As others commented the Drake is now part of the Hilton chain of hotels. The common areas of the hotel are charming and quite large, including the lobby and adjoining bar restaurant area.
The front desk personnel were professional and friendly. I found my King bed room to be a step up from some of the other "older" hotels in Chicago. The bed linens and duvet cover were very nice. The room did have an electronic temp thermostat on the wall. There is a modern flat screen LCD TV and fridge loaded with over priced snacks and drinks.
The bathroom had the standard glass plate surface below the mirror, however the nice surprise was the room to place your toiletries around the sink. Most older hotels require you to balance your items on the small glass shelf. There was a wraparound shower curtain surrounding the tub. My pet peeve is why the shower curtain bar isn't curved? Once again, 2 feet of movement either direction has you against the shower curtain or the shower tile wall. Eew.
The lower level bar and restaurant area is comfortable and the food was OK. The Oktoberfest specials included a lackluster Wiener Schnitzel, plus a pork loin sauerkraut dish which I did not try.
Overall the Drake delivers. It just doesn't deliver anything extraordinary for this traveler. I'm sure I'll stay here again sometime in the future. If there was a 3.75 star rating I would give it.
My final word... I was waiting for the elevator early one morning. Second guest room floor, no one was around within eyesight. A pleasant female voice said "hello" to me... I looked around me and around the corner and no one was within view! I was all by myself. A little creepy but a great true story.
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