[Dark Saint Alaick]

HORS D'OEUVRE


A Few Appetizing Words About the Public Tables of the Town

If you think that Chicago, from a gourmet's point of view, is nothing more than a maze of red-hot stands, chili parlors, cafeterias, barbecue stalls, one-arm joints, chop suey restaurants, counter lunch rooms and all other such human filling stations, artistically embellished with bullet holes, you're as mistaken as Columbus was when he started out on his trip to India the wrong way.
Engage in an earnest trip of exploration about the town and you will find, as with Old Chris, a whole new world -- a world of epicurean delights that you never thought existed in the City of Winds. We will admit, of course, that the human filling stations are here and in abundance, too, just as they are in New York, New Orleans, or San Francisco; but Chicago, like these other cities, can also boast of first-class restaurants that would delight the heart and palate of the most fastidious and cosmopolitan of gourmets.
There are many people, especially among those who go frequently to London or Paris, who would laugh at the idea of such a book as this. "What," we can hear them exclaiming, "dining in Chicago? Why, you canH dine in Chicago. When I want to dine I go to Paris!" These wellmeaning but uninformed persons, it develops, possess a very limited knowledge of the restaurants of Chicago and of the table delicacies to be found in them.