A New Hotel in Town: The Citizen

The Citizen
926 J St
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 447-2700
http://www.jdvhotels.com/hotels/sacramento/citizen


There's a new hotel in Sacramento and I enjoyed it very much this last weekend in town for Sue's birthday. Rooms were less expensive than those at the Sheraton, and I am guessing this is just an introductory phase. Once word of The Citizen's wonderfulness gets out, it will surely be more expensive.

While researching the history of the building, I found this blurb on HospitalityDesign website.

Joie de Vivre's Citizen Hotel has put a new spin on quintessential Sacramento. Located two blocks from the state capitol, the hotel is housed within a restored 1920s-era high rise. Joie de Vivre hired San Francisco designer and hotel restoration guru Candra Scott to create interiors that reflected Sacramento's political climate. The boutique hotelier preserved the historic building's distinctive architectural elements, including its mansard roof, soaring ceilings, grand center staircase, marble panels, and the 1920s-era clock in the lobby.

One walks straight through the long gorgeous lobby into the dark cool reception area. The reception area is two stories, with the top story being part of the bar/lounge upstairs. It's definitely a hot spot right now in Sac. There were beautiful people partying down in the bars and spilling out onto the sidewalks for a smoke both Friday and Saturday nights last weekend.

The lobby area has a library feel to it, with stacks upon stacks of the Federal Reporter in the shelves and political cartoons framed and hung everywhere.

I am sure my mom and C would know what the Federal Reporter is, however I am going to rely on the predictably and enjoyably unreliable wikipedia for my info.

The Federal Reporter is a case law in the United States that is published by West Publishing. The third and current Federal Reporter series publishes decisions of the United States courts of appeals and the United States Court of Federal Claims; prior series had varying scopes that covered decisions of other federal courts as well. Though West is a private company that does not have a legal monopoly over the court opinions it publishes, it has so dominated the industry in the U.S. that legal professionals uniformly for included decisions.

I really enjoyed all the cartoons everywhere. They hearken from many political eras and from both sides of our two party tendencies.

The rooms are even better than the beautiful lobby and reportedly delicious restaurant.

Mom surprised us by leaving a bottle of Perrier-Jouet in our room...we arrived with me exhausted and sick in the grip of this deadly SARS-like virus that JUST WON'T QUIT...and here was an ice cold bottle of beautiful bubbly. So sweet, Mom. Thanks!

The king-sized bed was wide and comfy, with perfect high thread count linens, with lots of down pillows to prop me up and extra blankets for me to curl up in. Good thing the bed was so lovely because I basically flew in to Sacramento to stay in bed the entire weekend.

The furnishings, decor and etc are very cohesive throughout the hotel. The colors, quality and look are very similar throughout. Someone had a great concept and really followed through in the execution.

Even the bathroom has that 1940's post-War era feel to it. The wall paper, fixtures and furniture. Great water pressure, decent toiletries, good towels and so on.

The above hung in our bathroom.

On floor ten, waiting for the elevator, I can imagine people using these stairs in a pre-elevator era.

I could not resist these quotes in the elevators. The elevators' interiors were painted simply black with political quotes on both facing walls. Two different quotes in every elevator. Clearly it is challenging to get a good shot in a moving elevator. People looked at me like I am weird. OK, sometimes my obsessive recording of everything new and fun might be a little weird. I care not.

I love that the political cartoons and photos really document a political continuum and many years of politics in Sacramento. A lot of people in Los Angeles really discount Sacramento as a place worthy of visiting, forgetting it has been the political hub of the state for a very long time.

There are now several very nice hotels, many Victorian B&Bs, and some very high quality restaurants. Almost everywhere you go in Sacramento has good wine, and wine culture is prevalent being so close to the heart of the world's second most important wine region.

Naturally, many people in Los Angeles discount anything in the United States that isn't either Los Angeles or New York. Even San Francisco can get the stink eye from time to time.

I definitely plan to stay at The Citizen on my family induced forays up into Northern California. Because The Citizen is amazing and unique in Sacramento, I am going to need to carefully plan my trips in advance.

I may even fly up just to check into The Citizen next time I am sick. Beats the heck out of the Fairfield Inn in Temecula.