NEW HOTEL OPENING
The Cooper, In Charleston, South Carolina y’all
The English founded Charleston in 1670, originally named Charles Town (as you may have guessed) after King Charles II. The city was at Albermarle Point first, on the west bank of the Ashley River, which is Charles Towne Landing, but moved in 1680 to its present location and by a decade later was the fifth-largest city in the US. It’s not in the top 100 today, if you were wondering, but is often cited as the best small city in the country.
For those of you who love horse-drawn carriages, cobblestone-streets and pastel antebellum houses, this is a city for you. Waterfront Park and Battery promenade overlook the harbor, with Fort Sumter — where the first shots of the Civil War were fired — visible across the water.
On the harbor waterfront, next to Joe Riley Waterfront Park, you will find Charleston’s newest luxury hotel, The Cooper, a sleek, shiny, gorgeous property that looks more like it was meant for Miami Beach than this classic Southern city. It has 191 rooms, suites and specialty suites, which include the enigmatically and somewhat unsettlingly named Water Double Queen (with a balcony), and the more singular-monarch named Water Front King, and some of those have balconies. Regular suites include the less grand but still quite wonderful Water Front Studio Suite, the utilitarian-titled One Bedroom Suite and the presumably-as-advertised Water Front One Bedroom.
The Signature, ne plus ultra suites are the Terrace and Presidential. And they are most grand of all.
For food and drinkies there will be four options (surely enough, no?). The Crossing, with harbor views and a world-class wine cellar, serving Mediterranean cuisine and cooking* with locally sourced seafood and produce. Bar Marti is a rooftop bar serving cocktails and small bites — there does not appear to be any prohibitions against you taking large bites, but they will be of small food items, to be clear. This is by the infinity pool, overlooking the water, which sounds Freudian, or at least a bit dizzying (or is that just me?). The bar is exclusive to hotel guests.
The last two are opening soon, the Current Burger, designed like a classic soda shop and serving comfort foods, milkshakes and juicy burgers — it is with confidence that they assert they will be juicy — and the Cooper Coffee & Wine, on the Cooper Marina, serving coffee and pastries in the morning, in the evening wine and charcuterie.
Just a few other things to mention: there is a private marina with a fleet of luxury vessels for guests to use (!), a house yacht for private events and dinner cruises, and a water taxi service. The Spa has seven treatment rooms, seven private relaxation spaces, a hydrotherapy lounge, a Sanarium sauna, a fitness center and a Recovery Room, where you can get a massage, and lie on a cryolounger and a zero gravity bed.
We had to look that last one up too — turns out it’s a bed where your knees and head are positioned to be above your heart, which should be in your chest — check to make sure — to somewhat simulate weightlessness. So, like being in a hospital bed then!
Hotels these days, eh?
*Full points for getting the Monty Python reference.
176 Concord Street, Charleston, SC 29401
Tel: +1 843 619 2500
