STAY
Local Fave 16. Loitering in the lobby of Hotel Deco XV is encouraged. “Aren’t those elevator doors beautiful?” a front-desk employee asked me as we gazed at the etched detailing. The 89-room hotel occupies the former Redick Tower, an office building constructed in 1930 that housed dentists, doctors, go-go girls and a parking garage full of Model T’s. The hotel, which is adding a new restaurant by chef Patrick Micheels, serves breakfast in the recently renovated lounge, which has a modernist flair. Next door, the Looking Glass Cigars and Spirits shop harbors a hidden bar called the Wicked Rabbit. Guests can experience the underworld in their bunny slippers: The minibars are stocked with cocktails from the speakeasy. Guidebook Must 17. Aquila Cook greets all incoming guests at the Magnolia Hotel Omaha, his stony face peering out from the 1920s facade. Chester Cook, ever the good grandson, named the original structure, the Aquila Court Building, after his grandfather and modeled the design after the Bargello, an Italian palace in Florence. The rib-vaulted ceilings and carved stone medallions cast an Old World spell on the 145-room property. In the evening, the free milk and cookies shifts the mood to “Goodnight Moon.” The best room in the house is the Winter Garden Courtyard, a popular wedding site that hoi polloi can reclaim after saying “I Do.”