Coronado's newest hotel just got a national stamp of approval. Vogue magazine published a glowing feature on the Baby Grand, the 31-room boutique property at 1315 Orange Ave. that opened in May, calling it a "Little Mermaid-meets-Liberace fantasyland" and an "aristocratic pleasure palace."

The review, flagged by Patch's Coronado newsletter on Thursday, Aug. 20, marks the first major national press for the hotel, which sits about a block from the Hotel del Coronado.

The Baby Grand is the work of Arsalun Tafazoli, co-founder of San Diego-based hospitality company CH Projects, the group behind North Park's Michelin Key-winning Lafayette Hotel & Club. Tafazoli told Vogue the goal was atmosphere over convention: "We wanted to create the feeling of a lost place. I wanted the real feeling of decay."

The $18 million project replaced a nondescript midcentury motel that had been dominated by a central parking lot, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. The renovation took roughly five years and came in about $1 million over its original $17 million budget. Tafazoli called working with the City of Coronado for the first time a "steep learning curve" that contributed to the year-long delay past the original opening target.

Brooklyn-based design studio Post Company, which also designed the Lafayette, collaborated on the interiors. Leigh Salem, a partner at Post Company, said the team approached the Baby Grand as a deliberate departure from the casual, beachy aesthetic typical of Southern California hospitality.

The result is heavy on detail. Guest rooms feature iridescent clamshell headboards, mosaic tile floors, mirrored mini-bars and brass sea-creature door handles. Nearly half of each roughly 300-square-foot room is devoted to the bathroom, which includes clawfoot tubs and fluted marble sinks. Rooms start at $350 per night.

Outside, the two-thirds-acre lot holds 20-foot waterfalls, sculpted rock formations, 21 antique statues sourced from Italy, Spain and Turkey, and a lagoon filled with imported Turkish sand. Guest parking was moved to a Bank of America parking structure about a block away to free up the space, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The property also houses Night Hawk, a Mediterranean open-fire restaurant with seating for about 150 that has been packed from mid-morning to midnight since opening, according to Vogue. Hidden behind a paneled wall in the lobby is Fallen Empire, a reservation-only oyster and champagne bar with mirrored walls and a raw bar serving Kumamoto oysters and uni tartares. Fox 5 San Diego reported that the lobby's ambient music was composed by Swizz Beatz, the producer and San Diego resident who is married to Alicia Keys.

The Baby Grand is the second new hotel to open in Coronado in recent years. The Bower Coronado, a 39-room boutique property also near the Hotel del Coronado, opened in 2025. Before that, the city had not seen a new lodging property in more than three decades.

Up the block, the Hotel del Coronado starts rates north of $600 per night following its own $550 million renovation. The Baby Grand's $350 starting rate positions it as a smaller, less expensive alternative with a distinctly maximalist personality.

CH Projects has said it plans to focus exclusively on hotels going forward, with a 68-room hotel and wellness center planned for Little Italy in San Diego. Guests can book the Baby Grand at thebabygrandcoronado.com.