Inside Raffles Boston, The Luxury Hospitality Brand’s First American Hotel
Stunning views, white glove butler service and world-class F&B define Raffles’ first hotel in America.
In 1887 four Armenian siblings recognized a need for a luxury offering in the primitive but burgeoning tropical port of Singapore. So the entrepreneurial Sarkies Brothers bought a humble beach house on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula and named their new hospitality endeavor after the founder of their island state, Stamford Raffles. There at 1 Beach Road one of the most famous resorts in all of Asia, the Raffles Hotel Singapore, was born.
The Sarkies’ intuition that this remote stop-off point for trade between Britain and Southeast Asia would require lavish accommodations proved auspicious. In the coming decades the hotel expanded quickly along with the city itself, engorged with visiting well-heeled colonialists. Its imposing Main Building constructed in 1899 featured a famed Grand Staircase and glorious white façade, both defining the Raffles Singapore. Today purveyors of luxury worldwide instantly recognize architect Alfred John Bidwell’s alabaster British Colonial villa as a timeless symbol of refinement, the marque for a Raffles brand nearly unrivaled in the continent.
For a hotel to elevate to quasi-mythical status it must move beyond simply adding world-class levels of opulence. It must also contribute something unique to the universe of service and/or culinary offerings, a lore that echoes through its columned halls. To wit, perhaps nearly as famous as the Raffles itself is its beloved cocktail creation: the Singapore Sling. First mixed by bartender Ngiam Tong Boon in 1915, even today sipping a Singapore Sling under the countless ceiling fans of the hotel’s famed Long Bar proves as luxurious a treat as it did over a century ago. The iced pink gin working its damnedest to protect customers from the torrid humidity threatening to sous vide them to a tender chew just outside the Long Bar’s cooling walls.
Today 25 stunning Raffles architectural outposts in 18 nations spread across the globe in destinations like Doha, Paris, London, Maldives, Udaipur, Phnom Penh and Bali. In the autumn of 2023 the brand took a milestone leap, finally adding its first outpost in the Americas: Raffles Boston. While a megalopolis like New York or Los Angeles seem a more obvious decision for the continent’s first Raffles, Boston was handpicked as its anchor. America’s most historic city also plays as one of the nation’s primary hubs of wealth, its cultural, medical, tech, intellectual and financial institutions renowned the planet over.
Boston already claims a plethora of Luxury assets, with offerings from Mandarin Oriental, St. Regis, twin Four Seasons and Ritz Carltons, alongside premier independent boutiques like The Newbury and Boston Harbor Hotel. Still, like the Sarkies Brothers themselves, the 21st century Raffles brain trust recognized the city was still wanting, and ripe, for a true ultra-luxury, Forbes Five Star-level hotel offering.
So they made the Boston-ness of the location a primary aesthetic cue. As with all Raffles, design defines the DNA of the brand, double-helixing its way through each outpost like Singapore’s signature spiral staircase. While that original location seeps in romantic British Colonial opulence, the Boston outpost aims to emulate the city’s famed brownstones that define its picturesque Back Bay and Beacon Hill neighborhoods. Think elegant brick-walled manses laden with old-world resonation. For instance when guests arrive they take lifts to the 17th floor where they’re greeted and ushered to The Writer’s Lounge for check-in. Lined with books settled around comfy chairs and a gas fireplace, the cozy room nods both to Raffles’ mythical literary past — writers such as Rudyard Kipling and Somerset Maugham were known regulars of the Singapore hotel — and to Boston itself. Not just in reflecting the physical library that might be found in one of the nearby blue blood brownstones, but also with most books’ content integral to New England.
The Raffles Boston’s most consistent jaw-dropping aesthetic element are its views — an organic gift bequeathed by the building’s towering height.
Climb the wide stairs, a modern homage to Singapore’s Grand Staircase, up to the Blind Duck, a shadowy speakeasy hidden behind a nondescript door on the 18th floor. Imagine a den in Wayne Manor, except elevated to dizzying heights so its two-story floor-to-ceiling windows look down on the city’s spectacular skyline. In the evening the glittering lights are only matched by the sparkling merriment within and the chandeliers overhead, a dazzling visual to the clandestine, mischievous vibes the hideaway oozes. Black hand-painted wallpaper lays a dark, enigmatic backdrop to the live jazz, with another Raffles signature wide staircase uniting the speakeasy’s two floors.
