74 State

 

2

9

Michael J.

Falls Church, VA

5/15/2008

Normally when I visit Albany, I stay at the Crowne Plaza.  This past time it was apparently booked up.  I came in on the train from NYC, hopped a cab and told the driver where I was going to the Clarion, but he didn't know where it was.  I narrowed it to "right by the Crowne Plaza" and he was still perplexed.  When I gave him the address, 74 State, he said that's what the hotel was called in all their advertisement and he had never heard of it being called Clarion.  No worries as he was able to get me there quickly and I got checked in.

The doorman was very nice and greeted me at the cab as one would expect from a business class hotel.  The front desk personnel were very professional and friendly.  The ambiance of the hotel lobby, although very small, was nice.  It's not a mega-hotel like you might find on the Vegas strip or anything even close to that.  It was more like a nice European 4 star hotel.  I could hear a slight murmur of voices coming from the bar on the second floor.  The restaurant, March was open although it didn't seen as though anyone was there.

I went to my third floor room to settle in, change out of business attire, and head to the bar for a nice, quick, and simple bar food dinner.

I changed into a pair of jeans and headed down the stairs (I could have taken the elevator but it's only one floor) to the bar.  As soon as I opened the door from the stairwell, I felt like I shouldn't have changed into something so casual.  The few people there were dressed in suit and tie type business attire.  I felt like I had walked into a board room.  Subsequent patrons were also similarly dressed so it seemed like the norm there.  Not really what I expected in a bar.  The one at Crowne Plaza is much more casual.  I thought about just walking up there as it's only a very short block away, but opted to stay.

The barmaid was very nice and reasonably attentive given the number of people in the bar.  She had to go downstairs to get iced tea for me, but it didn't delay her too long.

I had a chicken meatball satay for an appetizer and a salmon salad for dinner.  Feeling like the old six pack has turned into a keg, I thought it better to keep to lighter fare.  They had steaks, burgers, oysters on the half shell, and other foods you might expect.  I may try them if I'm in the area again.

The food was quite good, but I'm not used to getting my appetizer and entre at the same time.  The sauce with the chicken was tart and sweet, lending a nice touch to the flavors in the meatball mixture.  Not being a fan of sauces which cover up bad food, I tried the first one without the sauce, and found it to be particularly good.  The sauce however was a very nice augmentation to the flavor.

The salmon salad on the other hand was not quite up to the level of the appetizer.  Not that the flavor was bad, but a few minor annoyances.  There was a heavy vinaigrette on it which really masked the flavor of the greens.  The salmon still had skin on it which would have been fine if it were a nice crispy skin.  The citrus fruits in the salad seemed as if they had come from a can.  Certainly not fresh, and in this combination, not refreshing.  I would have thought they would have been able to provide some fresh citrus for a meal like this.

I ate it, as it wasn't bad, just not as good as I would have expected.  Then I headed back up the stairs to my room.  Again, it was just one floor and I could use the exercise.  =-)

The room itself was interesting.  As I entered, there was a full length mirror on the wall.  A nice touch.  Many hotels seem to forget about this.  The bed was piled high with pillows and a big comforter.  I was surprised the bed was so small.  I think it was a double, although it may have been a queen.  There was a work desk with a power plug in the lamp base, and free wireless Internet.  This was very much appreciated as I'm really getting sick of hotels charging as much as $30 to connect (as it was one place I stayed in Vail several years ago).  On the wall was what appeared to be a flat screen TV.  It was hard to tell from across the room, but even from 12 or so feet away, it appeared to be quite small.  I didn't measure it, but trust me, it seems like someone is playing a joke on you.  They could certainly have spent some of the money from the bathroom on the TV and made a lot of people a lot happier.

Which brings me to the bathroom.  It's huge.  Nearly as deep as the main part of the room, and save the space for the hallway from the door, just as wide, it was a lot more space than needed.  I'm not advocating a cruise ship sized bathroom, but something a little smaller.  That being said, it was done up very well.  The old style, but obviously new faucets were a nice touch.  The shower was adjustable for temperature, but not water pressure.  This is an annoyance for me which rears up in many hotels.

In the morning, I had breakfast in March.  I'll write more in a different review.

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