Westin Show

A Center City hotel breaks from the chain.

by A.D. Amorosi

They've got a guest room, No. 414, designed by Philadelphia artisans to be an avant-garde Disney World. They've got a restaurant cooking and serving mostly locally grown goods in a communal setting. And now they've got area musicians playing and chatting up their ideas in the lobby lounge as if on a talk show.

It's difficult to say whether the Westin on 17th Street — the local link in the national hotel's chain, which opened here in 1999 — is becoming the best big little boutique corporate hotel in Philly. But at a time when "making it a night" has, for many, meant Sofitel, Loews or Four Seasons, the Westin is taking no prisoners.

Westiners like Eric Vincent and Vince Presciti are seeing to that with the intimate musical Sessions @ The Westin Philadelphia, the design-conscious Room 414 and the organic Citygrange restaurant.

GET A ROOM: Vince Presciti (at bar) and Eric Vincent (right) are bringing artists like Alex Radus (left) to Sessions. Photo By: Michael T. Regan (CLICK IMAGE FOR STAND-ALONE VERSION)

Room 414 got its place in the sun when the suite took on the "Uwishunu Hotel Room Makeover" project courtesy of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation's blog and the Philadelphia design and curatorial likes of Eileen Tognini, RJ Thornburg, Meg Saligman and Warren Muller. These hand-crafters provided the looks (lighting, soap, upholstery, bedding); GPTMC the hype; and the Westin — already undergoing a $10 million renovation — the space.

"[General manager] Mike Manzari was pretty visionary," says Vincent, owner/producer of Curve Dominant studio, who works on the food and catering side of the Westin. "He let every artist do whatever they wanted, and stayed completely out of their way with no editing by hotel management."

Presciti, the Westin's director of food and beverage, adds that GPTMC's 100 percent local idea sealed the deal. (Room 414's rate starts at $239, which is a $75 premium above the lowest priced room). "It's an incredible room celebrating Philadelphia's artist community," says Presciti.

Celebrating the area's food community is what chef Chris Lichtman, scion of a New Jersey farming family, and Citygrange are all about — sourcing the menu's ingredients from local farmers and ranchers in a show of sustainability. "We have a number of hotel guests that stay with us frequently," Notes Presciti. "Ideas like interesting rooms [414] and Lichtman's concept for the Citygrange menu being one of experiencing a home-cooked meal, are appealing. So is Sessions."

The newest of the Westin's concepts — starting this week — can be traced back to 1995. "I've known Eric since then, knew he represented local artists, produced and played with them," says Presciti, who arrived at the Westin in 2005. With the restaurant concept moving toward a buy-fresh-buy-local philosophy, they thought a local artist night in the lounge made perfect sense. "The renovated restaurant has a pretty sleek vibe about it, fusing the 'old world' with the modern," says Vincent. "The Sessions concept runs parallel: Performances will be intimate, organic and as unamplified as possible, but in a sleek, urban setting, presenting locally grown artists."

Though the seeds were planted long ago, 2006's holiday employee party during its renovations gave Vincent some water to grow the thought. With the renovations, "the place looked Ocean's Eleven-ish," says Vincent.

Suddenly the Westin seemed and looked fun. Room 414 provided inspiration on how to bring the Sessions concept into focus. The seeds sprouted. As with 414, they went to Manzari and made Sessions appeal to musical types as well as hotel types.

As HEI and Starwood — Westin's corporate owners — encourage creativity in its brands, the hotel's management and employees are made to feel it's their space in which to be creative. "They get a better hotel that way, certainly one better tuned in to the community it's serving," says Vincent.

The criteria for Sessions — singer-songwriters, in solo or duo acoustic performances, doing their thing — allowed all levels of eclecticism: Anam Owili-Eger's acid-jazzy soul; John Francis' country lyricism; Alex Radus' bluesy acoustics; Box Five's chamber pop.

"Just like with 414, they didn't say how to do it, they just said, 'Do it,'" says Vincent.

"I was impressed with his ideas and felt on the same page with his musician-to-musician approach," says urban folkie Mia Johnson, who got a note from Vincent via MySpace.

With Vincent's idea to make Sessions a date destination, he decided to host it himself and conduct post-performance interviews wearing something nice. ("Armani or the same stuff I'm wearing when you see me passed out on a park bench in Rittenhouse Square at 4 a.m.," he says.) Johnson, too, will wear something colorful and flattering — "I don't know what yet but can tell you with all certainty I'll definitely have on clean underwear" — while showing off a clever-to-pretty lyrical style that illuminates her grand old themes of busted-up relationships.

While Vincent found nothing but enthusiasm from those he contacted, Presciti found Sessions to be part of the hotel's vision for chilling out and digging the scene, whether you're staying overnight or just a few hours. "It's fun to realize that we are a lot of things. Our room 414 is a gallery. Our restaurant ... celebrates local farmers. Our lounge is a music venue. These things all just happen to be in a hotel."

And while both see a future of local painting exhibits in the lobby lounge; fashion shows by local clothing and jewelry designers; and screenings of locally produced independent films, too, as part of some bigger cross-pollination between the hotel and Philly's multiculturalism, one thing remains clear.

"I suspect my bosses, like my parents, see me as kinda mad," says Vincent, "but in a positive, very tolerable way."

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)

Sessions @ The Westin, Wednesdays, 7 p.m., started Sept. 12, 99 S. 17th St., 215-563-1600.