The Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park Hotel

The Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park Hotel

By Jacquie Kubin

The Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park Hotel is much more than just another hip, luxury hotel.
In easy walking distance of Chicago’s famed Millennium Park and the State Street Shopping district, The Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park Hotel’s recent $50 million transformation has created an elegant, high energy urban retreat.

The property is replete with resort quality accommodations, the Fairmont signature pillow top bed and quality linens, luxury spa and fitness center, night spot energy and comfortable dining destination at Aria Restaurant

And a distinctive vibe that is real, not manufactured by emaciated androgynous staff dressed in black and the fake “were hip” exclusivity of so many downtown hotels.

This is a place where people laugh out loud with friends and family while others find quiet nooks to share intimate moments.

Beautiful dark woods contrast with neutral finishes as bursts of color draw your gaze from the LED waterfall behind the desk, to the Eno Wine Room where wine, cheese and chocolate reign.

Taking center stage, this circular environment becomes the perfect stop for morning coffee or an afternoon wine tasting.

Before dinner stop by the Aria Bar and Sushi Club where jewel tones rule and the rooms flow leads you to the contemporary – Asian inspired décor of Aria Restaurant.
Aria is graceful and comfortable within its sleek, rectangular space. Dining becomes about you and your companion as you can focus on conversation within a space designed to allow for comfortable intimate spaces.

Executive Chef Brad Parsons combines the flavors and influences of Aria’s roster of chefs - masters that hail from Thailand, Korea, Japan and our own Southern states, to create a menu that is surprising in its complexity but comforting in its recognizable choices.

Chef Parsons presents locally sourced, organic and sustainable items on his menu enhancing the plate with the freshest tastes available.

In many of the restaurant’s house specialties, diners will enjoy the exotic taste of Chef Parson’s Aria Spice consisting of five spices including pink and Szechwan peppercorns.
A decidedly new twist on “chopsuey” is the Fiery Beef Wok, an incredible combination of skirt steak, mushrooms Chinese broccoli and Thai basil. Served with a side of spicy Thai Red Chile sauce and cooling cucumbers, this is not your mom’s Monday Thursday night staple!

From its presentation to the rich sweetness of shellfish to the flavor of the sweet Chile vinaigrette, the Hot and Sour Rock Shrimp marries succulent jumbo lump crabmeat and shrimp into a sweet and sour explosion.

The Aria Tandori Oven serves warm pieces of flatbread served with a quatro of sauces - creamy spinach, lentil, cool cucumber and the nutty cashew all providing a spread that is so much more than just herbed oil or butter.
mySpa at The Fairmont provides an elegant place to learn about your. A big element of the mySpa experience is to find the products that not only help you physically, but also emotively.

David Rockwell designed the space, the first spa environment for the designer and he created an environment that is visually soothing. The rooms are large, low light but not dark. Colors in dance through the neutral earth tones of greens, browns and blues allowing a grounded connection in this downtown environment.

As part of the space design artist Warwick Orme was commissioned to design the light walls and art found in the Spa.

Those art elements where then taken up into the hotel and guestrooms exhibiting the properties dedication to creating a space that is warm and soothing for its guests. The spa’s harmonious transitional hallway takes guests, both hotel and local into the mySpa Experience visually and physically.

Gorgeous locker rooms, amenities with completely vanity sets on the counters help the spa guest prepare for their treatment as well as provide them with the time they need to luxuriate post treatment either in the steam room, hot/cold shower or rain shower.

Hall décor, lighting and finishing treatments are invigorating, yet relaxing. Muted yet vibrant and they are indicative of the resort quality spa experience you will find and they are designed to be equally comfortable to both men and women.
mySpa’s product lines all carry a natural and/or vegan theme. Body Bliss, Signature Massage oils are used for the Aroma Harmony Massage, ninety-minutes of healthful heaven that includes seven different essential oils to tap into the chakras of your body.

A veteran at indulging in massage, the mySpa Aroma Harmony will remain amongst the best. The massage artist (and she was an artist) provided an incredible experience that married aroma and relaxation.

The treatment was never harsh, yet deep and healthful, leaving me feeling relaxed, content and feeling very, very good.

Speaking with esthetician Kristen at The Fairmont’s mySpa we learned that just using a lot of products does not necessarily equate into a good skin care regime. She explains that creating a foundation for your skin care should start with a qualified esthetician.



At mySpa a facial treatment begins with a thorough consultation. During that conversation the course of your facial will be customized to you.

The treatment begins was a cleansing and analyzation of the skin to determine a client’s skin health and to allow the esthetician to make the best product choices for you. This is followed by a process that includes clarifying masks and shoulder/upper back massage that is not only relaxing but that will leave you glowing with increased circulation and renewed skin tone.

A facial should never leave you looking red or blotchy or feeling that your skin is less than glowing.

Following your facial your esthetician should spend a bit more time with you, suggest products and answer any questions you may have.

Kristen reminded us that seasonally we may want to change our skin care routine and, particularly in climates like Chicago’s cold winters, Kristin warns against hot showers that dehydrate, encourages use of a creamy oil based cleansers and that clients exfoliate - using products designed to disintegrate dead skin cells - at least twice a week as it helps to liven up the skin and aids in your skin care penetration be removing any blocking layers of skin.

She also suggests that stepping out of the shower, your skin is warm and open to treatments creating an opportune time to cleanse, exfoliate, tone, and re-hydrate with moisturizers.

And, Kristen reminded us that the basics of good skin care your mom taught you still apply. Drink a lot of water, use sun screen even in the winter and get plenty of “Beauty Sleep” because that is when your skin repairs itself.

I would suggest that those Fairmont pillow top beds look as though they would allow for a pretty solid nights sleep. And you would awaken looking marvelous.

411:

The Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park
200 North Columbus Drive
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 565-8000