Hyatt Centric Center City Philadelphia

Hyatt Centric Center City Philadelphia opened on October 1, 2020, a new-build, 13-story tower with 332 rooms, including 22 suites, on Chancellor Street in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. It was the first Hyatt Centric in the city. Its restaurant, Patchwork, followed in January 2022.

The place

The hotel sits on Chancellor Street, a short walk from Rittenhouse Square, in Center City. It took five years to build before the 2020 opening. Shopping in Center City and the Avenue of the Arts are within walking distance.

The concept

This is a ground-up project of roughly $81 million, not a conversion. Hyatt describes the design as contemporary with an authentic aesthetic and a lighthearted personality, and guestrooms carry locally inspired artwork that refers to Philadelphia's neighborhoods and traditions. Each room has a Drybar Buttercup blow-dryer.

Meeting space covers more than 5,000 square feet on the second floor, in seven multifunctional rooms that hold up to 200 people, all with natural light. The largest, the Alexander Ballroom (2,700 square feet), is named for Sadie Mossell Alexander, the first African American woman to earn a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

The Centric brand targets travelers who want to be in the middle of a city, which here means a residential-commercial pocket west of City Hall, not the historic district.

Dining & wellness

Patchwork is the hotel's restaurant and bar, on the second floor with a small outdoor terrace, not on the roof as earlier descriptions had it. It opened in late January 2022, more than a year after the hotel, with executive chef Jonathan Dearden, previously at Red Owl Tavern in Old City. The interiors are by the Brooklyn firm CRÈME.

The name comes from a patchwork quilt, which Hyatt ties to Philadelphia's mix of neighborhoods and its Quaker roots. The kitchen works with Mid-Atlantic flavors: Cape May oysters, a burger with onion marmalade on a cambozola brioche bun, blackened salmon with sunchoke tostones and leek chimichurri. Cocktails use local spirits such as New Liberty gin and Dad's Hat rye.

Patchwork serves breakfast, brunch and dinner, and the bar is open nightly. A grab-and-go market, with sandwiches, salads and a coffee bar, runs 24 hours.