A boutique hotel has opened behind one of Sydney’s most luminous corners. A hop-skip from the neon Coca-Cola sign in Kings Cross, the new Hotel Indigo brings 105 rooms, a French-Japanese fusion restaurant and a cafe to the buzzy inner-city suburb.
The Potts Point hotel is the fourth Australian property for IHG Hotels & Resorts’ Hotel Indigo brand, after the launch of a Helmut Newton-inspired Hotel Indigo on Melbourne’s Flinders Lane last year. This multimillion-dollar refurbishment transforms a former office block, taking playful design cues from Kings Cross’s past as a bohemian hotspot and theatre hub.
Interiors have been thoughtfully designed by Surry Hills studio Five Foot One Design. Across guest floors, colourful touches pay tribute to the surrounding neighbourhood with lenticular signage and murals by Sydney artist Kate Banazi that reimagine historical and contemporary photographs of Potts Point and Kings Cross architecture. Rooms come with either harbour views or a neon-lit streetscape and are stocked with slippers, floral robes by Aussie label Bambury, and Biology bath products.
Around the corner on Pennys Lane, find the hotel’s French-Japanese restaurant, Luc-San, helmed by Luke Mangan (Glass Brasserie, Luke’s Kitchen). “[French and Japanese are] my two favourite cuisines in the world,” Mangan told Broadsheet upon the restaurant’s opening last year. “And they’re great flavours to bring together.” There’s yuzu kosho bouillabaisse with fish, mussels and pippies, and confit duck with burnt orange and ume. The best bit? Hotel Indigo guests can pick up the retro bedside phone to order room service from the Luc-San menu. A stay here also comes with the city’s best restaurants on your doorstep.
Those opting for table service will descend from their rooms and follow stage lights and dramatic red carpet into a theatre-like lobby. Walls are lined with glamorous copper-coloured curtains and a series of portraits by Gary Heery, capturing Aussie stars including Cate Blanchett, Deborah Mailman and local burlesque star Rosie Rivette. The curtains hang from the ceiling but don’t touch the floor, greeting guests like stars while lifting the curtain on the production that is Kings Cross.
Hotel Indigo Potts Point
2/14 Kings Cross Road, Potts Point
