Local culture and community are the secret sauce at Sophy Hyde Park, a boutique stay in the rapidly regenerating South Side neighbourhood of Hyde Park, just minutes from the dazzling new Obama Presidential Center.
A 20-minute cab or Metro ride south of Chicago’s downtown bustle, this stylish, 98-room modern red-brick introduced a new kind of guest experience to the city when it opened in 2018. A member of the Preferred Hotels & Resorts portfolio, Sophy Hyde Park is the first boutique hotel to open in South Side’s leafy, increasingly genteel Hyde Park – a diverse neighbourhood championed by the sometime resident Obamas (a plaque commemorating their first kiss sits on a street corner just opposite) and soon to be home to a spectacular new presidential centre in their name. And it’s a mould-breaker, skilfully serving as both a smart home-from-home that offers its guests engaging immersion in Hyde Park’s rich culture and a vibrant, all-day social hub for the artsy, intellectual and aspirational local community.
“The University of Chicago main campus is less than a mile from here, and the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry’s just minutes away too”, says Sandi Robinson, Sophy Hyde Park’s Director of Sales and Marketing (another outstanding local draw just 15 minutes’ stroll away is Frank Lloyd Wright’s swoon-worthy 1910 Prairie-School masterwork Robie House which offers daily guided tours Thursday to Sunday). “And you’ll see expressions of art, music, science and literature with local roots throughout the hotel. We aim to celebrate the diverse community and culture we have here. People walk in and feel that vibe immediately”.
Working for the first time in her 27-year hospitality career at the heart of a predominantly black neighbourhood, Sandi goes on to tell us that she’s one of only a few African-Americans working at her level in the business. “A lot of people ask, ‘Is the Sophy black-owned?’ And it’s not, and we know the industry has a way to go when it comes to diversity. So here we’re also working hard to ensure that representation is there across our team and to create and sustain opportunities”. To our minds, that the question is so often asked highlights the remarkable success of the hotel and its on-point front-of-house team in infusing Hyde Park’s cultural pride and drive for collective uplift into the visitor experience.
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| The Culturalist | ORD | GMT -6 |
| While you’re Out There |
| On his way to becoming one of America’s most acclaimed chefs – and, as of Robb Report’s December 2023 list, one of the ‘50 Most Powerful People in American Fine Dining’ – chef Erick Williams built his career at the much-loved, sadly now-closed mk The Restaurant in Chicago’s River North neighbourhood. When the time came in 2018 for him to go solo, he chose Hyde Park as the location for his sublime Virtue Restaurant, specifically to platform African-American excellence in the city’s historically disinvested South Side. Here, he elevates Southern US flavours (signatures include collards and smoked turkey, cornbread with honey butter and fish and grits) to such delicious refinement that diners flock from all over the country to taste the fuss. |
Design is bold and bright – kept just the right side of maximalism by the floor-to-ceiling Crittall-style windows that flood guest rooms and public spaces alike with daylight – and statement art is everywhere. The hotel’s huge contemporary collection furnishes guest-room walls, crams landings and makes an eclectic gallery of the handsome main dining room of the Mesler restaurant, whose capacious, street-level terrace hums with cosy, unhurried conviviality on warm evenings. The airy lobby lounge, meanwhile, with its huge centrepiece modern fireplace, hosts regularly rotating shows curated in partnership with hip Chicago gallery 21 grams and spotlighting emerging talents who network with peers and chat with guests at monthly ‘gallery night’ socials. ‘Small Business Sundays’ is another signature innovation, spotlighting cool local makers/vendors of everything from fashion to caviar to homewares.
The Mesler’s adjacent bar keeps up a gentle buzz all day with locals meeting for brunch (light-touch, health-forward modern American is the kitchen’s signature style), creatives brainstorming over coffee and friends gathering for an evening cocktail or three. Come Saturday evenings, local DJs stir in a gently funky, grown-up house party vibe. The spacious 24/7 fitness room gratifyingly offers much more than the token kit offered by way fancier establishments.
Guest rooms are spacious and airy, and all grades bar the Opus Suites are available adapted for accessibility – ask for a North-facer on a high floor for great views across local low-rise Victoriana to the spectacular downtown skyline – and continue the cultural connection theme. Our favourite touch was our in-room turntable, which the friendly and nattily turned-out reception staff stocked for us from the hotel’s immaculately curated collection of soul, jazz and R’n’B, which guests can scan via a QR code – by artists with South-Side roots, naturally.
Photography courtesy of Sophy Hyde Park
