Kimpton Hotel Monaco Chicago, an IHG Hotel

A Hat Factory's Second Act on the Loop

Long before it welcomed overnight guests, 225 North Wabash Avenue was the headquarters of D.B. Fisk & Co., a Chicago hat manufacturer whose name once meant something to anyone buying a hat in the Midwest. The century-old building now holds Kimpton Hotel Monaco Chicago, and a recent renovation led by the Gettys Group chose to lean into that history rather than erase it. The result is a Loop hotel that reads less like a chain property and more like a building with a story it wants to tell, from the millinery touches in the lobby to the restaurant named for the company that built the place.

Why It Works

We chose this address because its design has a real source rather than a decorator's mood board. The pressed-glass front desk nods to the frozen Chicago River a few blocks away, the lobby's library cart was curated with the Newberry Library, and a custom wine table anchors evening gatherings instead of a generic bar counter. Add Kimpton's instinct for lobbies that double as living rooms, with scattered seating and plenty of outlets, and the result is a hotel that rewards guests who linger downstairs rather than retreat straight to their room.

Why This Location

Wabash Avenue puts the hotel squarely in the Loop, Chicago's historic business and theater core, with the Riverwalk and the Chicago River close enough to watch from the lobby's window seats. The Magnificent Mile's shopping stretch lies just across the river to the north, while the Loop's own cultural anchors, including the Art Institute and the city's theater district, sit within the same downtown grid. It is a location built for guests who want to walk to meetings, museums, and dinner reservations without relying on a car or rideshare for every errand.

Fast Facts

• Price: Premium

• Vibe: literary, playful, downtown-boutique

• Rooms: guestrooms and suites, including river-facing corner suites

• Best For: design-minded travelers, Loop business trips with downtime, architecture and history buffs

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the ground-floor millinery corner stocked by local hatmaker 10th Street Hats, a direct nod to the building's past as a hat company headquarters

• Dining: Fisk & Co., a ground-floor restaurant named for the building's original tenant

• Amenities: evening wine table in the lobby, Newberry Library-curated reading cart, pet-friendly rooms

• Attractions: Chicago Riverwalk, Magnificent Mile, Loop theater district, Art Institute of Chicago

Riverwalk Views and a River-Inspired Lobby

The lobby redesign takes its cues from the water rather than the street. Window seats face the Riverwalk, the front desk's pressed glass is meant to echo the river in winter, and the whole ground floor is arranged as a living room rather than a check-in counter with chairs pushed against the wall. Guests can work from a corner table over morning coffee, or claim a seat by the window as the Riverwalk fills with evening foot traffic. It is the kind of lobby built to be used, not just passed through.

A Hat Factory's Legacy, Reimagined

The building's past as D.B. Fisk & Co.'s headquarters surfaces in details rather than a themed gift shop. A corner of the lobby stocks vintage-inspired hats from 10th Street Hats, and hat and accessory designs by Columbia College Chicago fashion students are displayed throughout the space, some worn by staff. It is a quieter way of carrying a building's history than a plaque in the elevator, and it gives the hotel a point of difference that has nothing to do with thread counts or minibar selection.

Fisk & Co. and an Evening Wine Ritual

Downstairs, the hotel's restaurant takes the Fisk & Co. name directly from the hat company that once ran the building, serving modern American plates to hotel guests and Loop regulars alike. In the lobby itself, a custom-built wine table has replaced the usual bar counter as the focal point for evening gatherings, in keeping with Kimpton's habit of turning the ground floor into a place guests actually want to sit. Between the restaurant and the lobby's own evening ritual, there is little reason to leave the building for a first drink or a last one.