An Uncommon Adventure Near Home

Five years ago I married my best friend. In the half decade since, we have travelled the world and explored the far-flung corners of the globe. But life changed this July. The birth of our first child changed our traveling pace, and reduced our desire to venture far from home.

So to celebrate our five-year wedding anniversary we sought a memorable getaway close to home. We found it in The Commons Hotel, an award-winning destination in high-energy Minneapolis, in the heart of the University of Minnesota's campus. The hotel, a member of the distinguished Noble House Hotels & Resorts family, embodies the inner geek in a very chic manner.

"We want people to explore their inner geek, we want them to be explorers. Travelers today want to explore the area and we encourage them to do that," said Kelly Commerford, director of marketing at The Commons. "We're on the edge of Minneapolis and St. Paul, so you can go directly into downtown Minneapolis to explore the nightlife and shopping on Nicollet Mall––a great location."

The industrial schoolhouse property embraces diversity through the common desire to discover. My wife and I walked in the doors on a sunny autumn afternoon and immediately felt the hotel's unique vibe.

The hotel's Watson filament light bulbs, tin-pressed ceilings, argyle patterns, and molecular design-chandeliers ooze energy, as does it too-cool-for-school library, with antique typewriters, leather loveseats and spectacular fireplace.

The hotel hosts weddings, football fans (you can walk to TCF Bank Stadium), weekend staycations like ours, and frequent business meetings.

"We're trying to create a relaxed environment that promotes the sharing of ideas," says Sean Mullen, Noble House's chief sales and marketing officer. "When we think of business, we think of shirts and ties, and big business suits. Those times are still here, but the formalities are going away."

That's why when Noble House opened The Commons Hotel last fall, it didn't just add Wi-Fi and call it a day. It took the best elements of its other properties and expanded on them, taking this new opportunity to spin the hotel's "geek chic" theme into the meeting spaces.

After all, curiosity begets creativity. Common areas, called "Think Tanks" are both educational spaces and places for conversation between meetings, where frequent business groups compose ideas on wheeled-in chalkboards or kick back alone in a deep armchair for some quiet time with one of the hundreds of heady titles lining the book shelf.

Meeting attendees are encouraged to participate in spelling bees and games of Jenga; meanwhile, college students and guests of all sorts frequent the hotel's own Starbucks.

"By putting something in a fun atmosphere, something that is unique, it creates a new dynamic where conversation can start outside the meeting room," said Duane Rohrbaugh, general manager at The Commons.

There has certainly been plenty of conversation about The Commons during its short existence. The young hotel already boasts a long list of awards, including a 2014 TripAdvisor Award of Excellence and a claim as a 2013 Fodor's 100 Hotel Award Winner. The pile of awards shows The Commons belongs as part of the Noble House Hotels & Resorts family. The exclusive hotel management company operates some of the top-rated hotels in the world.

In fact, my wife and I visited another Noble House property, Little Palm Island Resort & Spa, roughly one year prior to our trip to The Commons. There, we vacationed in a private bungalow on a tropical island off the Florida Keys in what was hands-down the most spectacular stay we've ever had in the U.S.

The Commons, naturally, was a completely different setting––it is, in fact, Noble House's only Midwest hotel––but the service and hospitality was without question consistent with the excellent standard set by all Noble House hotels.

My wife and I enjoyed walking The Commons' grounds and loved hanging out in the hotel's common areas. We even strolled down to the nearby Mississippi River and did a little fishing from the bank. But we also enjoyed simply hanging out in our room, which offered a great view of the city and had a vibe all of its own.

Room service sounded good––when you're out for your first night without the baby, lying in bed and watching TV is a luxury you never knew you missed so much––but we had to check out the hotel's signature restaurant, The Beacon Public House. The farm-to-fresh, table style restaurant did not disappoint.

For dinner, we sat outside on the deck sipping several specialty cocktails, such as "The Keys" (key lime, meyers lemon, reposado tequila, patron citronage) and "Age of Innocence" (cranberry shrub, organic vodka, lemon, patron citronage). We munched on popcorn shrimp and Wisconsin cheese curds, as well as delicious soups and salads.

We paced ourselves, and slowly moved inside for the main course of fillet mignon and fish and chips, surrounded by thick cut fries, asparagus and baby carrots. For dessert, we topped things off with a fun dessert of make-your-own s'mores.

After a long, lazy brunch we packed our bags and checked out feeling refreshed. Our staycation ––which was both our 5-year anniversary and our first getaway post-baby––could not have gone any better, thanks to an uncommon hotel in our own backyard.

The website for The Commons Hotel is www.commonshotel.com. For more information, call 612.379.8888 or email reservations@commonshotel.com.