Yeah, I'm having a drink at the Hard Rock Hotel. You got a problem with that?
Not that I'm having a drink here necessarily because it's the Hard Rock, mind you; more because it's the old Coal & Carbide Building, before it was the Hard Rock, my favorite building in the Loop when I moved here and still my favorite building in the Loop. The Coal & Carbide Company finally decided to move their headquarters to some glass and steel thing in the suburbs in the late 1990s, and put their former Loop headquarters up for sale; for years no one would buy it, making a lot of us think that the building was destined for demolition. But lo and behold, the Hard Rock stepped in, and even agreed to restore the building to its former Art Deco glory (with the help of lots of government subsidies, of course); that's what lets us in the general public now in 2007 be able to stop by for a drink, versus the entire skyscraper being gone at this point and some crappy condo complex in its place.
So what do you think? Will the trendy W hotel let a stinky bicyclist into its bar? It's right by the el stop I take to go home; thoughtbjust for shits and grins I'd stop by, and see if I can get in for a drink or not. Wish me luck!
