Dining in Chicago

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WOOD'S

930 North Michigan Avenue

Many a Chicago millionaire can remember being taken, when a child, to Wood's on Michigan Avenue for ice cream soda. This small but exclusive establishment, however, is an off-shoot of the parent house, located downtown at 108 South Michigan Avenue. Mr. and Mrs. Wood serve delicious light luncheons and confections and they have a large following among the older first families of the town. Their creamed shrimps and creamed mushrooms are exquisite creations, nowhere to be duplicated. In recent years this Upper Michigan

Avenue branch has become popular among debs for afternoon tea. Not very many men are seen here -- but there's no reason why they should stay away.

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LAKE SHORE DRIVE
180 Lake Shore Drive

When Queen Marie of Roumania, and her two children, Prince Nicholas and Princess Ileana, visited Chicago in 1926, they resided at the Lake Shore Drive Hotel and ate in its dining room -- which information might give you some idea of the position occupied by this establishment in Chicago's social life. The Lake Shore is also a favorite stopping and dining place of many other renowned bigwigs -- Ira Nelson Morris, former ambassador to Sweden; Mary Garden, the opera singer; Robert P. Lamont, secretary of commerce; Michael Strange, the author and ex-wife of John Barrymore; Jascha Heifetz, the violinist; Anita Stewart, the movie star; Yehudi Menuhin, the boy violinist; Alfred Lunt, the actor, and such actresses as Lillian Gish, Katherine Cornell, Lynn Fontanne, and Ethel Barrymore.
People of this sort demand the best in food -- and they get it in the dining room of the Lake Shore Drive Hotel. Not only residents of the hotel, but matrons and millionaires from the residences nearby, come to this dining room. During "the season," all diners are in formal dress. It is a small room, beautifully done in the Adam style, and the china and silver cause you to gasp. The atmosphere is very ritzy and fashionable and the prices are accordingly high.
The hotel occupies a commanding position, fronting on Lake Michigan and the Lake Shore Drive Gold Coast, and only a short distance east of the Avenue. The Loop is five minutes away by auto. If you want to dine with the beau monde of Chicago, or catch a glimpse of some visiting celebrity in an informal moment, then the dining room of the Lake Shore Drive Hotel is the place to go.

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HOTEL AMBASSADOR
North State Parkway and Goethe Street

In the heart of the Gold Coast and very very swanky. Main dining room, at dinner, alive with the presence of Chicago society folk and others well known. Here, any evening, you are likely to see Chicago's veteran member of the bench. Judge Thomas Taylor, Jr., and Mrs. Taylor; John Borden, the explorer, and his wife, Courtney Borden, the writer; Senator and Mrs. James Hamilton Lewis; and James Keeley, the former Chicago Tribune executive, and Mrs. Keeley. All is elegant, dignified, and expensive in this dining room and the cuisine is carefully prepared to suit the tastes of well-travelled epicures. No music. The room is not large. It is done in the Colonial style and crystal chandeliers of striking beauty depend from the ornate ceiling. For less formal atmosphere, many of the society people eat in the Italian Room of the old Ambassador Hotel, across the street from the Ambassador East, and reached through a tunnel under State Street. The Italian Room is reminiscent of some old hall in a Neapolitan villa and the cuisine here is the same as that of the dining room in the Ambassador East.

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MISS ELLIS TEA SHOP
717 North Michigan Avenue

Most elegant and high-toned of the EUis chain of tea rooms in Chicago. The interior is modern and the wallpaper is a delight to the esthetically-inclined. Patronized by smartly-gowned women and by women who come here to look at the gowns. The cuisine is commendable and the numerous old family recipes used in this place make the menu inviting. The chicken pie is something you shouldn't miss.

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LE PETIT GOURMET
619 North Michigan Avenue


Established by Mrs. William Vaughn Moody, Le Petit Gourmet has played an important part in the literary history of the city since its beginning over nine years ago. Here it was that Harriet Monroe, editor of Poetry magazine, conducted her popular "Poetry Readings" -- bringing before the public such well-known poets as the late Amy Lowell, Carl Sandburg, Lew Sarett, Edgar Lee Masters, Alfred Kreymborg, Witter Bynner, Eunice Tietjens, Mrs. Arthur Aldis, Marion Strobel, and Maxwell Bodenheim.
Le Petit Gourmet, occupying basement quarters, has always been popular among writers, artists, musicians, society folk, epicures, and all others who enjoy good foods. Many of Mrs. Moody's famed recipes (she is no longer connected with the establishment) , contained in her recently-published cook book, are still served here, and the excellent pastries made by the Home Delicacies Association (which Mrs. Moody also founded) are part of the menu. People still come here for the East Indian chicken curry, served only at the Wednesday luncheon during cold weather and always a popular favorite of the house.
The interior is attractive, colorful, and unique, featuring real burning candles, a wood fire in the fireplace, rare and quaint porcelains and colorful designs on the walls. During the summer months you may dine in the Continental manner at little round tables in the Italian Court, an old-world court that has been photographed and drawn and painted more than any other spot in town. Italian balconies are all about and the summer sky is above you. Men mostly frequent the Italian Room in the rear of the basement quarters. Le Petit Gourmet is now operated by Mrs. Florence Sturgis and Mrs. Ethel Williams, two capable women, well known in Chicago restaurant and catering circles.

