The hotel’s science-meets-art theme gives it a bookish tone (not to mention the books crammed everywhere), balanced by sleek, contemporary design. The common spaces and guest rooms are cabinets of curiosities. Unusual details include a gramophone style speaker that will amplify music from a digital device. Use up your towels—so you can call down for more and have them delivered by one of the two robots, Cleo and Leo, on staff. The restaurant, The Albert, references Albert Einstein, like the name of the hotel itself. It’s fittingly lab-like (with functioning distillery fixtures above the bar) when it’s not library-like (stuffed with sci-fi novels). The ambitious menu ranges across cultures and the plating is artful. For a shopping district hotel, it places nice and unexpected emphasis on the mind.
