Two splashy hotel debuts were the inspiration for my most recent visit to New York City, but only one property earned my recommendation. The Fifth Avenue Hotel, in the increasingly stylish NoMad neighborhood (north of Madison Square Park), has 153 guestrooms divided between a historic mansion and a new tower. Accommodations and public areas alike have a striking maximalist décor, often including top-quality contemporary artworks.

We enjoyed well-mixed craft cocktails in the clubby Portrait Bar, its wood-paneled walls crowded with framed faces, and a superlative Franco-Italian lunch in Café Carmellini, a theatrical space where tables in mezzanine balconies overlook three-tiered chandeliers and sapphire-hued banquettes.

The extravagant personality of The Fifth Avenue Hotel won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I certainly checked out with regret.