So there’s that, and the clothing-optional rooftop deck, which helped give the inn a palpable gay - yet not seedy - mood while I was there for a brief visit. “That’s them.” A trio of middle-aged men, two of them in boots that stopped above their knees, entered. “We have a group of boot fetishists staying here,” he said. WHAT’S GAY ABOUT IT A doorbell rang as Tony Breen, the manager, showed me around one afternoon. THE TAKEAWAY In a prime location equidistant from gay hangouts in Chelsea and the meatpacking district, the Chelsea Pines Inn offers a mood that is gay but not cruisy, with décor that’s playful but not cheesy. There are no elevators, so to get to some rooms you’ll need to climb stairs, but this might help work off the small feast of coffee, bagels and more that is available every morning in a long, narrow dining area on the first floor.
We slept in a comfortable queen-size bed under a huge framed poster of the actress in a passionate embrace with the actor Cornel Wilde in the 1956 African adventure film “ Beyond Mombasa.” Other Donna Reed movie posters decorated the walls. My partner and I spent a night in the pertly designed Donna Reed room. WHAT YOU WILL FIND INSIDE Each of the 24 rooms, all with private bathrooms, is dedicated to a different movie star.
Today, the Pines draws a mix of straight and gay travelers. “Twenty-five years ago, there weren’t a lot of places, even in New York City, for gay people to feel really comfortable staying, and when we opened we were 100 percent gay,” Tom Klebba, the inn’s director of sales and marketing, told me a few days after I spent a night here. WHAT’S GAY ABOUT IT Named for the Pines area on Fire Island, this bed-and-breakfast was opened in 1986 by Sheldon Post and his partner, Jay Lesiger, who still owns the inn today (Mr. The prices may be another draw: rooms are $125 to $200.Ĭhelsea Pines Inn 317 West 14th Street (888) 546-2700 But in a city where businesses like the West Side Club - a gay sauna - and the Unicorn (pornographic) video store are a short walk away, a clothing-optional guesthouse may not be so out of place, after all. THE TAKEAWAY Chelsea Mews is a niche destination - with hosts who like to interact with their guests - that is definitely not for the prudish.
Except for the master suite, guests share hallway bathrooms that looked only decent.
In one of the common areas, a massage table looks out of place beneath an aged-looking chandelier and alongside a piano. WHAT YOU WILL FIND INSIDE The guest rooms and the double living room are decorated in early American style, and the house has the feel of an antiques shop (a cramped one), with paintings and trinkets galore. There are no check-in or checkout times, either, adding to the unrestrained feel of the place. The clothing-optional aspect, more common around the pools and hot tubs of gay vacation spots like Key West, Fla., seems odd in an urban town house, but contributes to the somewhat libertine aura here.
WHAT’S GAY ABOUT IT There were no guests present when I dropped by this gay, male-only, clothing-optional guesthouse one day, so one of the owners, Gary Rice, was able to show me all eight rooms, starting with a master suite with a private bathroom and claw-foot tub. Chelsea Mews Guesthouse 344 West 15th Street (212) 255-9174