Pod 39

The city’s second Pod occupies a 1918 residential hotel for single men—the space that was once the gentlemen’s sitting room is being reinvented as the Great Room, opening in early 2013, which will feature a fireplace, projection wall and ping-pong table. As the name suggests, rooms are snug, but not oppressively so; some have queen-size beds with room underneath to stash your luggage; others feature stainless-steel bunk beds with individual TVs and bedside shelves inspired by airplane storage. However, you should probably know your roommate well since the utilitarian, subway-tiled bathrooms are partitioned off with sliding frosted-glass doors. Travel-friendly, soft-packaged Fix products by NYC spa Red Flower match the functional aesthetic. Restaurant dream team April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman is behind the on-site taqueria and bar, Salvation Taco, and the roof terrace has a full-frontal Empire State Building view.