As can be expected of the Blind Duck’s two bars, the shelves are loaded with superb tequilas like Siete Leguas, Don Fulano and several of Ocho’s single estates. Rare gems like Michters 10-Year Single Barrel Bourbon, Hillrock “Wiltsie Bridge 2016 Harvest” Double Cask Rye and Hakushu 18-Year Old, simply one of the finest whiskies of the decade, decorate the bar.
Regardless of the sophisticated interior design by award-winning firm Stonehill Taylor, it doesn’t take long to discern the hotel’s most consistent jaw-dropping aesthetic element are its views — an organic gift bequeathed by the building’s towering height. Try to resist pressing your nose to the glass, fogging the panes, toes seemingly dangling off a precipice as you gaze over the nearly 300-year old Trinity Church below. Or brunching at the Long Bar’s eponymous Terrace, enjoying plump lobster rolls sprinkled with red Tobiko alongside a flute of Louis Roederer bubbly, allowing the breeze to cool you off while the watching the city move like clockwork below.
While most luxury hotels reserve their uppermost floors for their big spenders, Raffles Boston zags in the opposite direction, inviting the public to their highest spaces. Its 116 guest rooms and 30 suites are all located between floors 6-16, while most public spaces — lobby, Writer’s Lounge, Blind Duck and twin dining stars Amar and the Long Bar & Terrace — all sit between the 17th and 19th floors.
The guest rooms peak with the Raffles Presidential Suite. The expansive one bedroom offers 2,200 square feet of living space replete with roaring fireplace, dining room table with full bar, and a Steinway & Sons baby grand Boston piano. More floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the Back Bay all the way out to the Charles River and Cambridge. There’s a pantry with separate entrance so the butler can service the suite unseen. The king bedroom’s windows are framed by the iconic Prudential center, adjacent to a gorgeous master bathroom encased in marble with heated floor and steam shower, all surrounding an opulent marble bathtub larger than a Prius. If you wish to expand even further, two additional rooms can be connected for a total of 4,000 square feet.
Regardless if you’re in the Presidential Suites or common room, Raffles offers its signature Butler service standard to all guests, irrespective of category booked. Consider this another zag, as most brands dangle their “butler” amenity as a carrot of exclusivity for only their highest paying customers. Butlers aren’t merely re-badged concierge here but rather robust personal assistants, even facilitators. Or as Raffles describes, “conductors to your personal orchestra” organizing everything for your stay from helping you pack/unpack to ensuring your shoes remain well shined to planning anniversary details. Roughly two weeks before your arrival a butler reaches out to collect all the details of your stay: why you’re coming into town, peculiarities and annoyances, and ensuring all your dining reservations are taken care of — both at the hotel and elsewhere. In a capital city renowned for its culinary scene both venerable and cutting edge, boasting Italian and seafood restaurants across town booked weeks in advance, this assistance can be a boon.
Raffles brain trust recognized Boston was still wanting, and ripe, for a true ultra-luxury, Five Star-level hotel offering.
Butlers will even take care of unique personal requests/habits. For example should you enjoy a post-dinner bath, they will ensure one is drawn for you warm and bubbly for your return at precisely 9 p.m. Or if you prefer the long-armed approach, never call them at all. Be warned: once you start tapping their convenience, it’s a tough drug to quit cold turkey.
While interior design, eye-popping views, pampering butler services and amenities all sing, the magnetic pull of the Raffles Boston’s polymorphic F&B offerings just might be its greatest draw. “We’re fortunate that we have Amar, the Long Bar, the Blind Duck and also La Padrona, so our guests have a lot of different options,” Raffles Boston GM Carlos Bueno tells Maxim as we meet for High Tea at the white linen Amar, the toniest of his hotel’s culinary destinations. Facing the city’s financial district, Amar dazzles with both its food and perhaps even more from the background offered by the skyscrapers, seemingly close enough to touch through the massive windows. While our dinner later that night at Amar was superb, highlighted by the oysters, grilled halibut and a Tomato Tomahto cocktail of Blind Duck Gin, Suze, Lillet Blanc and tomato water, the new High Tea is also worth a visit (think buttery scones with jam, elaborate finger sandwiches, and delicate pastries and éclairs with tea or champagne). Each of the Raffles dining pockets boasts a unique calling card, however it is the newest, La Padrona, that struck lightning with locals.
Of all the Raffles restaurants, the arrival of La Padrona in spring of 2024 set off the loudest gastronomic alarms in Boston.