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VASSAR HOUSE
540 North Michigan Avenue


Starting five years ago as a small tea room operated by the Vassar College alumnae of Chicago and vicinity for the purpose of raising a scholarship fund, Vassar House is now one of the major restaurants of the Avenue, especially since it moved into its new and larger quarters in the Michigan Square Building. Modern and colorful in decor, its interior is featured by Leslie Thome's black and white murals representing the various styles of women's dresses worn by students since the founding of
Vassar in 1868, and the old-style cartographer's maps of the Vassar campus painted on the table-tops. The Men's Grill, a recent addition, serves breakfast in addition to luncheon and dinner. Among the specialties of the house, prepared by those two able cooks, Antonio Gillio and Emile Burckel, is Vassar Devil, a fudge cake known to every Vassar graduate. This place is ideal for tea and has become popular among visitors who come to view Carl Milles' famous statue, "Fountain of Diana", in Diana Court, the beautiful lobby of the Michigan Square Building." And, if you are a Vassar graduate, you will be interested to know that former Vassarites act as hostesses, among them Mrs- Arthur D. Welton, Mrs. Charles Faben Kelley, Mrs. Eugene S. Talbot, Jr., and other members of the board of directors. An interesting sidelight on the restaurant is that fully seventy-five per cent of its clientele is made up of real honest-to-goodness he men. The excellent and substantial foods served here is what brings them -- as well as women patrons.

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TOWER TEA ROOM
820 Tower Court


Located on the Pearson Street side of the Illinois Woman's Athletic Club Building, a soaring skyscraper which makes the historic old Chicago Avenue water tower in front of it look like a midget. Good substantial dishes are served here and there are as many men at the tables as women. The room is decorated with striking wall designs and all is elegant and in keeping with what a first-class dining room, just off the Avenue, should be.

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GRAYLING'S
410 North Michigan Avenue


This large restaurant, on the ground floor of the Wrigley Annex Building, is largely patronized by the advertising men and executives who have offices in the twin Wrigley Buildings and by department heads and others of the Chicago Tribune in Tribune Tower, across the Avenue. Women mostly dine in the front section of the restaurant, which is ornately decorated, while men prefer the smaller and more intimate Grill Room at the rear. This room is unique, being the only example of Holland Renaissance decoration in a Chicago restaurant. The walls are of panelled walnut, and real tapestries, wrought iron lighting fixtures, and a flagged floor form other decorative features. It was designed by Leonard De Wit, the noted Dutch artist and designer, now resident in Chicago. The food served in Grayling's is of the best quality and there is a large and varied menu. Open for breakfast, luncheon, and dinner. Afternoon tea also is popular here.

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THE VESUVIO
15 East Wacker Drive


Although not on the Avenue, this Italian restaurant is in its immediate vicinity and occupies one of the most cosmopolitan sites in town. It lies between the Michigan Avenue bridgehead plaza and the grand sweeping plaza at Wacker Drive and North Wabash Avenue, with the waters and the steamers of Chicago at its feet. The decorations by the Italian artist, Gallano, are Pompeiian, in black, red, and gold. D. Price, a native of Torino, one of the proprietors, numbers among his friends Galli-Curci, Rosa Raisa, Tito Schipa, and other operatic notables. Rossi, the other proprietor, was formerly with the Drake and Blackstone Hotels and knows what Italian cooking is all about. Hence the reason whymany bigwigs dine here frequently -- Jack Dempsey and his wife, Estelle Taylor; Jackie Coogan, the kid movie actor; Edith Rockefeller McCormick, Chicago's social queen, and Count Charles de Fontnouvelle, the French consul. There are a lot of Italian specialties served here -- and appetizingly, too.

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ST. CLAIR
162 East Ohio Street


The dining room of the St. Clair Hotel, serving food on a par with that of many of the Avenue restaurants, has become popular as an after-theatre rendezvous. Waffles and late supper specials are prepared most enticingly here, and there is music and a dance floor. Table d'hote dinners are $1.00, $1.25 and $1.50. Plate luncheons for 50 cents and dinners for $1.00 are served in the St. Clair Coffee Shop. This hotel, a stone's throw from the Avenue on the near north side, is within five minutes walk to the Loop.