I love my wife. I love her so much, in fact, that I bought her tickets to see Neil Diamond for her birthday. :rolleyes: Don’t get me wrong. I like some of his older stuff but he is not my concert choice. Still, this will be the fourth time since we’ve been together that I’ve taken her to see him. I told my son that you know you love a woman when you take her to a concert, show or event that she loves but you can’t stand. But, I digress.
The concert is on a Saturday at 8 PM in the United Center in Chicago. I want to make it a nice evening by taking her to wonderful dinner before hand and then staying at a nice hotel downtown. I’ve already got a place for the kids to stay for the night so we can have a real adult’s night out.
I’m looking for suggestions for a good restaurant and hotel. My wife is basically a meat and potatoes gal but loves Italian, too. She is allergic to fish so seafood is out.
The hotel doesn’t have to be fancy shmancy but I would like something that is romantic and not too far from the concert.
There are lots of Chi-dopers out there. What ideas do you have? Thanks in advance.
There’s NOPLACE to stay near the stadium, which is a couple of miles west of downtown.
Just pick anything downtown, and cab it there and back. But be prepared to wait for a cab on the return journey.
OK, then let me modify it a little. We are driving to the concert (we live over an hour away from the city) so it’s not too big a pain to drive to a hotel afterwards. Where would you recommend?
I work on the SW side of the loop. If you wanted to go with “tradition and history” you could try either the Palmer House on State Street, or the Congress or Hilton on Michigan.
If you want to go with trendy, you could try either the W on Adams, or Allegro on Randolph.
Basically all of these are a straight shot east from the concert.
Or you could look into the hotels along the river, or N. Mich ave. The Drake is pretty classy and classic. Those areas would be closer to more nightlife and options for the day after. The S loop area tends to get pretty dead at night after the commuters go home.
My suggestion would be to google to see which - if any - are offering any special packages during the time of your stay. Might be able to score a cut-rate at the Four Seasons. Since I live near Chi, I personally haven’t stayed in many downtown hotels.
There’s a funky little hotel, the James, kitty-corner from my office, just off of North Michigan. We stayed there on our anniversary last year, and it was very cool. The rooms are modern without being totally trendy, and the bed might’ve been the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in. And, being right in the River North area, there’s a ton of great restaurants within a few blocks.
Just checked their rates…$400 and up for a Saturday night in June (not sure when you’re looking at going). Didn’t realize their rack rate was that expensive; we’d gotten a corporate discount, since my ad agency uses them.
It’s pretty no-frills, but we’ve had good luck on weekends at the Homewood Suites on Grand Avenue. It’s near some good restaurants (like the Weber Grill Restaurant, Pops for Champagne), and because they tend to attract business travellers you can often find good deals on the weekend. You get a suite with a kitchenette, so if you’ve got leftovers from dinner they’ll keep, and breakfast is included in the rate. Breakfast is nothing fancy, but it’s a bit better than the standard continental breakfast one usually gets in hotels.
I just realized that we stayed there once, quite some time ago (won a free weekend there in a raffle at work). It was pretty nice for that level of hotel, IIRC.
Weber Grill is a good restaurant. If they’re willing to go a few blocks more, I’d say that Wildfire (on Erie, between Wells and La Salle) is even better.
