On April 24, 2024, the MICHELIN Guide announced its very first Key hotels in the United States — a brand new distinction recognizing the most outstanding hotels in the country. We're thrilled to report that in Chicago, eight hotels earned at least One Key. Of those, half make their home in the kinds of historic buildings that give this city its well-earned reputation as one of the most architecturally distinguished cities in the country.
Follow Michigan Avenue north from the heart of the Loop to the Gold Coast and you’ll pass within two blocks of all but one of them. The Chicago Athletic Association sits within a Venetian Gothic landmark. The Gwen makes its home in a storied 1929 Art Deco skyscraper. The Pendry sets up shop in the masterpiece that is the 1929 Art Deco Carbide & Carbon Building. And the lower floors of the Viceroy make use of the meticulously-preserved, 1920s-vintage Cedar Hotel.
There are Key hotels too in newer builds, among them the Peninsula (with uniformed bellboys and staffers who seem to know the name of each individual guest) and the Waldorf Astoria, its lobby a marble marvel.
Below, explore the map and scroll down for more about each of the MICHELIN Guide’s eight Key hotels in Chicago.
Chicago Athletic Association
Distinction: One KeyChicago’s architectural story began before modernism — this Venetian Gothic landmark, previously a private club for the city’s (male) movers and shakers, dates back to the final decade of the 19th century. But now, after a renovation by architects Hartshorne Plunkard and an interior redesign by hospitality wizards Roman and Williams, the Chicago Athletic Association is a thoroughly up-to-date boutique hotel, in that retro-modern, luxury-boutique sort of way.
Book the Chicago Athletic Association with The MICHELIN Guide →
Pendry Chicago
Distinction: Two KeysOnly in Chicago can a hotelier reasonably hope to set up shop in a masterwork like the 1929 Art Deco Carbide & Carbon Building, with its stately dark stone and immaculate gold trim. It’s a perfect fit for Pendry, the urban luxury-boutique cousin to the Montage resorts; Pendry Chicago combines contemporary boutique-hotel good looks with upscale comforts and impressive views of the distinctive Loop cityscape.
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The Langham Chicago
Distinction: Two KeysThis is a skyscraper hotel, American-style, which means, in contrast with its Asian cousins, that the hotel occupies the bottom floors rather than the top. (The views from twelve floors up, in this town, are scenic enough.) Once you’re in your room you’ll find you’ve left Mies’s high modernism behind — though there’s some mid-century influence visible, the look is more obviously influenced by the Langham group’s Hong Kong and London roots. Space is plentiful, as is sunshine, and the details are impressively selected, right down to the well-stocked minibar.
Book The Langham Chicago with The MICHELIN Guide →
The Gwen
Distinction: One KeyThe Gwen doesn’t just echo the aesthetics of Twenties and Thirties Chicago, it’s an authentic piece of history — its façade comes from the 1929 McGraw-Hill building, and it’s named for the sculptor Gwen Lux, whose work still adorns it today. Inside it’s a thoroughly contemporary boutique-style luxury hotel, with Art Deco accents and 21st-century comforts. There’s a pan-Mediterranean restaurant, an open-air rooftop bar (complete with firepits), and a weekend “Tipsy Tea” served in the hotel’s lounge; an ideal prelude to an afternoon in what might be one of Chicago’s finest shopping districts.
Book The Gwen with The MICHELIN Guide →
The Peninsula Chicago
Distinction: Two KeysIn the middle of Chicago’s Magnificent Mile of department stores and designer boutiques is the Peninsula Hotel, only the third in America. The Peninsula’s brand of Hong Kong luxury has fared well in New York and LA — and any doubts here are immediately laid to rest by the uniformed bellboys, spiriting guests’ bags to the lobby before the cab driver can lay a hand on them. Other staffers seem possessed of a psychic ability to remember every guest’s name at once, a delightful contrast to the typically American nod-and-smile.
Book The Peninsula Chicago with The MICHELIN Guide →
Waldorf Astoria Chicago
Distinction: One KeyOne look at the huge English courtyard, or the museum-like marble lobby, and it’s clear that this is a full-scale luxury hotel all the way — especially since all this black, white, and polish gives off a dazzling Art Deco vibe. Fortunately the hotel undercuts its potentially chilly elegance with outstanding service, for which no staff person is allowed to accept a tip.
Book Waldorf Astoria Chicago with The MICHELIN Guide →
Viceroy Chicago
Distinction: One KeyThe Viceroy hotels exist at the intersection of luxury-hotel extravagance and boutique-hotel tastefulness, and the brand-new Viceroy Chicago is no different. The building, a gently undulating glass tower, is pure luxe modernity, but the lower floors blend effortlessly into Chicago’s Gold Coast, thanks to the meticulously preserved façade of the 1920s-vintage Cedar Hotel, which was reassembled brick by brick once the tower was complete.
Book Viceroy Chicago with The MICHELIN Guide →
Nobu Hotel Chicago
Distinction: One KeyFurther evidence for the proposition that Chicago is one of America’s most hospitable cities: more than three decades after the original restaurant collaboration between the actor Robert De Niro and the celebrated chef Nobu Matsuhisa opened its doors in New York, the brand’s hotels have become a global phenomenon, and the West Loop is graced with one of its very own; Nobu Hotel Chicago, fittingly, stands over a stretch of Randolph Street known as Restaurant Row.
Book Nobu Hotel Chicago with The MICHELIN Guide →
Top image: Pendry Chicago
