Amalfi Hotel, Chicago.......Designing Experiences?
Written: Nov 14 '04 (Updated Nov 20 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Modern, attractive rooms at a fairly reasonable price, great beds, fantastic showers
Cons: Some rooms are small and dark--get one facing Kinzie Street, no restaurant on site
The Bottom Line: The Amalfi is a good choice for those looking for stylish rooms at a reasonable price in downtown Chicago. Needs fine-tuning.
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| tombarnes's Full Review: Amalfi Hotel Chicago Chicago |
The Doc and I simply had to make an appearance for the Chicago Meet and Greet, so booking a hotel at the last minute became an essential duty of some gravity for me. Most hotels in town were either full or had ridiculous rates. A small miracle happened as I was surfing around the internet looking for a room at a fair price...I found the Hotel Amalfi on Orbitz.
A Brief History
Not that I hadn't heard abut the Amalfi before. Opened to much fanfare in February 2004, the Amalfi occupies the first six floors of an office/condominium building near the Marina City Towers in the River North area of Chicago. This sleek and slinky building actually houses the corporate headquarters of United Airlines. In fact, the rooms and suites at the Amalfi formerly served as a private hotel for United Airlines. I suspect that corporate belt-tightening may have led to the divestiture of the hotel. In any event, the Amalfi fits nicely into the growing boutique hotel scene in Chicago, with just over 200 rooms.
Lobby
The sleek glass tower doesn't really look like a hotel. Were it not for the entrance canopy and bright yellow lighting in the lobby, you might not even notice the place. Stepping inside, one finds a bright and cheerful space. It's all very modern, with glass tiles and mosaic decorations in the floor and on the walls. The bright orange furniture and black grand piano fit surprisingly well together. Instead of a traditional registration desk, one sits down to register. The "Information Specialist" wasted no time in giving us the information that we weren't being upgraded to a suite. There are only five suites in the hotel, so this came as no great surprise.
Rooms and Suites
Our room? A small king bedded room on the second floor (only floors 1-6 in this 15 storied tower are part of the hotel). Our view? A tantalizing view of....the dumpster in the depressing alley behind the hotel. At least the room featured blackout draperies.
To be fair, the room, while not large by any standard, was exceptionally well fitted out for a hotel in this price range. The bed was notably good, with 320 thread-count sheets and a pillowtop mattress. The headboard was one of those enormous button-tufted things built right into the wall. The otherwise gloomy space was brightened considerably with the warm and earthy color scheme....burnt orange, earthy olive green and beige tones predominated. The furniture was functional and attractive in a stripped-down sort of way. Minimalism can be a good thing, and I'd have to say that the overall effect that the designers were going for did work here.
The armoire housed a television set, a mini-bar and a CD/DVD player. There were a few jazz CDs on the small shelf with the chick-lit and Jeffrey Archer books. I am still wondering how one gets the CD part of the contraption to actually play a CD. We couldn't get into the mini-bar either, as our "Imformation Specialist"..."How may I enhance your experience?"... had neglected to give us a key. In retrospect, this is probably a good thing. A small frosted glass door opened to reveal a coffee maker and Wolfgang Puck coffee products. This guy is really making a killing with packaged coffee....
We did, at least, get to see a room on the sunny side of the hotel, occupied by Caroline and Gene, also attending the Meet and Greet. While still small, the soaring view of the distinctive Marina Towers gave their room a better sense of space than ours. I'd try to get a room facing Kinzie Street if I had the choice. One more note about the walls. The walls appear to be paper-thin. We could here guests tromping about above us and the sixth floor was pandemonium when I ventured upstairs to the lounge. I was glad that we had been placed on an apparently sedate floor.
If nugatory bliss at bedtime is your thing, you'll probably like the turndown service here. The Ghirardelli chocolate squares were a cut above the usual mint.
Bath
The bath was larger than I had expected, and was also fitted out handsomely with mosaic tilework and a big round mirror over the sink. The bath was standard, but they had cleverly added a curved shower rod which gave one much more space in the shower. Why would you need more space you ask? The double-headed Speakman shower nozzle is one good reason. This showerhead really put out the power and the water was always nice and hot. The soap and shampoo were Aveda products, nothing too out of the ordinary, but better than the usual. The towels were standard, but fairly thick.
The closet did have a cloth laundry bag (no logo, though), slippers (no logo again) and really nice cloth bathrobes. Or should I say one nice cloth bathrobe. We asked the housekeeping supervisor on our way to the elevators, and he cheerfully said he'd get us one. We returned to find a second robe hanging in our closet, but it had been badly stained with coffee. At least I hope it was coffee....
Dining
Well, there's no restaurant here...discussion over. Not quite, as the rooms do have menus from Harry Caray's, a popular steak house across the street. We surveyed the menu and didn't find anything too exciting. In truth, we were so stuffed and happy from the Meet and Greet that the thought of more food was unnecessary.
The Ravello Lounge is on the sixth floor. With a name like that, I expected a groovy pad with a view to die for. In fact, it's a windowless room with a plasma screen TV as its focal point. The furniture is as sleek and attractive as in the rest of the hotel, but I found the atmosphere more than a bit cold. Having said all that, I still can't knock free cocktails....they hold a complimentary cocktail reception there every evening, a pleasant touch. I made it there just as they were sweeping up the last crumbs from the hors d'oeuvres. The "Mixology Designer" or whatever they call him, was kind enough to give me a bottle of Peroni and a bottle of juice.
For breakfast, each floor has a granite counter across from the elevators. At 7:00 AM, the counters are stocked with coffee, tea and mounds of breakfast pastries. They weren't bad at all, especially as they were free. Never look a gift roll in the mouth.
Concierge
In the hyped-up parlance of the hotel, the concierge isn't a concierge. Rather, he or she is an "Experience Designer." Well, whatever...this one couldn't design his way out of a paper bag. I had great difficulty extracting the address of the Frontera Grill (a very popular and nationally known restaurant) from the experience designer I spoke with before racing off to lunch. Maybe they have had more experience with other restaurants.
Service
The staff here are mostly young and fairly enthusiastic about their jobs. Only the concierge service seems to need work. On the whole, the staff members are helpful without exhibiting the polish one might find at the Sofitel or other new Chicago hotels.
Cost
The standard rates here begin at about $200.00. though current package offerings are at $180.00 and up. We booked our room through Orbitz, a package which averaged out to about $150.00, a real bargain in downtown Chicago.
Amalfi Hotel
20 West Kinzie Street
Chicago, IL 60610
Tel. 312-395-9000
FAX 312-395-9001
www.amalfihotelchicago.com
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
tombarnes
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 - Top 200 |
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Member: Thomas Barnes
Location: Fort Lauderdale & Washington, DC
Reviews written: 688
Trusted by: 444 members
About Me:
With Barbara in Miami, 2004
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