Suburban hotel bars surprisingly chic

Caves, bow-ties, 110 different beers and deer heads. What, you ask, could these things possibly have in common? They were all found in hotel bars, of course!

Hotel bars truly are an untapped source of nightlife. Not only are the pubs, clubs and bars - not to mention their collective crowds - unique compared to the usual fanfare sometimes found in the suburbs, but they also give you an opportunity to be someone else for a night.

Show up alone at the bar, and for all they know, you're a mysterious stranger on a big business trip. Gosh, you could be some Jason Bourne-type programmed assassin.

My preconceived notion of hotel bars probably was fairly similar to many others. I envisioned a dark corner in the back of a hotel lobby, complete with an old bartender constantly wiping the same glass with an old dirty rag.

My little adventure was quite the eye-opener, and it supplied me with some hotel spots that I am looking forward to checking out again.

Red Bar Hyatt Regency O'Hare

Info: 9300 Bryn Mawr Ave., Rosemont; ohare.hyatt.com, (847) 696-1234 Hours: Monday - Friday, 4 p.m. - 1 a. m. Saturday - Sunday 1 p.m. - 1 a.m.

Check in: The Red Bar is located inside the hotel, on the second floor of the main lobby. You can't miss it.

Reason to "check out": Transparent projection screens and peanuts at the bar.

Overview: Red Bar was the first stop on my hotel bar crawl. Pulling up to the parking lot, I was shocked to find a sign warning me that minimum parking tab would set me back $17. Turns out validating the ticket at the bar solved that.

The Red Bar is large, open, upscale, modern and, not so surprisingly, red. A large oval-like bar sits in the middle with plenty of seats and free pretzels(!) to be had.

The staff was friendly and helpful, and when I asked what beers they had on tap, they started telling me about Goose Island, a signature Chicago brewery. Sure, I played along and nodded my head - until I handed them my driver's license. Illinois, ha!

Red Bar has a bunch of booths, tables and cool lounge seating areas for guests to enjoy. For some reason, I got the most joy out of the bar's transparent projection-screen televisions. They were plain projection screens, but I could see the projected image on both sides of the screen! How cool is that?

Their website also mentions dancing, but I must have somehow missed the dance floor, a travesty for everyone involved.

Le Bar Sofitel

Info: 5550 N. River Road, Rosemont Phone: (847) 678-4488, accorhotels.com, Hours: 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily

Check in: Le Bar is located inside Sofitel, by the entrance facing Bryn Mawr Avenue.

Reason to "check out": Being able to say you were at Le Bar. Not THE Bar, LE Bar.

Overview: Of all the hotel bars I went to, Le Bar was one of the smallest. The bar is fairly tiny, with a few nice seating areas inside, a couple of small televisions, moody lighting behind the bar and some other classy decorations scattered about. I'm sure Le Bar could get crowded on some nights, and the tables and chairs that spill out into the lobby are definitely a nice touch. The menu is also interesting with a section containing "his" and "her" cocktails. (Note to self: Is it taboo to order from the opposite sex drink section?) Goose Island is also on tap here. I wonder if tourists think it's the official beer of Chicago's suburbs?

Before figuring out the whole parking validation process at Red Bar, I opted to walk to Le Bar. I noticed that you had to pay here as well, but I would not be surprised if they too had a validation process. Maybe you should just take my cue, park at one hotel and hit up both bars.

Old Chicago Holiday Inn

Info: 1000 Busse Road, Elk Grove Village, (847) 437-6010, Hours: Monday - Thursday 11a.m. - 12a.m.; Friday - Saturday 11 a. m. - 2a. m.; Sunday 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.

Check in: Choose from two entrances, one through the hotel and another entrance that you can access from the parking lot.

Reason to "check out": 110 bottles of beer to try!

Overview: Old Chicago doesn't feel like a hotel bar. If you were to blindfold me, take me to Old Chicago and plunk me in a bar stool, I'd not question for a second whether I was in a stand-alone sports bar.

