The American Trade Hotel: Fifty Rooms, One Jazz Club, and a Plaza Full of History in Panama City

The American Trade Hotel went up on Plaza Herrera in Panama City’s Casco Viejo neighborhood  in 1917, was briefly the tallest in Panama City, and has since been luxury apartments, a department store, and the headquarters of the trading company that gave it its name. Then, for the better part of two decades, it was none of those things. Casco Viejo had been Panama City's center of gravity until the mid-twentieth century, when the families who could afford to leave moved out to the newer districts rising east of the old quarter and took the neighborhood's money with them. What stayed behind were beautiful buildings nobody was maintaining. The American Trade, four connected structures across four floors, was taken over by local gangs who split it up by corner and by floor and held it for about twenty years. Gang activity in the city peaked around 2006—for most of that stretch, the smart advice was to stay out of this neighborhood after dark, and a hotel on this square would’ve sounded like a joke. As the area shifted and changed, the hotel opened in 2013 after a restoration led by Ace Hotel, LA's Commune Design, and the Panamanian group Conservatorio, and these days it runs independently as a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World. What the American Trade  lives as now are 50 rooms, a jazz club downstairs, a pool on the roof, and a square out front that has hosted bullfights, turf disputes, and now, mostly, people reading on benches.

Because the building sits on the edge of a protected historic district, its restoration had to satisfy both Panamanian preservation law and UNESCO's conservation standards, and the constraints clearly did it a favor. The original American Trade tiles are still underfoot in the lobby, and the wood floors elsewhere were milled from trees pulled out of the water when the canal was flooded, which means you are walking across the thing that made modern Panama possible. Furniture runs to Nicaraguan hardwood and reclaimed local timber, and the overall register borrows from Latin American modernism with a little Havana in the bones, a nod toward New Orleans, and enough midcentury furniture to keep the place from feeling like a museum of itself. Two sides of the building open to the street in tall windows, so you get gorgeous natural light coming off the plaza.

There are 50 rooms spread across eight categories. Things start with the Cuarto Chico at around 355 square feet and climb through the Cuarto and Super Cuarto, but the ones worth requesting by name sit at the top: Panorama, with floor-to-ceiling windows and a wide view over the old town; Esquina, a corner room with a pair of balconies; Jardin, which opens onto a private garden with loungers and hammocks; and the Super Cuarto Doble, which has a vaulted ceiling and a dining room of its own. Whatever you end up in, the bones are consistent—custom mattresses, Frette sheets, handwoven coverlets out of Mexico, Turkish cotton robes, rain showers, and Aesop in the bathroom.

One quick note, though (and it's the same one I'd give you for anywhere in this part of town): if your room faces Plaza Herrera, you're going to hear a lot of noise, whether it’s from pedestrians outside, music from the rooftop bars, and honking vehicles. Ask for something facing inward if you sleep lightly.

The Dining Room is the anchor, run by chef Clara Icaza, who Gatopardo named one of the top young chefs in Latin America and who cooks ingredient-first, building her takes on classic meat and seafood around whatever is local and in season. There's a long global wine list, a great cocktail menu, and a separate pastry program handling dessert.

I only ate here for brunch, and I noticed that lots of Panamanians and tourists alike came to eat here even if not staying at the hotel. The lobby café and bar covers everything else from breakfast through nightcaps, and it's a great option in Casco Viejo to sit with a coffee. Speaking of which, take the coffee seriously here. The program is built around Panamanian growers and small-batch roasting, and this is the country that produces Geisha, among the most expensive beans on earth.

The best thing in this hotel is in the basement. Danilo's Jazz Club is a 50-seat room founded by Danilo Pérez, the Grammy-winning Panamanian pianist and UNESCO Artist for Peace, and it books local and visiting players. Very few city hotels can claim an actual venue, and this one fills up, so check the calendar ahead of time. Up above, there’s a small rooftop pool, a plant-filled interior courtyard, a library, and a gym.

Casco Viejo is Panama City's oldest neighborhood and a UNESCO World Heritage site, listed in 1997, and it's small enough to walk end to end in an afternoon. From Plaza Herrera you're a few minutes from the cathedral, the National Theatre, the Interoceanic Canal Museum, and Independence Square, and roughly a minute from Fonda Lo Que Hay, my favorite meal in Panama City (get the tuna tostada). It's worth knowing why the neighborhood exists at all: Casco Viejo was founded in 1673 after Henry Morgan sacked the original Panama City, and the ruins of that first settlement, Panamá Viejo, are still standing on the far side of the modern skyline. 

Location: Casco Viejo, Panama City, Panama

Address: Av. Central España, Panamá, Provincia de Panamá, Panama

Rooms: 50

Pricing: From $289 a night 

Dining & Cocktails: The Dining Room and the all-day lobby café and bar

Amenities & Services: Rooftop pool, fitness center, free Wi-Fi, minibars, in-room coffee, rain showers, Aesop toiletries, in-house spa treatments on request, chauffeur service, 24-hour front desk

Nearest Airport: Tocumen International (PTY)