The hotel that found Venice before most people had heard of it — and what it feels like to arrive already knowing.
Nouri found Nolinski before most people had heard of it. This is how it works with him. Not a discovery made in real time — he does not arrive and discover — but a decision made beforehand, on the basis of knowing what a hotel group of three properties does differently from the category around it.
The Venice property is not on the Grand Canal. This is not a concession. It is on Calle Larga XXII Marzo, which is the street where Venice keeps its finest shops — Attilio Codognato, the antique jeweller operating since 1866; the boutiques that have been here since before the tourist market existed. To be on this street is to be at the center of the city that actually exists, rather than the city that performs for photographs. The Grand Canal addresses charge you for the view. Nolinski charges you for being in the right place.
The Grand Canal addresses charge you for the view. Nolinski charges you for being in the right place.
The room we had was on the top floor. The ceiling was high. There was a Murano glass pendant, a deep red armchair, dark wood shelving with the bottles set out — proper bottles, open, whisky and gin, set on a tray as though you were a guest in someone's apartment rather than a client of a hotel. On the coffee table: a book about Venice, a Virgil Abloh monograph, Veronese. Someone chose those books. Someone briefed the room.
We put our feet up on the coffee table on the first afternoon and stayed there for two hours.
Breakfast is Christofle silver service. Almost no hotel does this anymore. The silverware requires polishing, replacement, care — operational details that get quietly eliminated in the name of efficiency. At Nolinski they have not been eliminated. The pastry basket competes with the best in Paris, which in Venice is remarkable and not accidental: the person sourcing the pastries made a decision to compete with Paris and has succeeded.
The manager, Gloria Vian, came from Belmond properties — Cap Juluca specifically, which is one of the better-run hotels in the Caribbean. You can feel the training in the way a problem gets handled before you have had time to consider it a problem.
The interior design is by Joseph Dirand Architecture, the Parisian studio whose work has a particular quality: restraint that does not read as minimalism, warmth that does not read as excess. The Venice property is the most beautiful of the three Nolinski properties. It will not stay undiscovered for much longer. Book in the off-season.
Not a grand hotel performing luxury. A small hotel that has decided, in specific and considered ways, what it actually means to take care of someone.