The place is fairly large; its brick walls are covered with various Chicago sports memorabilia as well as a large amount of televisions. Be sure to check out the cheap happy hour food menu, as well as an ever-revolving drink special list.

Did I mention their beer selection? Yeah, they have 24 beers on tap and 110 different bottles. You heard me right. A sports bar with a huge beer selection. How rare is that?

Old Chicago also has a World Beer Tour that for which you can register; it lets you track every beer you've drank at any of their locations. After you've had them all, you get your name on some sort of plaque (and the realization that you're an alcoholic/beer snob).

Birch River Grill

Doubletree Hotel 75 W. Algonquin Road, Arlington Heights, birchrivergrill.com, (847) 427-4242, Hours: Monday - Thursday 6 a.m. - 11 p.m.; Friday 6a.m. - 12a.m.; Saturday 7 a.m. - 12 a.m. ; Sunday 7a.m. - 11 p.m.

Check in: Birch River Grill can be accessed through the hotel or its own outside entrance.

Reason to "check out": The chance to feel sophisticated while sitting on leather chairs next to a rock fireplace and near mounted deer heads.

Overview: Birch River Grill is fancy. This is the type of hotel bar that I could probably take my grandma to and she'd appreciate it for the wilderness decor. The bar feels somewhat like a log cabin with a low ceiling. The floors are wood, there's a rock fireplace (complete with deer heads, at least I think those are deer heads), leather chairs and couches next to the fireplace, adding to the generally outdoors-y vibe.

Birch River Grill also has free appetizers from 4 p.m.- 6 p.m.; score! Other items on their menu include sandwiches and burgers, and as for booze, I saw many wine bottles stored throughout the rooms, and Goose Island on tap again.

I should also mention that the bar itself was made of wood and snakeskin. That's right; no river-going animal is safe at Birch River Grill.

Gather Bar

Info: Renaissance Hotel, 1551 N. Thoreau Dr., Schaumburg, renaissanceschaumburg.com, (847) 303-4100, Hours: daily, 12 p.m. - 12 a.m.

Check in: Head into the massive hotel, go upstairs and turn left by the fireplace lounge area. See the open room surrounded by a curtain and beads? You found Gather Bar!

Reason to "check out": The whole hotel is so modern, it hurts my brain.

Overview: I should probably get this out of the way: the Renaissance in Schaumburg is so cool, I felt like I didn't belong inside its glass walls. But come to think of it, Schaumburg isn't even hip enough for this place. And Schaumburg has bars called Privilege and Entourage!

Just heading up the escalator in the hotel, with some ultra-cool Top 40 pop song playing in the background, I felt like if I wasn't doing a choreographed dance routine, I was just spoiling the moment for everyone.

Regardless, I still found my way to the ultra-modern bar. The simple, open room is only partially separated by a beaded curtain.

Inside, its long, marble bar features a wooden back wall with small windows displaying different bottles of liquor. There were also three booths to the side, each with their own personal television.

Aside from the booths, plenty of round tables, complete with lime-green and orange chairs, rounded out the vibe.

If you're interested in food, the bar offers items off the hotel's restaurant menu at Sam and Harry's. Items include wings, pasta, pizza and mini-burgers, but I wouldn't have dared order food; the possibility of making a mess on myself would be quite uncool.

Cave Bar

Info: Hilton Chicago/Indian Lakes 250 West Schick Road, Bloomingdale, hilton.com, (630) 529-0200 Hours: Friday - Saturday 5 p.m. - 12 a.m.; Sunday - Thursday 5 - 10 p.m.

Check in: Head into the main hotel, then wander into the middle area with the pond, waterfall and large rock. Go in for a closer look at the rock, and by golly, it's Cave Bar!

Reason to "check out": It's a campy bar inside of a hollow rock; need I say more?

Overview: Though I made a couple trips around the lobby area, I turned up empty before heading to the reception area. This is literally how my conversation went:

Q: "Where's Cave Bar?"

