Be Jardín Escondido: Francis Ford Coppola's Buenos Aires House Is Also a Seven-Room Boutique Hotel

Celebrity-attached hotels usually mean a licensing deal and a signature on the stationery, but this one is a house somebody actually lived in. Francis Ford Coppola moved into a walled property on a quiet block of Palermo Soho in Buenos Aires while he was making Tetro, stayed about two years, and came out of it so taken with the Argentinian capital that he kept the place and eventually opened it to guests. It's now seven rooms arranged around a terracotta-tiled patio, part of the family's small Hideaways collection, and it feels much more like a large private home than a hotel. If you were just wandering on the street you'd walk past it: oxblood walls, Italianate detailing, and no lit sign glowing through a window. You need to ring a doorbell to get in: I did that on the back of an overnight flight and was met with an espresso and a smile, which set the tone for my stay.

The place is adorned with red floor tiles, hide rugs, Indigenous carnival masks, Peruvian textiles framed on the walls, original art tucked into niches, and furniture that's solid. The patio is full of plants and built around a small pond, and there's an upper terrace framed in flowers.

Here you’ve got seven rooms, all of them different. The two ground-floor suites are the largest and the coolest in temperature, Francis and Roman at 334 square feet each, and Francis is the one Coppola himself takes when he's in town. Upstairs are four doubles—Ellie, Sofia, Bolaños, and Cortazar, running from 291 down to 226 square feet—two with balconies over the patio and two sharing a balcony onto the street. There's also Nieta's Studio, a 161-square-foot single. Rooms come with writing desks, minibars, safes, robes and slippers, organic bath products, and verbena-scented shampoo and gels in refillable bottles. I was in Bolaño, one of the upstairs doubles facing the street. If you're a light sleeper, or you're arriving wrecked from an overnight flight the way I did, ask for something over the patio instead, because the walls are very thin and you can hear everything going on outside.

Breakfast is served in the long living room off the library—a spread of seasonal fruit, fresh orange juice, cheeses, salami, eggs made to order, medialunas, yogurt and cereals—and it's included in your stay. Beyond that, the kitchen operates on request: there's a wine cellar and a stocked fridge, the concierge will order in from the delis and cafés nearby, and the team will set up a wine and cheese spread or fire the parrilla out by the pool if you'd rather eat in the garden than go out. Coffee runs around the clock.

There's an unheated plunge pool in the walled garden, but I didn’t use it since I visited on a chilly spring day. There's a library, a living room with a big television, chess and backgammon and Jenga, yoga mats, an acoustic guitar sitting there for anyone who can play, and—a detail I loved—Coppola's complete filmography on DVD in the living room, which means a rainy afternoon here could be spent cozying up on the couch watching some good movies. Service runs on a deliberately invisible model: a manager, concierge and sommelier are around, reachable by phone, but otherwise they leave you alone.

The hotel sits on the eastern edge of Palermo Soho, far enough off the main drag to be quiet and close enough that you'll walk everywhere. Within a few blocks you've got independent boutiques, galleries, specialty coffee, the parrillas, and the bar scene that keeps the neighborhood up late. Plaza Serrano is the center of the action and worth one lap, mostly so you can then go find something better a few streets off it. The Bosques de Palermo and the museums—MALBA especially—are a short taxi away, and the Scalabrini Ortiz Subte station is about ten blocks out, with buses running along the avenue.

Two places I'd point you to, both walkable: Fogón Asado, which does asado as a counter-side tasting menu with the fire right in front of you and a guide walking you through every cut, and which you need to book well ahead of your trip rather than the day of. And El Preferido de Palermo, the old corner bodegón that got a second life and is now one of the most enjoyable rooms in the city—go for the milanesas and a vermouth.

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Address: Gorriti 4746, C1414BJL Cdad. Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Rooms: 7

Rating: 5 star

Pricing: From $572 a night 

Amenities & Services: Plunge pool, walled garden, parrilla, wine cellar, library, filtered water stations, board games, yoga mats, acoustic guitar, Coppola's filmography on DVD, room service, laundry, Wi-Fi, concierge and sommelier

Nearest Airport: Ministro Pistarini (EZE)