The Best Places to Drink and Stay in Near North Side & Loop

1. VinePair Food & Beverage Program of the Year · The Next Wave Awards
2. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
3. The 50 #27 · North America's 50 Best Bars

A bedside panel controls the temperature, lighting, curtains, and music without your ever leaving the 300-thread-count sheets, which tells you most of what you need to know about this Forbes Five Star hotel on the Mag Mile. Rooms run to light wood and muted earth tones, marble bathrooms have soaking tubs with their own TVs, and a skyline-level spa gives you a reason to eventually get up. Discretion is the whole point, and the staff has clearly rehearsed.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 2 Keys
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

The last building Mies van der Rohe ever designed now has a hotel on its lower floors, which is either a poetic ending or a very good address depending on your priorities. The Langham sits beside the Chicago River with travertine bathrooms, serious service, and afternoon tea if you want it. A Forbes Five Star and two Michelin Keys confirm the tier, though the river views from the upper rooms do most of the convincing on their own.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 2 Keys

Leather window seats overlooking Lake Michigan come standard in many rooms here, which sets the tone for this luxury hotel perched above the Magnificent Mile. Rottet Studio gave the lobby and upper suites a refresh that reads crisp without trying too hard. The spa and indoor pool are genuinely calm, the staff is the kind that anticipates rather than reacts, and Bloomingdale's is literally one floor below, if that helps you decide.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels
3. The 50 2025 · Most Admired Hotel Group Award

The 101-story tower was designed by Jeanne Gang, making it the tallest building by a female architect, which is the kind of fact that gets dropped at every rooftop cocktail hour. This St. Regis hotel sits along the Chicago River in quiet Lakeshore East, with Lake Michigan views and a wellness floor running spa, pool, and gym. Millennium Park is a short walk; a small private park sits right behind the building for when you'd rather not walk anywhere at all.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels
3. The Banchets Nominee · Sommelier of the Year · Kat Hawkins

The 92-story glass tower sits right on the Chicago River, which means the floor-to-ceiling views from the rooms are doing serious work. This Forbes Five Star hotel leans into dark clubby wood, neutral tones, and custom furniture, so the feeling is more hushed residential than flashy. The fully-stocked in-room kitchens are a nice touch, and the hotel's chefs will come cook in them if you'd rather not go anywhere.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star

The marble lobby and English motor court set the tone for this full-service Gold Coast luxury hotel before you've even checked in. Art Deco bones, fireplaces in the guest rooms, white marble baths, and only ten rooms per floor mean it never feels like a convention block. Staff famously decline tips, which either says something about the service culture or about Chicago. A Forbes Four Star and a Michelin Key.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key

Floor-to-ceiling windows in the library look out over Chicago Avenue, which sets the tone for a hotel that frames the city as part of the decor. It sits on the Magnificent Mile in the Gold Coast, and the rooms and public spaces carry the cool, contemporary feel of a recent top-to-bottom renovation. The art collection leans Chicago, the staff leans warm, and the whole thing earns its Forbes Four Star without ever seeming to try.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The facade of a 1929 Chicago landmark wraps this boutique luxury hotel on Rush Street, where Art Deco details share space with 21st-century comforts. It's named for sculptor Gwen Lux, whose work still ornaments the exterior, and the fifth-floor lobby leans into that Jazz Age identity hard. A rooftop bar with firepits, a weekend Tipsy Tea, and a see-and-be-seen cocktail lounge round out a property that holds a Michelin Key.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key

A 30-foot teal wall inscribed with Marcel Proust greets you in the lobby, which sets the tone for this Gold Coast boutique hotel with more personality than most. The 180 rooms lean midcentury, with a warm gold-and-teal palette and guest room doors in mismatched colors. A rooftop bar handles cocktails and skyline views, and Oak Street Beach is a short walk. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

