Hotels

New York certainly has its architectural charms, but only 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.

Beds come dressed in Fili D’Oro linens, bathrooms clad in marble with custom-made bath products, and rooms come supplied with modern necessities like Bluetooth speakers and espresso machines, plus the ageless temptation of a well-stocked bar. The look is serious, dignified, but far from stuffy — it’s a tribute to the era of the building’s construction and to the Modernist golden age that followed.

Venteux, the Pendry Chicago’s flagship restaurant, is a Parisian-style brasserie and oyster bar serving French flavors with a Chicago accent — even the name is French for “windy.” Bar Pendry, meanwhile, is a classic cocktail bar, as is the Billiard Gallery, whose leisure attractions are self-explanatory. And on top of it all is the rooftop bar, Chateau Carbide, an unlikely combination of Cote d’Azur ease and Chicago urbanity.