theWit sits on the corner of State and Lake, in the heart of the Loop’s Theatre District, with a CTA station at the door and the Chicago Theatre marquee glowing across the street. It opened in 2009 as a design-led DoubleTree by Hilton; the persistent claim that it was once the Hard Rock Hotel is wrong, as the Hard Rock occupied the Carbide and Carbon Building a few blocks away. What you get across its 298 rooms is a bold, graphic Chicago hotel built for people who want to walk everywhere. Millennium Park and the Bean are five minutes on foot, the Art Institute and the Riverwalk barely further.
The headline act is ROOF on theWit, the 27th-floor bar that draws a city crowd as much as hotel guests, with retractable walls and skyline views worth timing for sunset. Rooms are compact but sharply styled, with floor-to-ceiling windows, and the higher State Street corners are the ones to ask for. Downstairs, State and Lake Chicago Tavern handles breakfast and an unfussy American menu. This is not a spa-and-slippers hotel; it is a well-located, energetic base with a genuinely good rooftop.
Book it for location and the view, not for quiet. The El runs past the lower floors and State Street stays busy, so light sleepers should aim high and pack earplugs. For a design-forward Loop stay within walking distance of the theatres, the lake and the river, theWit earns its keep.