Mid-century lines, leather and velvet, and eclectic artwork set the tone in the lobby of this boutique hotel tucked into the Gold Coast, where historic mansions and designer boutiques crowd the sidewalk outside. The 247 rooms lean luxe without tipping into stiff, the vibe is hip without the velvet-rope attitude, and a complimentary Lexus house car is the kind of quiet flex that earns its keep. Nico Osteria draws locals in off the street.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide 2 Keys

You find this tiki bar by following strangers down a narrow alley off Clark Street, which is either a great sign or a terrible one depending on your instincts. A staircase descends under a wall of skulls into a big, dim basement decked out in modern tiki grandeur. The drinks are serious and the room knows it. Difford's Guide gives it five stars, and the wait on weekends is its own kind of endorsement.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars In Chicago
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

A 52-floor tower built from the ground up in Streeterville, a few blocks east of the Mag Mile and a short walk to Navy Pier. The hotel leans into Chicago's architectural legacy with design choices that feel considered rather than corporate, and a 75-foot lap pool and rooftop lounge raise the stakes for an urban stay. Business travelers and weekenders both find their footing here without too much awkward overlap.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

The hotel sits inside Water Tower Place, which means stepping off the elevator lands you in a shopping mall with over 125 stores, and stepping outside puts Chanel, Cartier, and the Art Institute within a few blocks. It's a luxury hotel on the Magnificent Mile, so the Gold Coast energy is built in. Rooms run at Ritz-Carlton prices, and the location does a lot of the justifying for them.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

The vaulted ceilings and Venetian Gothic stonework on Michigan Avenue give away that this was never meant to be a hotel, and it wasn't, for most of its life. The Chicago Athletic Association is now a boutique hotel under Hyatt's Unbound Collection, holding a Michelin Key, and the bones of the old private club, once restricted to the city's male elite, do most of the atmospheric heavy lifting without anyone having to try too hard.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key

1. Esquire Martini · The Best Martinis in America

The Art Deco bones of this Gold Coast lobby bar date back to the Jazz Age, and the cocktail program leans into that: Cuban classics and Caribbean-inflected originals served under ornate ceilings that most bars would kill for. Sparrow calls itself a neighborhood bar, which is technically true, though the neighbors here wear better shoes than most. A named honoree at the Spirited Awards, it draws people in from well outside the Gold Coast.

1. The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars In Chicago
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery
3. Spirited Awards 2023 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A boutique hotel in River North that takes its Silver LEED certification, Chicago's first, as seriously as its décor. The classic brick shell was preserved during renovation partly for sustainability reasons, which makes the contemporary interior feel like a quiet statement. Rooms lean understated with a nod to Chicago's modernist tradition. A French bistro, a coffee shop, and borrowed access to the Godfrey's spa next door round things out.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

