On Residence
Restoring Twenties
Glancing over Thermaikos gulf
In Thessaloniki, time is less linear, more of a spaghetti junction: with a cutting-edge arts festival held in a Roman Agora, monuments to a 4th-century emperor overlooking a bustling shopping district and bars beside Ottoman baths, it tends to double back. And, revived boutique stay On Residence embodies this era-straddling feel; formerly elite eatery Olympos Naoussa has been given back its Twenties’ grandeur, with tiles, cornices, wallpapers and a swish-down staircase restored, and modernity comes in the shapely form of curved-in-the-right places furnishings and bronze and velvet embellishments. But, dine and drink under the deco chandeliers amid Grecian Gatsby-esque glamour, winsomely watching the gulf, and you might feel like time has taken a few steps back.
Facilities
Номера
60, including nine suites.
Checkout
11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
Больше сведений
Rates usually include a buffet breakfast and a welcome drink.
Also
There are three Classic rooms suitable for guests with mobility issues. Public spaces are easily navigable and there’s a lift too.
Бесплатный доступ в интернет
Прачечная
Возможно размещение с животными
Рестораны на территории
Обслуживание в номерах
At the Hotel
Small garden terrace, lounge for work and play, gym and wellness space, concierge, charged laundry service, free high-speed WiFi. In rooms: 50-inch flatscreen TVs, Marshall speaker, Nespresso coffee machines, teas and kettles, minibars, bathrobes and slippers, kimonos, soundproofing, air-conditioning and Codage bath products.
Our Favourite Rooms
Rooms and suites strike a delicate balance between antique and modern – Thessaloniki’s calling card. Textured wood and glass panelling, sinuous silhouettes, flashes of brass and velvets from coral to mint to teal bring deco decadence up to date, while some rooms have intricate stucco (taken from casts of those found in the original building), photos of vintage parties taken from Aristotle Univeristy’s archives and owner Konstantinos Tornivoukas’ own collection, and delicate floral patterns. The Grey Room, a Junior Suite Seafront with the only furnished balcony, also has a mural which has been retouched by hand after the original was unearthed. If you want more of a hop-in-time feel, the first three floors are the original building, although the modern extension is beautifully done, with a fabulous penthouse suite; and you’ll want a view of the gulf – on a clear day you might be able to glimpse Mount Olympus.
Spa
There’s no spa, but the fitness room has stylish Nohrd equipment (a bike, treadmill, weights and pulleys).
Packing Tips
Fans, fascinators, floor-scraping strings of pearls, elbow-length gloves and a hat box for your cloche – well, where else can you wear them?
Also
First built by French architect Jacques Mosse in 1926, the Olympos Naoussa building was the height of elegance, and a crack team nder the eye of the Greek Ministry of Culture – have given it the kind of restoration reserved for ancient ruins.
Дети
The stay’s more for grown-ups having a gay old time, but some rooms sleep three or four and extra beds are free for under-6s, 20 per cent of the room rate for 7–12 year olds. Babysitting (€10 an hour) can be arranged when booked 24 hours in advance.
Галерея
Food & Drink
Top Table
Hidden away is a garden terrace; Thessaloniki’s first cinema once stood here, and a waterfall feature wall pays homage. Or book in advance and take your place at the chef’s table.
Дресс-код
Dropped waists, gentle finger-waves and deco diamante. Gents, hoik up those high-rise trousers.
Hotel Restaurant
Olympos Naoussa restaurant (named after a brewery that formerly operated on the site) is more than ready to re-enter society after a decades-long hiatus – and re-establish its throne as Thessaloniki’s high-society hangout – with its intricately patterned floor tiles restored, elegant banquettes and globe chandeliers installed, and the ceiling’s cornices and roses gently revivified. This lofty eatery, with two large mirrors gazing wide-eyed at the gulf, is a more modern iteration of the Twenties’ Deco darling, but it has a bright future of soft-lit evenings, flourishing romances and sparkling conversations. Although much of that back and forth will involve emphatic ‘mmm’s: chef Dimitris Tasioulas has juggled Jewish, Slavic, Ottoman, Turkish and Hellenistic flavours to craft a menu as poetic as some of its dishes names (‘soup of the Earth and sea’, ‘tastes and cultures crossroads’, the sea bed of Halkidiki’). Mackerel smoked in cedar and thyme comes with saganaki flying-fish roe and a waft of truffle shavings; shrimp simmers in a crayfish and sweet-wine broth; and for dessert there’s citrus-cream-stuffed galaktoboureko with sour cherry and cardamom ice-cream, or French toast with tangerine gel and yoghurt.
