Perfect For Polizzi

Celebrated hotelier and television personality Alex Polizzi, shares her favourite home and away haunts with Abode2

Preferred hangout close to home?

Trinity Restaurant, Adam Byatt’s Michelin starred affair in Clapham is my absolutely favourite place to take colleagues and friends for a treat. Also, above it, is a tapas bar, which I think is wonderful for something more relaxed. I have spent many a jolly Friday evening there.

Best global getaway for design inspiration?

I would say Barcelona, not necessarily for its hotels but, because of Gaudi. I find Spain completely inspiring in terms of design output. They mix traditional and contemporary better than anywhere else in Europe.

When I travel I’m never without

A good book and mascara. I'm lucky because my lovely friends, Cate and Nash, who run the fabulous bookshop ‘Much Ado Books’ in Alfriston East Sussex, which is virtually next door to my new hotel The Star, are always giving me hardbacks to read, so I constantly have a hot-off-the-press, or an editor’s copy of a brand new novel; I'm lucky to always be very well supplied.

City pad or country pile?

City pad. I have never seen the point in having a country pad unless you have enough room for loads of friends to stay, and then you need loads of help, otherwise you spend your whole time running around cleaning. I would much rather have a city peid-a-terre and hunker down with friend and family at a luxurious country hotel.

Style trend you’d like to bring back?

Everything inevitably comes back in fashion. One thing I'm not an enormous fan of, are fringes on the bottom of sofas. Most trends I really love, have come back at least once in my lifetime already; bellbottoms being one of them.