Moonrise Hotel

One of the items on our global wish list is that every major city in America should have a hotel like this one. In a landscape dominated by cost-cutting chain hotels, there’s an advantage to be had by showing a little bit of personality, something that the Moonrise Hotel, in St. Louis, Missouri, has got in spades.

For a good start, it’s located in what’s probably the best neighborhood in town, the Loop. This is St. Louis’s nightlife and dining district, and it’s a much better spot for a mid-rise rooftop bar like the Moonrise’s than the city’s oversized downtown. Inside you’ll find it’s got a bit of a theme, and charmingly that theme is space. It lends itself to a bit of curvaceous mid-century modernism, and at the Moonrise, modernist design is fun again, rather than painfully fashionable. Suites pay homage to the city’s famous residents, and the rooms come with all the necessities, from plasma TVs to stylish modern bathrooms.

Fun is probably what separates the Moonrise, and other Midwestern boutique hotels, from their cousins on the coasts. Here you can’t help feeling that the style is meant to be inclusive, not exclusive, curiosity-provoking rather than alienating, right down to the little revolving replica moon atop the hotel’s roof.