Condé Nast Traveler has named two Michigan hotels in its top 15 list in the Midwest: Reader’s Choice Awards 2022.
The Detroit Foundation Hotel ranked fifth and the Hotel Iroquois on Mackinac Island rated eighth overall.
Of the Detroit Foundation, reviewer Meghan McEwen described the 100-room hotel as “stylish and busy, with a great mix of historic architecture and well-designed modern touches.” The Detroit Foundation is actually housed in a former firehouse and features some of the original elements like terrazzo floors and wood-paneled walls.
McEwen cited its restaurant, The Apparatus Room, for having an ever-changing menu but being known for shareable feasts like a communal pork shoulder. With 5,655 square feet of meeting space, the Detroit Foundation can accommodate up to 80 guests for a plated meal or 120 with a strolling dinner. Several rooms are designed for very small groups, and there’s also an outdoor space that can hold up to 50 people reception style.
The Hotel Iroquois offers 45 guest rooms and a restaurant, The Carriage House. While the Iroquois doesn’t have meeting space, it often houses attendees of conferences at such other venues as The Grand Hotel when additional rooms are needed.
General Manager Suze Oostendorp says the hotel has garnered similar accolades before because it has a consistent base of return guests. “They’re loyal,” she says. “They love the property, they love the location. We get consistently great feedback from our guests year after year.”
That response may only continue to soar with the addition of a dock that runs off the back patio of the restaurant—basically a pier where the public can go and enjoy a beverage.
“Right now it’s just cocktail service, it’s not for dining space,” Oostendorp says. “But we have cocktail servers go out there when the weather is nice. People can have a cocktail and view the ships going by.”
Oostendorp says the pier can also be utilized for events and that there have already been a few weddings there. “It’s kind of that perfect spot,” she says, “because we’re right there at the beginning of the harbor.”
