tastes light and fresh, the odd hint of spice trickling through. Triple Chocolate: dark cocoa, coconut, caramelised white chocolate, lime, milk chocolate and white rum satisfies our sweet tooth and boozey desire alike. There’s a tasting menu and bar snacks available, but tonight everybody is here for the same thing – Tania’s desserts, and savouring the final mouth full, we can easily understand why. We surrender to the sweet storm.
Located in the right end of Melbourne’s Central Business District, the city’s famed lanes and its electrifying art and culture scene are on its very doorstep. Putting a tumultuous past to bed, Flinders Lane’s Adelphi Hotel has a different kind of sticky future ahead – a sticky, glutinous future of chocolate-covered lips and sore jaws. The Adelphi are waging a war of candy, indulgence and luxuriant delight – and we’re waving our white flag.
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