A: "See the big rock over there? That's Cave Bar."

Indeed, Cave Bar, is a small bar located in a large, hollowed-out rock. You must go down a few steps to get inside the bar, and inside, you'll see leopard skin carpet and lava lamps/ultra-campy stalactite light fixtures hanging from the ceiling. There's also a waterfall that runs along the outside of the rock.

Let me make this perfectly clear, it's big for a rock, but small for a bar. But, after being at large, in-your-face, modern hotel bars, the small, cozy, campy-ness of Cave Bar was a great change of scenery.

Ruby Lounge

Info: Hyatt Regency Woodfield 1800 E. Golf Road, Schaumburg (847) 605-1234 Hours: 4:30 p.m. - 11:30 p.m. every day

Check in: Just walk into the building and find your way to the main lobby. That place in the middle? That's Ruby Lounge.

Reason to "check out": The, at times, diverse crowd.

Overview: As unconventional as many of these hotel bars have been, Ruby Lounge is right up there with the rest of them. It's not so much a bar as it is group of tables and chairs put out in the middle of a hotel lobby.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's as open as bars get. As I looked up around the square-shaped lobby, I saw the windows of rooms on different floors.

At the bar itself, there are leather couches, water fixtures, a piano, televisions and more.

Look for the usual assortment of drinks available, plus wine and champagne. They also have a food selection that includes calamari, salads, flatbreads, burgers, club sandwich, Ruben sandwich and others.

On a side note, the Hyatt Regency itself is very welcoming. Where else are you going to find a bar filled with transgender conventioneers while teenagers pose for prom pictures mere feet away? Only at hotel bars.

Harry Caray's

Info: Westin 70 Yorktown Center, Lombard harrycarays.com, (630) 953-3400 Hours: Monday - Thursday 11:30 a.m. - 10 p.m.; Friday 11:30 a.m. - 11 p.m.; Saturday 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Check in: As far as I could tell, if you want to go straight to Harry Caray's, you have to go through the outdoor entrance. There's an entrance to accompanying restaurant Holy Mackerel from the hotel lobby, but it won't seem too slick to walk through a separate restaurant to get to the bar.

Reason to "check out": The cool vintage feel in a brand-spankin' new bar. Plus, isn't it required that you check it out if you're a Cubs fan?

Overview: Despite being brand new, Harry Caray's manages to feel like a well-established Lombard watering hole.

Bow-tie wearing bartenders, old and new photos of baseball players, tile floors, ceiling fans and a large wooden bar add to Harry Caray's vintage feel.

Sure there are plenty of flat-screens throughout the bar, but that's just one of the few modern twists. Also look out for drink specials during Cubs games (Sunday through Thursday only).

Of all the bars I went to, this felt like it stood-alone more so than others. I knew there was a large hotel around me, but it just did not feel that apparent.

The Bar at Allgauer's

Info: Hilton, 3003 Corporate West Drive, Lisle, (847) 664-7999 Hours: Sunday - Thursday 10:30 a.m. - 1 a.m.; Friday - Saturday 10:30 a. m. - 2 a. m.

Check in: Skip the Allgauer's outside entrance and get in through the main entrance. Turn left at the check-in desk and you'll hit The Bar at Allgauer's.

Reason to "check out": Free mixed nuts aplenty.

Overview: Allgauer's is a different sort of hotel bar. Whereas other hotel bars were flashy and in your face, saying, "Welcome to Chicago, how freakin' amazing is it here?" Allgauer's is fairly understated. A nice seating area with couches and chairs gathers around a nice three-sided marble bar, a television behind the bar and free mixed nuts to boot.

They're all great amenities; no complaints here. This is the type of hotel where I'd envision myself sitting at the bar, having a beer and drinking away my sorrows as I wished I hadn't taken a job that require more than 50 percent travel.

Allgauer's has pizza, sandwiches, salads, nachos, wings and quesadillas. And don't forget the Goose Island beers, they're everywhere! That sneaky bunch!