Mr. Hospitality

by Alexis Swerdloff | Manhattan magazine | December 27, 2011

It’s one of the first cold nights of the season, and Ben Pundole’s Williamsburg apartment is a cozy oasis of calm. His elegant gray cat, Louie, slinks around the living room, Le Labo candles are burning and Pundole’s sipping green tea on a comfy beige sofa. The London-born 37-year-old has been able to commercialize this knack for pitch-perfect atmosphere into some of the most buzzed-about new hotels.

Along with designer Rob McKinley and former Morgans Hotel Group CEO Ed Scheetz, Pundole founded the hospitality group King & Grove in fall 2010. Last summer they opened the hipster retreat Ruschmeyer’s in Montauk and took over management of the nearby scenester restaurant and hotel Surf Lodge. In December, King & Grove relaunched the Tides hotel in South Beach; and in February they’re opening a new hot spot for out-of-towners in Williamsburg. “It’s a lot,” he admits, “but it’s exciting, and it’s everything I’ve wanted to do.”

That’s because it’s in his blood. His father owned a hotel in Norfolk, England, and Pundole became fascinated with curating peoples’ weekends. At 18, he worked in the wine cellar of London’s famed members-only Groucho Club. “I wheeled in the wine deliveries, managed the chef’s laundry and was also the handyman,” he says. Pundole eventually went on to become manager. After a few similar stints, he spent more than a decade with the Morgans Hotel Group before deciding the time was ripe to develop his vision of a more experience-based type of hospitality. At the forthcoming Brooklyn spot he promises bicycle rentals, a “nostalgic midcentury-modern feel” and a gelato cart that will be rolled out to McCarren Park.

Hospitality matters to Pundole, who’s just as enthralled with the business as he was as a kid. “You know how some people base their trips around surf breaks?” he says, “I base mine around hotels.”

Pundole’s Hots
Culinary exploration, the Red Rooster, free Wi-Fi in hotels, Ted Danson on Bored to Death, the author Paul Auster

Pundole’s Nots
Late nights and hangovers, rude people, the fact that I’ve spent 10 summers in Montauk and am still a rubbish surfer