The story, the decor, the space, the view, the menu and the people of The Brix Hotel all reinforce the brand’s tagline: Exactly like nothing else.
The Brix Hotel, Autograph Collection by Marriott International, at Coblentz Avenue, Cascade, is the newest hotel in Trinidad and Tobago.
It has 159 rooms and three suites, with the size of each room averaging around 480 square feet as opposed to other hotels, whose rooms average around 300 square feet.
[caption id="attachment_941449" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The Merchants Bar is a take away/grab and go section of The Brix Hotel, Port of Spain - Jeff Mayers[/caption]
In addition to the restaurant and rooftop, there is a fitness centre, outdoor patio, bar, and a grab-and-go deli which offers coffees, salads, sandwiches, snacks, and desserts.
The hotel’s owner, the Superior Hotels Group, is also considering including a spa, which would be contracted out rather than being run by the hotel.
John Aboud, chairman of Superior Hotels, told Business Day the group bought the property, formerly the Carlton Savannah, when it came up for sale in 2014.
The idea was to build a hotel to complement TT’s tourism products, especially the Five Islands Water and Amusement Park in Chaguaramas, in which the directors of Superior Hotels are also investors.
[caption id="attachment_941403" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Superior Hotels Group director John Aboud enjoys the view from The Brix Hotel in Cascade. - AYANNA KINSALE[/caption]
When the property was acquired, the next step was to convert it to match their vision. They considered several international hotel chains but chose Marriott because of its reputation and its variety of flags, including Sheraton, Autograph, JW, and Courtyard.
Aboud said because the hotel was already built, it eliminated most of the flags, as the hotels under each flag had similar appearances. In fact, if they chose Marriott, the hotel had to be under the Autograph Collection, as all Autograph Collection hotels are unique.
“The Autograph is a personal type of flag. Therefore we wanted to make it personal to TT. We were looking for something that has historical and cultural relevance, and so someone came up with The Brix, which is the measure of the amount of sugar dissolved in a liquid. And the other names we came up with were used in other aspects of the hotel.”
For example, he said the hotel’s restaurant is called The Exchange, which was the market where people bought and sold sugar cane; the rooftop lounge is called Sugar High; and the name of the deli is Merchants.
In addition, all the paintings in the hotel are by local artists, all coffee-table books are local, highlighting different aspects of TT, and the menu includes local flavours.
Battling through the pandemic
Renovations on The Brix began in 2017.
Aboud explained that the layout of the first two floors was completely changed, some areas were expanded, an outdoor area was built, the entire air-condition system was changed, and other construction work was done.
Beca