“My role is a mentor,” Chef Jody Adams tells me as we walk around in the simmering quiet of La Padrona before opening. “I meet, I eat, I mentor. That’s my job.” As Culinary Director for restaurateurs A Street Hospitality, it is Chef Jody’s job to figure out the food, with partners Eric Papachristos envisioning the concept, and Jon Mendez handling operations. Of all the Raffles restaurants, the arrival of La Padrona in spring of 2024 set off the loudest gastronomic alarms in Boston. Since its opening the eatery skyrocketed to the most successful restaurant in A Street Hospitality’s growing portfolio, which includes nine locations. “We had a vision for something that we didn’t know Boston really was looking for,” Chef Jody reveals about the restaurant’s success. “We found out when we first opened the doors and people walked up the stairs and said, ‘Oh my god, we’ve been waiting for this restaurant! Where have you been?’ I could not have envisioned this.” She credits her two A Street teammates for balancing each other out, like the three legs of a stool.
Born and raised in nearby Providence, Rhode Island, Chef Jody grew up accompanying her mom shopping in Federal Hill, the city’s oldest Italian neighborhood. She tested the recipes in her mentor Nancy Verde Barr’s cookbook, We Called it Macaroni, then launched her own success helming The Rialto in Harvard Square. While leading the acclaimed Italian hotspot for over two decades, she won the James Beard Award for Best Chef in America Northeast. Italian cuisine, along with seafood, are the two strongest threads in Boston’s gastronomic fabric—meaning it’s not only beloved, but also very difficult to stand out. Despite the challenges, La Padrona planting its seed in Italian soil seemed all but preordained.
To prepare for the launch, Chef Jody invited La Padrona’s Executive Chef Amaryllis Colón on a whirlwind trip to 10 different Italian regions for inspiration. We personally benefited when the waiter brought out the milk-braised rabbit to the table, heaped atop parsley-rolled fazzoletti. Fragrant with basil and tarragon aromatics, the silky handkerchief pasta and tender meat bathed in rich cream and Jerusalem sunchokes. A tuna crudo came served on a bed of new potatoes, swirled with a sauce made of thick Greek yogurt, Meyer lemons and Cruschi peppers. Our favorite, however, was an unforgettable oblation to the God of Parmesan: the Tagliatelle Emilia featuring three layers of Parmigiano cheese—the long, flat ribbons cooked in sage Parmigiano cream, finished with whipped Parmesan butter, and crowned with a mountain of Parmesan reggiano grated on top. The kicker: 12 year old balsamic, drizzled on top table side.
Perhaps how the original Raffles found its mythical lore with the Singapore Sling oh-so-long ago, the Raffles Boston has now found its own culinary muse with La Padrona.
It’s not surprising Boston magazine recently named La Padrona as the city’s Best Italian Restaurant for 2025. But while the food can be described, what’s harder to pin down precisely is the mood. The wood, leather and lighting dark, all built around an oval bar and shimmering chandelier, creating an inviting and approachable vibe—like a first date with promising chemistry. I recall our conversation with CEO Papachristos at the Long Bar the afternoon before, where he shared the history of A Street, and the challenge of bidding on, pitching for and finally being handpicked during the pandemic for his concept behind La Padrona. The first-generation son of a Greek diner proprietor, and himself an award-winning mixologist, Papachristos divulged there was the official concept he shared with the Raffles team, and then there was an internal concept he’d created for his vision. Turns out, Papachristos imagines a very specific character for each of his restaurants, a muse that helps embody the inchoate personality he’s murkily drawing from for his vision board. Needless to say, we begged to know who he conjured for La Padrona.
The amicable CEO hesitates, squinting, as if trying to remember a former lover who’s faded a bit into the fogs of time. “She likes to be seen, but she’s not too flashy,” Papachristos says, looking out the tall window. “She’s definitely classy, has a quiet confidence to her. She likes to be seen dancing and moving,” he continues, finding his stride, unearthing new details he might’ve previously overlooked. “She’ll take some time to get ready to go out to the restaurant. She doesn’t want the food to be too fussy, but shareable with her girlfriend.” He smiles conspiratorially. “She hasn’t told me if she’s engaged or has a boyfriend, but she certainly acts very free spirited.”
I am not sure exactly how, but Papachristos’ charcoal sketch somehow captures the elusive magic of A Street’s jewel restaurant. Perhaps how the original Raffles found its mythical lore with the Singapore Sling oh-so-long ago, the Raffles Boston has now found its own culinary muse with La Padrona.
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