The Kimpton Harper, Hands-Down The Most Happening Hotel In Fort Worth

29.02.2024 - 23:07 / forbes.com

Move over, cowboys and cowgirls: The Kimpton Harper Fort Worth has ushered in a new era of style. Occupying a 1921 landmark built when the city’s railroad and meatpacking industries were in full flourish, The Harper retains its historic essence while interior spaces evoke minimalist-modern pleasures and offer the warm comfort of local touches throughout both rooms and public spaces.

Rooms are exquisite in the eyes of this 21st century traveler: generous and highly functional with views for miles and (many rooms with) bathtubs perched just right for gazing at the cityscape, glass in hand and book on tray.

My corner suite was bigger than many Bay Area apartments, and the natural light coming in was abundant and calming. My only dilemma was weather to lounge on the couch or in the cushy king bed in the adjacent room. I recommend both.

Purposefully curated books placed here and there invite inspiration, like this Bill Cunningham street and fashion photography compendium. The 24th-floor telescope in the lobby is a great way to orient yourself right after you arrive, especially if you’ve never been to Fort Worth or have never seen it from this bird’s eye downtown vantage point.

Where dining is concerned, there’s a star in The Harper’s midst: CIA-trained Greg Pawlowski has elevated Italian cooking in-house at Il Modo to the tune of not only homemade pasta on the menu, but pasta-making classes for guests. These 1.5-hour lessons will make you feel like you try do this in your own home kitchen.

Pawlowski’s menu deftly navigates classic and contemporary Italian dishes. Don’t miss the bucatini amatriciana, whose perfectly sweet, gently acidic tomato sauce is kicked up to just the right heat level with a hint of chile pepper. And fried calamari with peppadew peppers in on point, crisp and lightly battered, virtually greaseless somehow and perfect with a glass of Langhe Nebbiolo.

Refinery 714, up on the aforementioned 24th floor, is a combination lobby/front desk/cocktail bar and is really where you want to be as the sun sets (unless you’re in your own bathtub), drinking something like the Isabella, an El Tesoro concoction with hibiscus-ginger beer.

Service could not be better across the board. Helpful and friendly without being overly solicitous, folks who work at The Harper are genuine and kind. And like all Kimpton hotels, pets are not only welcome, they’re pampered here — a real plus for Kimpton as a whole.

The Kimpton Harper Fort Worth is in the heart of downtown and within easy walking distance of the convention center and a short driver to the famous stockyards. If you don’t know Fort Worth or want to explore a new angle on the city, The Harper makes it possible to do so in quietly luxurious fashion —