The first impression we received upon entering the room at the Jerusalem Theater Hotel was familiar to us. Amritsar, the Sikh capital of the world in northwest India, provided us for the first time with that moment when the foot enters a hotel room, and the world outside stops. Silence. Silent. A calm design that does not make for migraine and a complete detachment from the chaos outside. That's all you need after a trip to powerful cities like Jerusalem and Amritsar.
Fortunately, we reached the theater hotel by the new highways and tunnels in the city, directly to the adjacent parking lot, so the only sense of chaos felt was that of the weather. The construction of the hotel took 13 years, and "not because of bureaucracy," as the hotel's owner, Zion Hasid, clarified, but because they made sure to wait patiently for every design and useful detail in the complex and did not want to compromise on anything. The hotel is built on a public parking lot of the Jerusalem Theater opposite it, so the renovation of the public complex and the bridge connecting the parking lot to the theater is also the responsibility of the hotel owners.
The hotel concept combines 90 deluxe rooms, including 20 suites with relaxing views of South Jerusalem and 21 private apartments that will be sold later. Superior room rates start at NIS 2,000 per night.
Theater Hotel, Photo: Eli Stern
As you probably already understood, the hotel is opening right now. During the time we stayed there, it was under a run and final quality check before reception, and indeed there is something to improve in the complex, especially in terms of adding garbage cans in public areas and clear signage (admittedly, it took us some time to find the sauna or the accessible route). However, it is evident that those who worked on the user experience aimed mainly at a homely and relaxed feeling.
Precise and meticulous
You don't have to be a designer to appreciate the design thought that surrounds a hotel. Already from its exterior façade, a kind of dialogue is obtained with the theater structure in front of it, like a young and slightly unruly brother, with elements of wood, stone and brown aluminum. None of this made it inaccurate, symmetrical and non-threatening to the cultural structure adjacent to it. The adherence to a terraced structure does not overshadow or spoil the lunar grove beneath the project on its southern side.
The important part of the Jerusalem courtyard is also not forgotten here, and an internal system of paths provides shade and the possibility of future passage for apartment owners directly to the hotel grounds. The interior design added a few more colors to the equation, and it managed to carefully maintain the scale that ranged from white-gold-gray-black-silver-brown. The artistic bonus we got in the room we stayed in was in the form of a painting of white dots on a white canvas, which even managed to calm us down. It's Jonelle outside, but inside it's quiet.
The lobby of the theater hotel, photo: Eli Stern
The hotel lobby is clad in wild stone and also has a practical bar (which will have to be filled with bottles in the near future), with slightly annoying music but quick, courteous and smiling staff who fix the problem with the ears. The rest of the hotel is covered with marble with brown and gold tendons and purple-black/brown carpets. In fact, the dining room is the only place we came across a mural that was quite large and colorful, which clearly broke the classic interior design. Here, however, there is room for a little more mess.
Atypical
We also visited the nearby Jerusalem Theater, where you will find almost every evening a show or performance that may suit your taste exactly. On the street adjacent to the hotel is also Hansen House, which was once a leper hospital and today serves as an artistic complex and extension of the Bezalel School, in addition to a café and restaurant. There is also a nice observation tower, but when there is delicious food on the ground, there are no stairs that can make us leave the land.
Breakfast is, well, a breakfast, and it has everything you need – and of an excellent and satisfying standard. Dinner, on the other hand, didn't provide us with too much insight, except that the salads were nice and that it would have been better if you didn't tackle the chef with your vegetarian fact, because for us it ended in a kind of unnecessary gig.
The dining room at the theater hotel // Photo: Eli Stern
After more than three years of a pandemic that stopped the world, it's good to discover a hotel with a new concept opening in the capital. There are definitely better places to eat, but if you're looking for a quality place to spend one night or more in order to find rest, quiet and an atypical view of the world's most chaotic and holy city – the Theatre Hotel is a particularly great option.
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