Review: Nolinski Venezia

Why book Nolinski Venezia?

For the sake of originality. To surprise yourself. There’s no other hotel in Venice quite like this one. It delivers a fresh take on classic Venetian style – and might inspire you to see the city through fresh eyes as well.

Set the scene

So there you are, just off the water taxi, on the Calle Larga XXII Marzo, in the heart of one of the most glorious cities on the face of the earth. Before plunging into the Nolinski, pause for a moment at the threshold. Taking care not to be swept away by the ceaseless flow of shoppers whirlpooling around the YSL boutique directly behind you, step back, stand firm and look up and admire the building itself for a minute or two. You’ll quickly realize that it is something of an oddity in the overall scheme not only of this particular street but also in that of the city as a whole. Most of Venice’s household-name five-star hotels occupy converted palazzi. The Gritti Palace, for instance, a paradigm of the kind, is around the corner. This building, by contrast, was constructed not in the 15th century but in the 20th, and not as a private residence but as a stock exchange. Yet there’s nothing the least bit stock exchange-y about it. Its elegant five-storey façade in a version of stile Liberty is subtly animated by rippling lines and wavy undulations, rich in maritime associations. Later, once you’ve spent a little time at the hotel, you’ll appreciate that the Nolinski’s designers have drawn on those elegant outward-facing forms and associations in all sorts of clever ways inside and that, well, you’re not in Kansas anymore. Or in the Gritti Palace.

The backstory

The Nolinski Venezia is the most recent addition to the rapidly expanding French-owned Evok portfolio of hotels and restaurants. These operate under a variety of brand names: Nolinski, Brach, Sinner, Cour des Vosges, Bast and Palais Royal. Venice is the second Nolinski hotel. The first opened to widespread acclaim in Paris in 2016; a third will open in Madrid in 2024. Evok’s cofounders Pierre Bastid, Romain Yzerman and Emmanuel Sauvage had been longing to open something in Venice for years. When the stock-exchange building became available, they pounced.

The rooms

Frenchman Yann Le Coadic and Italian Alessandro Scotto previously worked on Evok’s Cour des Vosges hotel in Paris, another heritage building requiring flexibility and a lightness of touch on the part of the designers. Once again, they’ve pulled off quite a nifty trick here, deploying an adventurous mixture of contemporary, Art Deco and loosely mid-century industrial elements in a way that creates an impression not of jarring, look-at-me pretentiousness but of great restraint and serenity.

Mirrors feature prominently, along with a remarkable collection of glassware, curated specifically for the hotel. Indeed, the art and objets d’art throughout the hotel have been curated, hung and displayed with exceptional flair.

Because it’s a listed building, there’s inevitably a lot of variation in size and shape among the 43 rooms. If you’re the kind of person who has strong preferences (big views, lots of natural light, high ceilings, original features, a balcony or terrace, etc), then it’s worth making a phone call before booking. Rooms 302, 407 and 501 are the pick of the litter. Funnily enough, though, 302 lacks the signature powder-pink velvet sofa, which is otherwise ubiquitous. It has two midnight-blue velvet sofas instead.

Another absence, less easy to understand, is that of desks, or indeed any approximately waist-high flat surfaces that might function in a desk-like way. A pity for those of us who, even while staying in a gorgeous hotel in Venice, with pleasant distractions in all directions, have a little work to do.

Food and drink

The management makes no secret of their ambitions for the hotel’s fine-dining restaurant, Palais Royal, in a stupendous domed space with seven-metre ceilings and gold-trimmed arches. However, at the time of writing, it was in use only for breakfast for hotel guests. It will open to the public for dinner in early 2024.

Il Caffè, meanwhile, was fully up and running. It occupies an inner-courtyard space filled with natural light, with shade and decoration provided by an elegant bouquet of frilly-edged, Federico Fellini-esque parasols. Adjoining it is a small but extremely fetching indoor bar and dining room.

Two-Michelin-starred chef Philip Chronopoulos, a protégé of the late Joël Robuchon much admired for his Greek-accented take on classic French cuisine, brings a suitably cosmopolitan twist to the menu here, as he is likely to do upstairs at Palais Royal when it opens in due course. His baba au rhum is beyond.

