By Jae-Ha Kim
jaehakim.com
March 30, 2022
The Angad Arts Hotel is one of the more unique properties I’ve ever stayed at. Located in St. Louis’ vibrant theatre and arts district, Angad is equal parts art gallery and trendy hotel. It’s also the first hotel of its kind where guests select their rooms not just by the number of beds they’ll need, but by the color and emotion they want to feel during their stay.
No, for real! Red (empowered). Yellow (curious). Green (rejuvenated). Blue (freedom).
With my family’s input, I selected blue, which looked tranquil and beautiful on their website.
Guest checkin is on the 12th floor lobby. We were lucky and got an upgrade to a larger suite, which turned out to be huge! (I’d guess about 600 square feet or so.) I also appreciated the extra security the hotel has to ensure that only guests can access the floors by elevator. In order to get to your room, guests have to scan their key card onto the elevator touch pad.
The location is excellent, with galleries, restaurants and boutiques located within easy walking distance. It’s about a 10-minute cab ride from the Gateway Arch. And it’s less than a 15-minute drive from Forest Park, which is where many of the free attractions are located: Missouri History Museum, Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis Science Center, Saint Louis Zoo.
I had hoped to check out Circus Flora, which I could see from our hotel. But, unfortunately, it’s only in operation during the summer. Maybe next time?
There were some nice cushy chairs in our bedroom that were perfect for reading. So we moved one of them out to the living area by the sunny window. I spent hours there relaxing and re-reading Min Jin Lee‘s superb book, “Pachinko.”
And yes, we put the chair back before we checked out, of course!
If I have a complaint about this hotel, it’s that there were so many great features, but they were missing a few key elements. For instance, our suite had a huge bathroom (as well as a roomy powder room). There was plenty of wall space for towel hooks, but there were none by the sink where you wash your hands. There was no bathmat either, so we made do with a wash cloth instead.
The kitchenette was gorgeous and bigger than the kitchen in my first apartment! It had a full-size dishwasher, double-drawer fridge, microwave, plenty of cabinet space, as well as a dining room table that could comfortably seat six people. But, there was no dishwashing soap, sponge, paper towels, plates or silverware. So, we asked the hotel restaurant if we could borrow some plates and utensils and they kindly obliged. And we moved a box of Kleenex (the brand, not a generic!) from the powder room to the kitchen and used those to dry our hands. No biggie. Just a little inconvenient.
Just the facts:
Angad Arts Hotel, 3550 Samuel Shepard Dr., St. Louis, Missouri 63102 (314-561-0033). Complimentary WiFi. There is a $75/night charge that will be credited back to your account after you check out. Because of COVID-19 protocols, stayover housekeeping service was suspended during our stay. But the hotel was happy to provide anything we needed. (We asked for more Keurig coffee and tea pods and the staff quickly replenished our supply.) Ice machines are located on odd-numbered floors.
You may view more photos of the hotel on their Instagram and Facebook feeds.
From their website:
Creativity inspires, energizes and enlightens us. Choose your color to affect your mood. Situated in the historic Grand Center Arts District, The Angad is surrounded by art museums, theater and endless creative space to explore. Stay and let us inspire you.
Where to eat:
Ordinarily, we don’t eat in hotel restaurants, just because it’s nice to get out and explore a bit. Angad is said to have a fine eatery in its Commonwealth restaurant. Next time, we’ll give it a try.
On previous trips to St. Louis, we enjoyed dining at Pastaria and getting carryout from Sushi Ai, K-Bop and Sides of Seoul.
This time around, we ate delicious pasta at Vito’s Sicilian Pizzeria, ordered fried rice and rib tips at Sunrise Chinese Restaurant (which closes early because the parking lot is used for theatre parking) and ate really good burritos, tacos and nachos at Lucha II. All of these restaurants are just minutes away from our hotel.
We had heard good things about the Asian fusion cuisine at Kalbi Taco Shack at City Foundry’s Food Hall. Honestly? The food was OK, but not particularly memorable. It was overpriced ($4.50 for one of the tiniest (albeit tasty) tacos I’ve ever seen and $3.50 for a small side of kimchi they said was housemade — however, it was overly fermented and should’ve been repurposed into a stew or savory pancake and not sold as a side). My son did enjoy his kalbi bowl, though.
Shopping:
The one good thing about heading to City Foundry — for our son, anyhow! — was finding Sanctioned Sneaker Collective on the ground level. To be honest, I was trying to steer him towards cheaper shoes. But guess what? There were no cheap shoes here! 😭😂 Each pair seemed to be more expensive than the last one we saw.
Anyhow, he chose a pair of Yeezy sneakers that he really liked. Personally, I think they are ugly and overpriced, but what the heck. You only live once, right? So yes, we bought it for him. And no, we don’t ordinarily put shoes on our bedspreads. But since these were brand new, we made an exception.
© 2022 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved
We’re heading to St. Louis next month with the in laws! This sounds like the perfect place to stay for us. Thanks for the tips!
I stayed in the red room and it was kinda like being in hell colorwise! haha The hotel is very nice though and I would stay in any of the other color rooms unless there was a big discount to stay in the red room again.
I don’t care about room colors but the security factor sounds good especially for women traveling alone. I may check this out on my next staycation in the summer. Thanks Jae! Hope you had a wonderful trip! Also I never eat at hotel restaurants. They are never as good and always more expensive!