ICe Bar's cozy setting, friendly service easy to warm up to

Finding a new suburban bar in these times can prove somewhat difficult; thankfully, companies are still building lavish hotels left and right. One of the newest hotels is the InterContinental in Rosemont, and inside you will find a cool (pun intended) new place with ICe Bar.

Motif: ICe Bar can be accessed two ways: There is an entrance in the front of the hotel's main lobby, and there are two revolving doors that you can use to enter ICe Bar directly from outside. Once inside, you'll be greeted by a large, curved bar in this dimly lit room. At the dark bar there are seats, candles and four televisions on the wall behind it. Next to the bar are tables and stools as well as a more loungey area in the back with seats. The walls are made to look icy, and snowflake-like light fixtures hang from the ceiling. ICe Bar as a whole is a fairly cozy and cool bar that does a good job of making you forget about the bright hotel lobby just steps away.

Crowd: ICe Bar had a decent-sized crowd for this particular night, though I am guessing there was a good chance I was the only person there who was not staying in the hotel. It might have been because everyone seemed to know each other. The ages definitely fluctuated, but regardless of age, travelers tend to enjoy drinking.

Service: ICe Bar's service was great, to say the least. The bartender was extremely attentive and almost in sync with me (he knew that I needed another beer or the spicy, mixed nuts at the bar without me telling him). I bet if I had stuck around longer, he would have kept on feeding me mixed nuts, bless that man.

Liquid consumption: What made me most excited to visit ICe Bar was the ICetini that I had heard about. I may be a beer guy, but the prospect of drinking a martini in a glass strictly made of ice is extremely tempting. Unfortunately, you cannot wash out ice glasses, and because of that, the bar was fresh out of ice glasses and I was left ICetini-less. Fortunately, they still have normal glasses and beer that comes in bottles. On tap, they have Guinness and Harp; bottle selections include Fat Tire, Corona, 312, Heineken and Bud Light - decent beers, but still no ICetini for me.

Food: If you are looking for a large meal at a restaurant, you might want to check out McCormick and Schmick's Seafood Restaurant, which is located just outside of the bar/hotel. ICe Bar, on the other hand, has a small menu for those who just need a quick bite. Items include soup, salads, albacore tuna salad sandwich, roasted vegetable sandwich, chicken salad sandwich, burger, grilled chicken sandwich and a pork loin cutlet sandwich. If that's still too much of a meal for you, they also have assorted, spicy nuts at the bar, which are quite delicious.

Sounds: I cannot say I overheard any music; instead, I could make out some sound from the televisions above the bar and people's conversation around me. I could not make out what they were saying, however, since they were not speaking English and my knowledge of foreign languages could use some work, even with four years of Espanol under my belt. Lo siento.

Parking: Like most hotels in Rosemont, you better believe the InterContinental has a huge parking garage. It wasn't until four levels up that there were available spots, since the first three were reserved for valet parking at the hotel. Here's the heads up: I had my parking ticket validated by getting a validation coupon. But, after putting in my initial receipt, and then the coupon, the price of the garage went from $18 to $5. That's a nice price differential, but I was hoping that after spending less than an hour at the bar, I would have to pay somewhere around, well, nothing.

Overall: For those looking for something new on the scene, ICe Bar is a welcome addition. Admittedly, there are larger bars out there with a lot more to offer, but ICe Bar is a nice, laid-back destination. Besides, where else are you going to find a glass made of ice? That is, if any are still available. Ice to meet you ICe Bar, you are quite cool, there's snow way I won't be back, etc. OK, that's enough puns for one story.