Inside Ulysses, Baltimore’s Sexiest New Hotel
Baltimore’s newest hotel hotspot, Ulysses, is something between a jewel box and a box of explosives. The lavish, 112-room hotel, located in a 1912 building in the city’s Mount Vernon neighborhood, is the handiwork of New York–based hotelier and design studio Ash, a firm whose hospitality projects have become synonymous with a sense of warmth and history.
Ulysses is no different.
“I spent a lot time in Baltimore by myself,” says Ash’s creative director Will Cooper, who has developed and designed hotels in New Orleans, Detroit, and Providence, Rhode Island. “There is an undercurrent here of different cultures, food, layers of community, and so many interesting neighborhoods. It felt like the time was ripe to contribute to the city.”
Ulysses, the Roman name for Odysseus, might evoke ancient journeys as much as it conjures modernist literature, but it’s also a subtle homage to Baltimore. The hotel takes its name from the ship that brought Bavarian immigrants to the city in 1838. It followed, then, that Ash referenced ocean liners (specifically SS Normandie and SS Île de France) in the design, from flashes of Art Deco decor to the low, womblike ceilings.
Each guest room, whether a small twin or a large suite, feels perfectly in line with what the earliest residents of the building (formerly known as the Latrobe), might have purchased for themselves when it was completed in the early 20th century (claw-foot tubs are in plain sight, and most rooms feature four-poster canopy beds). But formality doesn’t get in the way of fun creature comforts like candy dishes full of peanut M&Ms, a fresh copy of the paper, peonies arranged with care in pewter cups, and anything from premium olives to fancy Amarena cherries in reach at the minibar.
The drama continues under a loose theme of heaven and hell in battle between Blooms, the hotel’s plush, fiery cocktail saloon, and Ash Bar, the burlwood-wrapped restaurant just past the discreet reception desk. Blooms drips with theatrical details straight out of a John Waters flick, from the heavy beaded curtains Cooper sourced from India to the vaguely Victorian booths covered in red velvet to the mirrored walls and ceilings tempting you into self-obsessed celebration.
Ash Bar is more akin to a 1920s cruise down the Nile with the perfect menu suspended somewhere between the comforting and the experimental. “I approach design like a director on a mini film,” says Cooper. “The staff are characters, the guests are characters… you’ve got to step into the film and play!”
There’s just as much to see outside. Ulysses is located a few blocks from the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore School of the Arts, and Club Charles—a favorite watering hole of the Pope of Trash himself. The 178-foot-tall George Washington monument is a five-minute walk away, and, for the bravehearted, it offers a view of the city in each direction. With rates starting at $169, the hotel is also accessible to most, with a welcoming staff that reflects the diverse surrounding population.
“A good hotel should be the nucleus of its neighborhood,” reflects Ash cofounder and CEO Ari Heckman. “An embassy where foreigners meet locals, where cultural and commercial and romantic exchange happens in public and behind closed doors.”
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