What was reminiscent of a romantic, Mediterranean-style mansion has been redesigned to reflect more casual characteristic features of Tampa.
D'Ann Lawrence White, Patch Staff
Posted Sat, Nov 23, 2019 at 7:26 pm ET
TAMPA, FL — Guests arriving at the newly constructed Renaissance Tampa International Plaza Hotel, 4200 Jim Walter Blvd., in 2004 entered a luxurious lobby featuring bold, bright colors and an ornate decor.
Fast-forward to 2019 to reveal contemporary furnishings and fixtures in a soothing color palette.
What was reminiscent of a romantic, Mediterranean-style mansion has been redefined and redesigned to reflect more casual characteristic features of the Tampa Bay area.
“We are not the same hotel we were 15 years ago, just as our guests do not have the same expectations about their lodging experience that they had then,” said Jim Bartholomay, general manager of the AAA Four Diamond-rated 293-room hotel. “Hotels are no longer simply in the hospitality business. Hotels must find new ways to entertain and engage guests.”
The hotel partnered with entrepreneurs and artisans for the remodeling including Tampa artist Meclina Priestly. Her microcalligraphy paintings feature intricate designs composed of hundreds of tiny letters precisely painted onto a canvas to convey not only images, but messages.
She can often be found working on new paintings in the hotel lobby, where recent works are exhibited and available for sale. When not welding a paintbrush freehand, the personable painter gives guided tours through the lobby, Pelagia and Gabriella’s where her latest creations are displayed, or demonstrates her technique for meeting groups and conferences held at the hotel.
Visitors will also see the work of artist Jerard Walker of Artistic Reclaimed Designs throughout the hotel. Using recycled wood collected from barns and other old buildings found throughout the Midwest and the Southeast, Georgia-based Artistic Reclaimed Designs creates handcrafted furnishings.
The hotel also teamed up with Rishi Ramkissoon of Brown Bear Coffee Roasters,who creates custom-made hot and cold beverages and helps the hotel’s mixologists craft specialty and signature cocktails.
A pharmacist, Ramkissoon traces his appreciation for quality coffee to his childhood in Trinidad where relatives produced coffee and cocoa beans. Today the Tampa-based nano-roasting business specializes in custom coffees globally sourced from Fair Trade producers.
The makeover extends to the flavors offered in the hotel's restaurants. At Gabriella’s, diners can share coquilles St.-Jacques tapas, a salad of house-pickled garden vegetables or Picadillo, a traditional Latin American dish made with ground beef, olives and raisins.
The full-service restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner daily and features a bar that has elevated its offering by adding aged, on-site bourbons and cocktail garnishes gathered from its own garden.
Pelagia, the acclaimed restaurant that opened with the hotel, has transitioned to expand the hotel’s total event space to 17,040 square feet. With its high ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows that extend the length of the room and floor plan bordered by a bar on one end and private dining room on the other, it is an ideal setting for receptions, business presentations, private functions and, with its adjoining kitchen space, cooking demonstrations and interactive culinary activities. Large, clear glass panels separate the space from the kitchen to keep noise levels manageable.
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