Hideaway Extraordinaire
You arrived! Break out the champagne (it is byob here), turn up Edith Piaf's best bistro chanson on your iPhone, and relish your surroundings. Suspend reality for the moment to live into this space and not apart from it. Enjoy! Should you find yourself in a feistier mood, mix a cocktail, crank up Coltrane, and trance away. Whatever your beverage, music and vibe choices, know this: you will never forget this Hideaway Extraordinaire.
If you are adventurous and seek to veer off grid from the usual hotel haunt by leaning in to the new, this place beckons you. It is a concept for staying the night that you will likely not experience elsewhere. That said, if you need familiarity and expect the look and feel of a streamlined inn or hotel, do more research before committing to stay here.
This review, though, is about fully committing... and loving every minute of it! We offer this hideaway a five star plus rating. Allow us to explain. The time we spent in this 1890s-era building and its amenities of our room, a charming kitchen with French cabaret lithographs, hallways aplomb with art-driven eye candy, and other rooms (open for viewing) was simply scrumptious. The visual and auditory delights thrilled us to no end. The location in the heart of downtown Chicago is pure joy.
And to our host, Michael, cheers! What a youthful-in-spirit man he is, a gentleman who embodies charm and warmth inside and out. An artist true, of spacious mind, unbridled spirit and — thanks to his Polish mother — realized works. Michael, you will find, is a *doing* dreamer; he gets things done... his way and the evidence will surround you. If he is willing, go on his art tour. And any other tours he will permit of the place.
Michael and his son have converted a tired tenement into a timeless treasure. Learn of his Swiss muse friend, the painter whose work underlies his many media experiments that adorn the walls and marry her art (oils and similar canvas paint) with his photography and processing wizardry. If you are lucky, dive into some wonderful stories from his childhood, or his vogue jaunts to Europe, or his early 80s pioneering efforts in inner-city Chicago. Michael offers his high art of the story with honest frankness, great timing and playful delivery. The more time you spend in this hideaway the more alive you will see and feel in it. Alive with the spirits on the walls, patterns on the floors, vines cascading down the skylight-lit stairway, alive seeps out of each corner and cranny. Alive with light, and dark, and color, and shades.
Enjoy your journey here, we continue to revel in ours. We will be back soon; it is too fine a stay to leave for long. Bravo to this little secret in the heart of Chicago. Consider yourself lucky to have stumbled upon it; and if your sense of risk taking and risk rewarding remains high, take the risk. We sense you will relish your decision as we do. Good luck with it and if in doubt... spend a night here. Our bet is that you will not regret it.