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Hip Ohio Hotel Has Chocolate Allure
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The Lofts
(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005)
You wouldn't expect a good feeling from the sound of a prison door closing behind you, but at The Lofts, it's oddly reassuring. Sleek reuse is the hallmark of this hip hotel in Columbus' former warehouse district; it even features old doors from a Civil War-era Ohio penitentiary.
Architects carved 44 quirky rooms out of the 1882 Columbus Transfer Company. Designers celebrated the bones of the old building by revealing brick walls, wood beams, and ductwork. Then they colored the new creation in a chic metropolitan palate of white and grays. The bathroom walls are lined with the same white glossy tile as the New York subway system.
For modern comforts, the hotel's team brought in Italian leather sofas and custom-made desks and armoires on tubular steel legs, an echo of the building's industrial past. To soften the harder edges, the robes and sheets are Italian Frette, the throws chenille and the bedspreads velvet.
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The Lofts is within easy walking distance of the hot Short North area of galleries and shops, the North Market of food and flower stalls, and the Arena District of restaurants, clubs, and Blue Jackets NHL hockey.
One of the hotel's most popular packages is the Chocolate Lovers. Couples start off with champagne followed by a $50 gift certificate to dinner at award-winning Handke's Restaurant. Then it's back to The Lofts for a rose-petal turndown, Godiva chocolate night caps, and 30-minute chocolate massages with lotion scented a la chocolate creme pie. The next morning, it's breakfast in bed for two and a souvenir DVD of the movie Chocolat to take home, reliving every chocolate-loving memory of a great escape.
