Walker Hotel: More than a pretty face
COURTESY
WALKER HOTEL GREENWICH
VILLAGE
The Walker Hotel Greenwich Village
boasts an elegant facade, but its mission is
hardly superficial.
is striving to sincerely support the L.G.T.B.Q. community,
rather than merely reap fi nancial benefi ts
from Pride.
In addition to supporting small businesses and organizations
in the city, the Walker also has a global
reach. Coffee at the hotel is sourced from Coffee of
Grace, an organization that trains Rwandan farmers
— mostly women — how to cultivate the coffee
bean, then buys the beans at above-market prices,
and ships them privately back to New York City,
to ensure the majority of the profi ts remain in the
farmers’ village. Finally, the beans are roasted in
Tribeca.
The Walker Greenwich Village is also a member
of the Clean the World Foundation, which addresses
global health issues by using recycled and repurposed
supplies from the hospitality industry. The
housekeeping team at the Walker collects unused
bath products left behind in guestrooms. The foundation
separates the product from the plastic, and
then recycles the product into new bar soap that is
then distributed to emergency relief efforts around
the globe.
Crimi wishes all hoteliers would use their ability
to effect positive change in their communities and
beyond.
“You do not need to be a big-box store with a huge
budget in order to make a difference,” he stated.
Crimi acknowledges that hotels might not be the
ultimate catalyst for “changing the world,” as he
put it. But he fi rmly believes that if every hotel took
small actions similar to those of The Walker Greenwich
Village, a measure of change could certainly
be created.
BY MICAELA MACAGNONE
Guests arriving at the Walker Hotel Greenwich Village are greeted by a facade featuring
copper-clad bay windows, cast-stone trim and restoration antique-glass
illuminated by gas lanterns reminiscent of the early
COURTESY WALKER HOTEL GREENWICH VILLAGE
For Pride Month, the Society Cafe at the
Walker Hotel Greenwich Village is partnering
with Simple Vodka and God’s Love We
Deliver to provide hunger relief nationwide,
as well as nutritious meals to seriously ill
individuals in the metro area.
and the L.G.B.T. Community Center.
The Walker Hotel Greenwich Village also houses
Tour & Talk, a walking tour “talk back” that features
prominent activist educators, including Emmy-nominated
fi lmmaker Cheryl Furjanic and Ken Kidd, an
original member of Queer Nation and an active participant
in the push to introduce the Equality Act in
Congress.
Crimi emphasized that he wanted the hotel to
do more than just host a party, which is what many
New York City businesses do to support Pride. He
sees these talk backs as an opportunity to educate.
Crimi explained that, surrounding Pride, the hotel
days of Greenwich Village. The exterior of the hotel,
on W. 13th St. between Sixth and Seventh Aves.,
was inspired by the Georgian-revival towers found
on New York’s famed Fifth Ave. of the 1920s.
Inside sits a parlor with a fi replace, Art Decoinspired
wall coverings, a display of original works
by emerging local artists, plush couches and a library
featuring New York-themed books mostly by
authors who called Greenwich Village home.
The luxury boutique hotel’s 113 rooms boast
private landscaped patios, balconies with views of
the Empire State Building and deep-soaking marble
bathtubs.
But don’t just judge The Walker Hotel Greenwich
Village by its cover. Its mission goes far beyond that.
MarcAnthony Crimi, the hotel’s general manager,
explained that every decision the hotel makes must
serve local or global communities in some way. The
Walker Hotel Greenwich Village, formerly The Jade
Hotel, was acquired in 2016. Crimi was tasked with
the rebrand in April of 2016.
For starters, on a local level, the Walker Hotel
Greenwich Village supports many nearby small
businesses through partnerships. Just a few examples
include the hotel’s work with University Floral
Design to decorate public spaces in the hotel,
The New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music
to provide live jazz entertainment to guests every
week, and C.O. Bigelow for in-room bath amenities.
The hotel also includes Society Cafe, a marketto
table American restaurant led by Executive Chef
Manuel Gonzalez-Charles, who personally shops at
the Union Square Greenmarket four days per week
to create an ever-evolving American menu. In doing
so, Society Cafe supports farmers from New
York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The Walker Hotel Greenwich Village will also
be an active participant in Pride this month. To
celebrate World Pride, Society Cafe is partnering
with Simple Vodka, which donates proceeds from
the cost of a bottle to hunger-relief organizations,
and also God’s Love We Deliver, the Greenwich
Village-based organization that cooks and delivers
medically tailored meals to people in the metro
area living with serious illnesses, including H.I.V./
AIDS.
Society Cafe has created three Pride-themed
Simple Vodka cocktails, half of the proceeds of
which is being donated to God’s Love We Deliver.
Crimi touted this dual partnership as working on
both the production side and the consumer side:
Simple Vodka works to end hunger across America,
while the proceeds from the cocktails’ sales go to
God’s Love We Deliver, which attempts to alleviate
hunger for the seriously ill in New York City.
This year, the hotel also created a local partnership
with Christopher Street Tours, a recently opened
small business that provides tours of Greenwich
Village focused on the L.G.B.T.Q. civil-rights movement
in New York City. Among the tour’s stops are
the Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park, the New York
City AIDS Memorial Park at St. Vincent’s Triangle,
Schneps Media TVG June 13, 2019 17