Concierge.com's insider take:

The Sorrento is one of Downtown's most distinctive buildings and the oldest boutique hotel in the city, with a grand circular driveway and Italian Renaissance style details. The lobby and adjacent Fireside Room are pure unabashed early-20th-century opulence: a mishmash of red-and-gold brocade, toffee-colored leather, velvet pillows, and richly patterned rugs. It's no surprise that the city's only traditional high tea takes place here, and the hotel's intimate Hunt Club restaurant is always packed at lunchtime. The guest rooms are more subdued but no less elegant. Bathrooms are top-notch and seem to be cut entirely from a single slab of gleaming white Italian marble. More than half of the 76 rooms are suites; all have full living rooms, and larger ones have four-person dining/meeting tables. The Sorrento is a few blocks east of the city's tight Downtown core, but this slight change of scenery is a plus—for one thing, it's a few minutes' walk down a tree-lined street to the lovely Frye Art Museum.