Soho House Chicago

The water tower on the roof of the Allis Building was found to be structurally unsound, so it came down plank by plank and went back up as a mural in the lobby, which is one way to keep a water tower. Lawrence G. Hallberg designed the building in 1907, five floors of brick for the Chicago Belting Company, and when Soho House converted it in 2014 it kept the grit, the bare brick and the metal, and re-laid the marble mosaic at the door to spell out "Allis Building". Against that went the soft things. Giant chandeliers hang in the brick-walled Allis Bar. The bedrooms put plaid carpet and large beds under high ceilings, the Medium and Big rooms turn to velvet and veneer, and the bathrooms have American pre-war tiles and fixtures.

Recommended for anyone who chooses a hotel by its interiors, and for couples above all, since no bedroom sleeps more than two. A night's stay opens the members' club for its length: the pool on the roof, which looks out over the low roofline of the West Loop, and a 30-seat screening room. Berenjak, the Persian restaurant, takes non-members too, and the Allis Bar serves afternoon tea on Fridays and Saturdays. Outside is Fulton Market, the old meatpacking quarter, its brick factories now given over to restaurants and bars, with Randolph Street's restaurant row a few minutes' walk away and the Green and Pink Lines into the Loop from Morgan Street, as close. The gym has a boxing ring, and Horween, the last tannery left in Chicago, helped design the boxing equipment, which puts a tannery's hand back in a building where hides were once tanned.