Hotel Granduca

Are you getting too hot as you lounge around the swimming pool? The staff here is only too happy to provide you with iced towels. Need the perfect cappuccino delivered to your suite or tickets for an evening at the ballet? Consider it done. Created by Giorgio Borlenghi, Hotel Granduca is a luxury boutique hotel that transports you to the elegance and pampering of aristocrats in old-world Italy. The hotel was inspired by Adalberto Malatesta Granduca of Monfallito who was born in 1524 and owned a sumptuous palace known as much for the hospitality and warmth of its owner as it was for its comfortable opulence. At Granduca, you are close to the bustle of the Galleria area (the mecca for restless consumers of all things chic) and Houston’s top society hairdresser, Cerón, is literally right across the street with a posh salon in Uptown Park. But when you return to the Granduca, you enter a sublime sanctuary where self-indulgence is de rigueur. Iced towels, anyone?

Granduca's tiny Ristorante Cavour is a hidden gem for upscale Houston diners. With only a handful of tables and plenty of candlelight, to call it romantic is an understatement, and the standout Tuscan cuisine of Chef Renato De Pirro is memorable.