Kup's Chicago - Irv Kupcinet [90]
Befitting Chicago’s role as a Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway port, there are plenty of restaurants where you can enjoy fine fish and seafood. Besides the Cape Cod Room, among those for which I have a special liking are the Marine Room of the Edgewater Beach Hotel and Ireland’s Oyster House on North Clark Street.
If you are feeling adventurous, try Barney’s Market Club at Randolph and Halsted. On the edge of a dilapidated neighborhood, it is noisy, informal, and justly proud of its live Maine lobsters.
For off-beat fare, there is the wild-game center of Chicago, the Café Bohemia across from Union Station. Ever tried a buffaloburger? The Bohemia has them – and dozens of equally intriguing menu surprises.
Gastronomic adventures await those who will sample the international flavor of Chicago cuisine.
For Italian food, try Armando’s, Adolph’s, Mike Fish’s, Club El Bianco, the Italian Village, or Riccardo’s on Rush Street. Riccardo’s, whose sidewalk café is one of the Near North Side’s most popular summer gathering places, also qualifies as the most “arty” restaurant in town. Reflecting the taste of both its late founder Ric Riccardo, and his son Ric, Jr., the present owner, there is a row of striking murals behind its Palette Bar, executed by such illustrious artists as Ivan Albright and Aaron Bohrod. The main dining room is a gallery for the work of young Midwest artists.
For German cuisine, there is the noted Red Star Inn (one of the city’s oldest), Allgauer’s Old Heidelberg, Math Igler’s, the Black Forest, the Swiss Chalet of the Bismarck Hotel, and Henrici’s on Randolph.
It was a sad day when the lights went out at Henrici’s, the Randolph Street landmark where nineteenth-century atmosphere predominated. After 93 years on the same site, Henrici’s closed to make way for progress in the form of a mammoth Civic Center. The restaurant dated back to 1868, three years before the Chicago Fire, and was held in the same warm regard as the Morning Call in New Orleans or Durgin Park in Boston. Let’s hope that Henrici’s will rise again within the new Civic Center. Another popular noontime rendezvous room is the Walnut of the Bismarck Hotel, where many political figures and public servants congregate.
For French cooking, there are not only the three I mentioned earlier as my prime favorites, the Imperial House, The Red Carpet, and Maison Lafite, but also Jacques and Café de Paris. All are on the Near North Side.
For Far Eastern dishes, try the Shangri-La, Jimmy Wong’s, Don the Beachcomber, Trader Vic’s in the Palmer House, the Polynesian Village of the Edgewater Beach Hotel, or Chiam’s in Chinatown or the Hung Fa Village in the Loop.
You will enjoy excellent Russian specialties at Sasha’s, Greek ones at the Athens, Polish at Lenard’s Little Poland, Romanian at Joe Stein’s across from the Edgewater Beach Hotel, Japanese at the Naka No-Ya or Azuma House on the North Side, and Scandinavian at the Bit of Sweden or the Kungsholm.
Along with beautiful appointments and one of the Midwest’s most elaborate smorgasbord buffets, the Kungsholm also continues to offer its unique miniature puppet operas. Staged in a two-hundred-seat replica of the Royal Opera House in Copenhagen, this fascinating little production plays to some one hundred thousand people a year. It is an after-lunch or dinner bonus that no diner should miss.
Keep in mind that many leading night spots offer excellent food as well as celebrity entertainers, including Mister Kelly’s, the Empire Room of the Palmer House, and the Café Bonaparte of the Sheraton-Blackstone.
Fine eating places are not restricted to the heart of Chicago. You’ll find many in the city’s fringe and suburban areas. Fanny’s, in Evanston, offers spaghetti