River North's density of bars and galleries practically demanded a hotel like this one. Moxy Chicago Downtown leans into the neighborhood's energy: Bar Moxy runs as a co-working space during daylight hours, then pivots to local beers, cocktails, and weekend DJ sets by night. There's also a games room with shuffleboard and arcade cabinets, a gym, and a podcast booth, which suggests the kind of guest who checks in with a carry-on and a content strategy.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A rooftop pool high enough to make you feel like you're swimming through the skyline sets the tone at this full-service hotel in River North. It runs on a go-big logic, with a 24-hour fitness center and complete business facilities, yet somehow still feels approachable, the kind of place that fusses over your dog and your kids in equal measure. Midwestern warmth, it turns out, scales up just fine.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The old Atlantic Bank building on Michigan Avenue, a downtown landmark, now runs as a lifestyle hotel with Millennium Park views from many of the contemporary rooms. The gym is properly equipped, and the in-house restaurant, About Last Knife, folds West African and Latin American flavors into an American bistro menu. A solid base for anyone who'd rather walk to the lakefront than deal with a cab.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The name isn't a coincidence: this boutique hotel on the Magnificent Mile took Einstein's formula as its organizing thesis, and the stacks of books in the lobby are there to prove it. Rooms lean into an art-meets-science conceit with Deco-inspired design that manages to feel clever without being exhausting about it. The kind of place where the décor has a point of view, which is either appealing or a lot, depending on your mood.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The Art Deco exterior belongs to what was once home to Chicago's two biggest banks, which tells you something about the scale of ambition inside. The LaSalle Chicago is a luxury hotel in the Financial District where the retro styling isn't a costume but a genuinely fitting one, from the lobby lounge built for deal-making over cocktails to suites sized for people who sign things. Grill on 21 handles the steakhouse duties upstairs.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Rooms on the river side look straight down onto the Riverwalk and across at Tribune Tower, which is a better alarm clock than most hotels can offer. The Royal Sonesta is a luxury hotel on the Chicago River, right where it bends around the Magnificent Mile, and that address is rarer than it sounds. The Michelin Guide lists it among its selected hotels. Pack accordingly for the architecture views alone.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A Gold Coast hotel that was doing the boutique thing before anyone called it that, the Talbott has the bones of an older, quieter Chicago and a recent overhaul by local designer Kara Mann to keep it feeling current. Rooms are residential-scale rather than grand, which suits the neighborhood, where the vibe runs more old-money discreet than convention-circuit splash. A solid, unfussy base for the North Side.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The minibar charges corner-shop prices, a small act of decency that sets the tone for this Loop hotel inside a restored building that's been around forever. Rooms split in two with sliding doors for travel companions on different sleep schedules, and the beds convert into lounge configurations, since apparently a chair that works is too much to ask of most hotels. A rooftop bar and two restaurants round things out.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Spirited Awards 2023 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. Central
2. Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. Central
3. Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. Central

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery
2. Spirited Awards 2023 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. Central
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central

Cindy's is a rooftop cocktail bar on top of the Chicago Athletic Association, with a terrace looking over Millennium Park and Lake Michigan. It's a hotel bar, so expect dressed-up visitors, bachelorette sashes, and relatives in town, plus plates meant for three or four people to share. Regional Top 10 for hotel bars at the Spirited Awards, which is one more reason the terrace fills up first.

1. The Infatuation The 14 Best Restaurants In The Loop
2. Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. Central

1. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. The Banchets Winner · Best Design
3. The Banchets Nominee · Sommelier of the Year · Kat Hawkins

1. Food & Wine The Top 10 Hotel Bars in the US

The cocktail menu runs 32 pages and opens with a table of contents, which tells you everything about how seriously this hotel bar takes its work. Originals are sorted by style; classics are filed by decade. The room holds up in daylight just as well as it does after dark, which isn't something most hotel bars can say without lying. Bring someone who likes to read before they order.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Speakeasies and Secret Bars

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Speakeasies and Secret Bars

Zarella is a River North tavern-style pizzeria run by the Boka group, which means the thin, cornmeal-dusted pies come with a cocktail menu and a downstairs speakeasy lounge. Two well-known Chicago chefs developed the crusts, and the toppings include mortadella and all-beef pepperoni, so expect River North prices for what is, technically, bar pizza. Eater has named it among the city's best tavern-style pizza spots.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Tavern-Style Thin-Crust Pizza Restaurants
2. Eater The Best Restaurants in River North

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

A self-described "continental tavern" that reads more like an oversized gastropub once you're inside, Hubbard Inn is a big, convivial bar in River North with a serious beer program: around twenty draught handles and nearly as many cans and bottles, skewing craft. If you came for Miller Lite, it's on the menu too, quietly listed at the bottom of the beer page, which is a very polite way to handle the situation.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

You ride a repurposed service elevator to reach this speakeasy-inspired rooftop cocktail bar perched atop the Rafaello Hotel. Dim lighting, dark wood, bronze fixtures, and mushroom-toned walls set a moody, upscale tone, and a resident DJ keeps the energy pointed firmly toward party. The crowd skews young and loud, so if you're after a quiet drink and a view, the elevator goes both ways.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide