We all know The Cloud Room closed when Trendwest took over the Camlin hotel nigh five years ago. But what happened to it? After asking myself three or twenty times as I walk by it every day, today I decided to walk in and find out. Taking the elevator up to the 11th floor was as rickety as my former drunken, mid-20s self remembered, but stepping out when the doors opened…

You carved it up! Damn you all to hell!

Behind a high security door (?!?) lies a small parlor designed in early 1990s suburban hotel chic; on said door is that disgraceful plaque. Where The REAL Cloud Room used to be, the Cumulus, Cirrus and Stratus Penthouses wait, equally disappointing. The fourth room reads “The Nimbus Suite,” and I gotta admit that sounds like a room I’d love to trash, a room in which I’d love to pass out. No dice, the only way to stay here involves timesharing. *shudder*I guess I was expecting a breakfast bar or gym, maybe a small lap pool, something that took advantage of the original open structure of the space. Something so that maybe, just maybe, one day some cooler hotel chain could buy the building and restore it to it’s faux faded 1950s tawdry glory. Oh well, we’ll always have Vito’s. Doh!(Incidentally, the guy at the front desk was very sweet, and talked to me as if I was far from the first person to want to visit the 11th floor.)