Pendry Chicago

Chicago has a story about the Carbide & Carbon Building: that Burnham Brothers drew it in 1929 as a bottle of champagne, the tower in dark green terracotta for the glass and gold leaf at the top for the foil. The firm was Daniel Burnham's two sons, and if the story is true they had a sense of occasion. The base is polished black granite, and over the hotel's entrance hangs a gilded canopy of Art Deco ironwork, with bicycles parked beneath it. Inside, the lobby floor runs in stripes of black and white marble under white panelling and arches. Upstairs the panelling continues, with parquet underfoot and, in one suite, a black and white photograph of a Deco tower very like this one, in case anyone forgets where they are sleeping. From the upper floors the river shows between the towers, crossed by its red bridges.

Recommended for anyone who would rather sleep inside Chicago's architecture than admire it from the pavement, families included: there are rooms with two queen beds and a babysitter to be had, and the dog can come too. The Riverwalk is three minutes from the door and Millennium Park four, which leaves Navy Pier, eighteen minutes away, as the only real walk, and the hotel lends bicycles free for that. On the ground floor Venteux is a French brasserie and café, and Bar Pendry keeps a fireplace for the Chicago winter. In summer the 24th floor opens as Château Carbide, a rooftop bar looking down Michigan Avenue, with the drinks served about two-thirds of the way up the bottle.