Venetians treasure their open-air spaces, whether upper-storey altane or hidden courtyards like this one. It’s easy to imagine the locals taking to Il Caffè, adopting it as their own and vying for tables with hotel guests – a good problem to have, should it come to that. The Library Bar deserves special mention. Tall and narrow, plush and velvety, sexy and nerdy, its walls lined with 4,000 books and its ceiling decorated with a hypnotically radiant painting by French wonder-boy Simon Buret.

The spa

Not yet open at the time of writing, but the treatment room – spacious and suitable for couple’s treatments – was immaculate, with a faintly Ottoman air about it.

Though the rooftop pool is not strictly part of the second-storey spa, visitors to the one will almost certainly want to see the other as well. Even if you have no interest in paddling or pampering, you really must take the trip to the roof – the 360-degree views across the city are fantastic, and the sight of the pool itself, a glittering rectangle of gold-mosaic tiles, is irresistibly cheering.

The neighborhood/area

The particular stretch of Calle Larga XXII Marzo where you’ll find the Nolinski is like a mini Bond Street or Avenue Montaigne, only narrower and prettier, with no cars.

Wonders large and small are to be found within a few minutes’ walk. For wonders large: St Mark’s Square (exit hotel, turn left, carry on for a couple of hundred metres and prepare to be amazed whether you’re seeing it for the first time or the fiftieth). For wonders small: Harry’s Bar (exit hotel, turn left, then right at the Dior boutique; carry on down the alley; last door on your left). How could such a funny wee phone-box-sized gin-joint have gained such a gigantic reputation? Order a drink, if you can find a seat, and ponder this question at your leisure.

The service

Warm, welcoming, attentive, personal, enthusiastic, and respectful. It is perhaps no coincidence that half a dozen members of the Nolinski’s key staff, including the head concierge and assistant concierge, had been poached from the nearby Cipriani, a place long and justly admired for providing warm, welcoming, attentive, personal, enthusiastic, respectful service. Terrific role models for the young Venetian junior members of staff, all of whom seemed as pleased to be there on opening night as their guests.

For families

There are eight adjoining rooms, which can be further equipped with cots or roll-out beds as required. The hotel’s two-Michelin-starred chef is not too proud to adapt his menus to accommodate fussy young gourmands. (Or they could just binge on fritto misto, croqueta di patate and pizzette pomodoro, all of which are on the menu in Il Caffè and require no adaptation whatsoever.) Distractible kids disappointed by the absence of canines in the Doge’s Palace may have their high spirits restored on a concierge-arranged treasure hunt around the city centre or with a spot of Venetian mask-making.

Eco effort

Evok are big on CSR, participating in an impressive array of initiatives intended to improve the lives of their employees and those of residents in the communities in which they operate. (They recently introduced a “vegetables for all” program: every member of staff receives a fortnightly delivery of six kilos of seasonal fruit and vegetables to encourage a healthy diet and to help with the cost of living in a period of high inflation.) They have issued detailed statements regarding their approach to managing their carbon footprint, their participation in the French government’s “energy sobriety” plan and their approach to combating waste.

Interestingly, as far as the Nolinski Venezia is concerned, one of their most concerted eco-efforts has to do with building materials, notably their use of stucco marmorino and stucco marbro, traditional techniques which do not require newly quarried stone but instead achieve a marbled effect by means of a paste made of lime and recycled stone fragments.

Accessibility for those with mobility impairments

Venice, for obvious reasons, is a uniquely tricky city to navigate for those with mobility impairments and getting to the Nolinski is never going to be a piece of cake. Once there, however, the Nolinski rolls out not only the red carpet but also the machinery that makes it possible to explore an old building fully, from top to bottom. The entire hotel is wheelchair accessible – even the rooftop pool – and there are four fully adapted rooms.

Anything left to mention?

You can’t possibly fail to be impressed by the profusion of beautiful glass objects that illuminate and adorn the Nolinski – hundreds upon hundreds of them, practical, decorative, old, new, familiar, and mysterious. So far, so Venice, you might say. Glass has long been the city’s side hustle. But a visit to the island of Murano, specifically to see the Avem glassworks where these extraordinary objects were made, will only enhance your appreciation of their loveliness.