First Look: Phoenix’s Global Ambassador Hotel

Bailey Berg / Virtuoso

Pull up to the portocochere.

The food’s the thing at chef Sam Fox’s first property.

Sitting in the shade of a sherbet-orange umbrella, a striped lounger topped with a bubblegum-pink towel to my left, a riot of white tropical flowers to my right, and a variation of an Aperol spritz on the table before me, it almost feels like I’m in the Mediterranean. In reality, I’m sitting poolside at the Pink Dolphin, arguably one of the coolest hotel restaurants in Phoenix.

In December 2023, Sam Fox – a 12-time James Beard Award nominee at the helm of more than 150 restaurants worldwide, including Culinary Dropout and True Food Kitchen – launched his latest venture: The Global Ambassador, a hotel he planned from the ground up. Over the years, Fox has worked in myriad hotel restaurants that felt like an afterthought; in his first outing as a hotelier, he wanted to create a dining experience that felt cohesive.

The lobby’s warm welcome.

The 141-room east Phoenix property, which overlooks Camelback Mountain, is roughly a ten-minute drive from Old Town Scottsdale and the Desert Botanical Garden. With black wrought-iron accents and four grand entrances, the ground level of the six-story, white-brick building evokes a shopping street in France. The lobby greets guests with gray-and-white checkerboard marble floors, antiqued plaster ceilings, and British racing-green walls – it's a color that repeats throughout the hotel, from the room keys to the velvet rope in front of the private event space.

A spot to wind down in the Terrace Suite.

Then there are the pied-à-terre-inspired guest rooms. Each accommodation, from the 460-square-foot entry-level rooms to the 2,000-square-foot Presidential Suite, is elegant and warm, with white oak flooring, cozy leather chairs and benches, one-of-a-kind woven rugs, and prints by Michael Carson, an oil painter known for his figure work. Minibars stocked with top-shelf spirits such as Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish gin and Savage & Cooke cask-finished rye whiskey, cocktail books for recipe inspiration, crystal glassware for serving, and limes and lemons for garnishing (plus in-room Supergoop sunscreen) inspire alfresco afternoons on the balcony.

On-demand personal trainers staff the hotel’s sprawling second-floor fitness center, which is equipped with Technogym machines, a Forma Pilates studio, Theraguns, and a recovery area with complimentary LMNT water and protein balls. The neighboring spa’s extensive menu includes massages and facial treatments from such brands as U Beauty, Biologique Recherche, and Oxylight, light therapy, IV drips, and cryotherapy. A locker room with a well-provisioned beauty bar aids post-treatment freshening up.

Poolside treats at Pink Dolphin.

However, it’s the five original dining concepts, each influenced by Fox’s travels, that make the hotel a destination unto itself. Beyond Pink Dolphin, there’s also Le Âme, French for “the soul,” a centrally located, all-day restaurant. By day, it’s a light and bright French bistro, offering entrees such as a croissant turkey club and croque madames; at night, it transforms into a seductive steak house, where carnivores dine on decadent grilled meats and pasta mains.

Lobby Bar, also on the ground floor, serves up classic cocktails and snacks such as truffle fries and caviar-topped onion dip to guests seated on plush velvet chairs inside or under olive trees in the central courtyard. Next door at casual coffee shop Le Market, laptop-toting locals often lounge around marble bistro tables beneath a French poem handpainted on glass tile (each time the word “amour” pops up, it’s in red). 

At Théa, the rooftop Mediterranean dinner spot with spectacular 360-degree views, mezzes and shared plates are the name of the game. (Do yourself a favor and order the Goddess of All Dips: six Greek dips served with pita and crudités.) It’s a lovely spot to grab a watermelon spritz from the indoor or outdoor bar and watch the sunset paint Camelback Mountain a matching hue.

The Global Ambassador Hotel await....

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