Kimpton Cardinal Hotel

Who knew the old R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company headquarters in Winston-Salem, North Carolina was the original inspiration for the Empire State Building? A hotelier could hardly ask for a more architecturally distinguished starting point than this 1929 Art Deco skyscraper right at the heart of Winston-Salem’s newly resurgent downtown district. Kimpton, true to form, adapts their accessible, light-hearted boutique-hotel style to its surroundings, and the result, in the Kimpton Cardinal Hotel, is a delightful throwback to a mid-century era that’s frankly more fantasy than reality.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. The best hotel stays are almost pure fantasy anyway, and the Cardinal, though shot through with subtle and not-so-subtle references to North Carolina’s visual history, is almost impossibly urbane; though the atmosphere is certainly casual, you may find yourself reaching for the dressier end of your wardrobe when it’s time for dinner at the Katharine, the Cardinal’s restaurant and bar.

And when it’s a Kimpton hotel, some things go nearly without saying. The daily five-o’clock wine social is an institution, as is the chain’s legendarily liberal pet policy, and the service is friendly and familiar yet professional at the same time. It’s no wonder acquiring a Kimpton hotel is something of a rite of passage for an American city, and by that measure Winston-Salem has officially arrived.