The York Hotel's Plush Room has had a long, exotic and quixotic career since its days as a 1920s speakeasy with a subterranean entrance that still exists. It opened in 1926 as the Plush Room Cabaret Theatre on its present site at 940 Sutter St. in what was then called the Empire Hotel.
Customers would enter via a Victorian building across the street, walk downstairs and then proceed underground, emerging in the hotel basement. The Empire was later renamed the York and at one time was a residence hotel (and a minor cinematic landmark as the hotel where James Stewart visited a brooding Kim Novak in "Vertigo").
The Plush Room had a rebirth in 1985 after a renovation, when it reopened with a young, unknown Los Angeles lounge singer named Michael Feinstein, who put it (and himself) on the map. The room, with its faux-Tiffany glass ceiling, has been around in pretty much its current state since the 1970s, when its headliners were Sharon McNight, Ruth Hastingsand Pam Brooks. "The Plush" has changed hands several times, most recently in September, when it was taken over by Christopher M. Rosas, executive vice president of a family-owned realty company.
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The room will shut down for a seismic upgrade after singer Jane Monheit closes Feb. 25, reopening in late April or early May. The lobby will have a minor face-lift. The Plush Room seats 125, but Rosas plans to reduce it to 112, removing seats behind pillars. He says, "I can sit there and listen to the bean counters who say I could get more per square foot but I wouldn't want to sit in those seats. There's a certain charm and elan in having a signature property like this. It can become a passion to make your theory work."
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