Lonely Planet Review
Certainly surreal, the Dream - opened in late 2004 - is a modern make over of a one-time plain chain hotel. Its two bars - including a penthouse job overlooking Broadway - gets the cocktail crowd giddy from late afternoon onwards.
The 220 rooms - including suites - feature blue lights shining from under the beds and from inside the glass-top desks, giving a nightclubby effect to the minimalist all-white rooms. They're not as luxurious chic as at first glance - and smoking rooms seem to retain the tobacco scent. But there's fruit on the pillows, Internet connection at the desk, and a plasma TV on the wall. The lobby's impact is probably bigger (at least more bizarre), with a two-storey aquarium filled with Caribbean fish (it leads to the basement, where there are conference rooms and a spa in the works) and a giant sculpture of Neptune, Lady Madonna and Catherine the Great (culled from a Russian restaurant in Hartford). All meals are served at the adjoining Sarafina restaurant overlooking Broadway.
Review by author
Robert Reid