In honor of Ringo Starr's 68th birthday yesterday, the Windy City -- thanks to the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago -- received healthy doses of the four best things in the world: peace, love, cupcakes...and Ringo himself.
In a recent interview, the former (and forever cute) Beatles drummer said he'd like it if everyone in the world would drop everything and flash a peace sign at noon on his birthday. Upon hearing this, staffers at the Hard Rock Hotel decided to throw a peace-themed party in his honor and invited him to stop by.
[UPDATE: Good news! The credits go towards your current stay. It is not a "bounceback" offer. We apologize for the error.]
Two luxury hotels in the Windy City are teaming up to lure you in. Called "Experience More," the Four Seasons Chicago and the Ritz-Carlton Chicago are offering "money back in your pocket." but really you'll be getting credit toward another stay.
At Ritz-Carlton, you will get room credits for $150 or $325 for your one or two night stay, respectively, and even more credit if you book an Executive Suite or larger. Then the credits are $200 and $425 for one or two nights.
The Four Seasons offers the exact same idea, but different amounts of room credits -- $125 credit for a one night stay, and $200 if you stay in an Executive Suite or larger, plus they'll kick in a $50 spa credit on the condition that you reserve a spa treatment of 55 minutes or longer in advance.
Yesterday, we were stunned to hear of the lovely Ivanka Trump's quick trip to regular-people-land (which involved staying at the Quality Inn and munching on Little Caesar's), but today we've learned that girlfriend is back to doing what she does best: hawking her father's crap.
Ivanka Trump, who visited the Windy City recently to show her fall jewelry collection at J.Mendel's Michigan Avenue boutique, didn't miss the opportunity to promote (albeit graciously) the new Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago. The statuesque blonde, who wore her own diamond tassel earrings, mentioned that while in Chicago she stayed at the hotel, received several spa treatments that day and dined for both lunch and dinner at the hotel's restaurant Sixteen, where she enjoys the admittedly rich porcini ravioli.
How sweet of her to plug her dad's businesses! And she was rewarded nicely for it, too: Ivanka's getting a bit of retail space in the hotel to open up a boutique for her jewelry line.
Get your hot dogs, sunscreen and beer guts ready: Independence Day is just over two weeks away! If you're headed to a big city for some fireworks fun, we'll be taking a look at hotels with prime fireworks views. Have a favorite hotel for gawking at bombs bursting in air? Send it our way.
If you're sweatin' down in a Southern state (or, as luck may have it this summer, roasting even in a Northeastern state), consider bouncing on over to the Windy City to check out the legendary Navy Pier fireworks and the famed Taste of Chicago festival.
Our Fourth of July weekend hotel pick: the Westin Chicago River North, right in the middle of all the action.
Though the Dana Hotel and Spahas been open for months soft-opened a week ago, the hotel website says the restaurant, Ajasteak will open tomorrow. Good thing we called first! The opening night has now been pushed back to Monday, June 16.
Whenever it opens, expect more than a little bit of bombast. Here's the hotel's own description of the Asian-influenced steak house:
An organic mixture of textures, imagery and sound. Tasteful, harmonic and humble in its confidence ... Only provides the ideal setting for gathering and culinary gratification.
Who knows? When the place does open, maybe even complete sentences will be on the menu!
Looks like Michael Madsen isn't the only celebrity on bad behavior in hotels this week.
The Mexican soccer goalie, Oswaldo Sanchez, was arrested for trespassing and resisting arrest early Monday morning, after refusing to turn down the volume on the stereo in his hotel room at the Westin Michigan Avenue.
Police say Sanchez was asked to leave the Westin Michigan Avenue early Monday following Mexico's 4-0 victory over Peru in a friendly in Chicago -- and refused. The hotel called police, who arrested Sanchez when he again refused to leave.
The cops let loose on Sanchez with pepper spray in order to subdue him.
Maybe he should have been put in the city's other Westin hotel where the soothing jet lag room could have calmed him down.
It'd be nice to have a $246 million equity fund just lying around without any real need for it ... and that's what the Kimpton group must have been thinking when they decided to cash in the fund recently. So then, what to do with all that money? Why not add a fourth hotel to their Chicago stable, in the form of the coming-soon Hotel Palomar Chicago?
Why not indeed. Kimpton will build this one from scratch, and expects it to be ready in fall of 2009 (sounds kinda fast to us). It'll be part of a 35-story mixed use tower in the North Bridge area of Chicago--the mixed use comes from the "luxury corporate housing units" that another company will put on top of the hotel.
The final version of the Hotel Palomar Chicago looks like having a fancy lobby opening on to State Street with a nice restaurant and bar on the corner of State and Illinois. They picked Chicago to build another hotel since their other (three) properties there are performing so well.
We now present you with our VIP Hotel Reviewer Series in which we hand-pick experts in the travel and media worlds and beyond to tell us what are their favorite hotels and why. Once a week, we'll feature a hotel review from said VIPs about their favorite leisure or business hotels. Pay attention: These VIPs are experts at what they do and they don't mess around when it comes to their hotels.
Our next VIP reviewer is Jenny Block, is a prolific writer on arts and culture for a wide variety of regional and national publications. She has also just written a book titled, “Open: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage.” Here she tells us about a recent trip to Chi-town. Enjoy.
When my girlfriend asked me to join her on a business trip to Chicago, Illinois, I simply couldn't resist, especially when she told me we'd be staying at the Hotel Burnham. It's a Kimpton property, which is a boutique hotel group that I adore. They are always just the right mix of hip and comfortable and Hotel Burnham was no different.