Hotel Bar
Laurelled mixologist Achilleas Plakidas (the mastermind behind Gorilla and Mahalo bars) has earnt his stripes in the Tiger Loop bar, taking inspiration from the Chinese zodiac to create a menu with surprises in store, and updating the Twenties’ love of Chinoiserie in the same way the decor has painted panels of each month’s animal. Of the 12 signature drinks, we like the tiger with ramen distillate, sake, lillet blanc and wakame; the dragon with tequila and curry- and ginger-spiced pineapple juice; and the wolf, with tsipouro, melon, aloe vera and fermented cucumber. Locally brewed beers are poured here too. A DJ delves into the Eighties and Nineties for background music, but the surroundings are a step further back in time. Before you end up on the floor (a lovingly pieced together mix of original tiles and handpainted reproductions), take a second to admire the elegant restored ceilings.
Last Orders
Breakfast is served from 7am till 11am, then you can dine from 1pm till 11.30pm. Drinks run till 1am Sunday to Thursday and 3am Fridays and Saturdays. Brunch is from 9am till 2pm.
Room Service
If you get the munchies for meze, room service is available round the clock.
Planes
Thessaloniki Airport Makedonia is just a 30-minute drive from the hotel; in fact, this is the only international airport serving a northern city, with direct routes starbursting all over Europe. The hotel can help arrange transfers for around €25 each way.
Trains
Thessaloniki train station is just a 10-minute drive away; trains arrive direct from Athens in around six hours. If you’re interrailing down, you can ride here via Belgrade and Skopje.
Automobiles
Built BC, Greece’s second city is better suited to wooden boats or perhaps the odd chariot. Driving a car can be chaotic, but things ease up a bit outside of commuter traffic times, and private parking is available at the hotel for around €20 a day, and Parking P24 and Parking Plateia are close by.
Worth Getting Out of Bed For
You’d never know it to look at the placid waters of Thermaikos Gulf and watch locals breezily wander the boardwalk, but Thessaloniki’s history hasn’t been smooth sailing. Marauders and massacres, wars, fires, Nazi occupation, and a sharp economic downturn have forged it in tumult, but this scrappy second city has bounced back every time, and over millennia, pieces fell into place for its art and design scene to thrive, its more-bubbling-cauldron-than-melting-pot cuisine to mark it as a distinctly gastronomic destination, and old and new to come together in harmony. You can’t escape the past – the Greeks, Romans and Macedonians built things to last – but you can admire it from this distance. Byzantine walls and fortifications are the perfect sunset perch; the Arch of Galerius details the military exploits of a 4th-century Roman emperor and the domed Rotunda was to be his mausoleum; columns outline the Roman Forum ruins; a bevy of Byzantine churches stand decorously throughout; and the White Tower is a somewhat sobering totem of bloody back-in-the-day rule, as the site of many beheadings – it was known as ‘the Bloody Tower’ until it was quite literally whitewashed in the 19th century. Heptapyrgion, an ancient prison infamous for its brutality, which only closed in 1989, offers spooky tours; and, Aristotelous Square replaced the labyrinthine lanes of the old city after much was razed by fire in 1917. There are 15 Unesco sites – and a lot to learn, with a brainwave-ing 29 museums, dedicated to folklife, the Olympics, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (the founder of the Republic of Turkey), war, water and wine-making, and more niche interests: plaster casts, selfies… In many ways, the arts have been the city’s saving grace and this is no more evident than along the lively waterfront, where you’ll find museums dedicated to photography and cinema, the screening venues for November’s annual Thessaloniki Film Festival and the Contemporary Art Centre, all crowding onto one pier. The Museum of Contemporary Art shows the city on fast-forward, further inland, the Costakis Collection and Teloglion Fine Arts Foundation pull together important 20th-century pieces, and smaller venues such as Toss and Nitra galleries onward march. The Biennale cultivates even the more unusual parts of the city, with some shows in slaughterhouses, churches and baths; and for an intro to the city’s dynamic design scene, come to Dimitria Festival (held in early autumn), which first started in Byzantine times; and Urban Pik-nik is a party with screenings and gigs held in the ancient agora. For surprisingly stylish souvenirs, head to hellofrom or trawl main drag Egnatia. Then ease off your day pausing for thought by George Zongolopoulos’s Umbrellas sculpture and strolling the shorefront’s gardens.
Earn or Redeem Points with World of Hyatt
This Mr & Mrs Smith hotel participates in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. As a member, you can earn and redeem points and enjoy exclusive benefits for qualifying nights. .
