Ah the Windy City, my home a decade or so ago. The food scene is so much better now, but other than that, it feels like not much has changed. My lovely bff lives in town so it quite literally is home. Well, her home is my home, right? After a few days crashing at her casa, I checked into the Thompson Chicago, where I can convinced my company to host our yearly sales meeting. The quest to test drive all of the Thompson properties continues – five down….

Not surprisingly, the Thompson Chicago was cool, comfy, and a little bit sexy. So much so that the concierge offered to move to Raleigh and start a life with me. I took him up on it and we will be hosting our nuptials at this lovely hotel. Here’s the intimate lobby.

My room was a corner king that was fairly spacious for working, ironing, sleeping. At first I thought that was a patio off of my room (overlooking Barney’s!), but turns out it was some heating system on a rooftop. Meh.

The desk was sleek, if not a hair small for a laptop or room service tray. The tv never worked, but with a view like….

…this, who needs it?! Just kidding. Sort of. The fire escapes gave a bit of a feel that you were sleeping in a modern art installation.

The bed wasn’t nearly as wonderful as it’s Thompson Toronto counterpart – that cloud of a bed! The artwork was super cool, though. My much younger, hipper assistant took photos of it to replicate back home.

The bathroom was rather spacious, the vanity sleek, but average.

The shower was an absolutely massive walk-in, fit for a party.

The biggest fan of the Thompson’s restaurant, Nico, I just had to try their room service. I’d read the breakfast menu for the resto, which looked good and a little creative, but the room service menu was rather standard. The food was lukewarm and definitely average. Don’t bother and walk downstairs to the actual resto.

Cold eggs aside, the Thompson Chicago would provide an excellent home base for a big shopping trip of the surrounding Gold Coast. The meeting services were fairly good too – perhaps the best catered lunch I’ve had in a quite a long time. If you can’t stay here, make sure you have a meal at Nico.