Nice alternative to cookie-cutter hotels (including cookie-cutter boutiques)
A tad quirky and a lot of fun, the Hotel Lincoln is a fresh breeze on the Chicago hotel scene.
The difference becomes apparent when you step into the cozy, cool lobby, which somehow manages to combine a wooden rustic look with contemporary furnishings, and does it well. The staff is friendly and check in quick and pleasant.
Off to the left of the front desk is a very inviting bar area, and the restaurant is to the right, past the elevators.
The rooms are boutique-hotel smallish, but not oppressively so. (They're larger than those at the Hotel Felix.) Like the lobby, they're modern and traditional at the same time - the quirky chairs at the small workdesks have slogans printed on their backs. The rooms make good use of space, but the coffee service tray is annoyingly tucked into the closet. My large king bed was a little firm for my taste, but I enjoyed a good sleep in it. A flat-screen TV with a decent channel selection is mounted on the wall.
Views aren't great (at least not from my fourth-floor room), but who stares out of the window for hours? And yes, the walls are on the thin side, and you can hear conversations and activity from neighboring rooms and the hallways.
Bathrooms are small but very nice, with excellent shampoos, lotions, soaps etc., and plenty of big, fluffy towels. The bath/shower features a raining shower head.
There's free wifi in the rooms and public areas, but the hotel does charge for use of the business center - a bit of a disappointment for a boutique hotel.
The Lincoln is located on N. Clark @ Lincoln and Wells in Lincoln Park, one of Chicago's most desirable neighborhoods. It's across from the actual park and the Lincoln Park Zoo, and 2 1/2 blocks from the restaurants, bars and shops of the Old Town district.
It's a good distance away from the N. Michigan Ave./downtown core. The Clark, Broadway and Armitage bus routes (all of which run downtown OR to "L" stations) stop right in front of the hotel, and the Sheridan and LaSalle bus routes are a block over.
I really like staying in a neighborhood like Lincoln Park as an alternative to the slow-footed tourists and badge-wearing convention people of the Mag Mile or the Loop. When you want to go to those areas, public transit will get you there with no problem. But there's plenty to enjoy in the blocks around the hotel.