Our family’s favorite restaurant for celebrations was the Red Star Inn,” says Barbara Glunz Donovan, who grew up here as a member of the Glunz family of wine, spirits and beer merchants.
“In fact, I’m sitting in a Red Star Inn chair right now [talking over the telephone]. Dad courted our mom there and it’s where we went for family celebrations. When it closed, he bought the interior. I loved the apple pancake that came to the table in a huge frying pan, and a serving of their oyster stew was so big and rich it was a complete meal for me.”
Marian Tripp, a retired public relations specialist, remembers Le Perroquet, the stylish and innovative French restaurant created by Jovan Trboyevic at 70 E. Walton St. in the 1970s. Her office was in the same building, so she lunched there several times a week.
“They did such great things with seafood,” she says. “I still recall the taste of the sea in the mussel soup, and how surprised I was when I was first served stuffed squash blossoms.”
A Memorial Day retrospective provides a timely way to visit Chicago landmark restaurants of yesterday and their famous dishes, all seasoned with the ambiance of a great and changing city. (For this journey we will pass by such time-honored but still vital dining spots as The Berghoff, Italian Village and The Pump Room.)
Over the years, Chicago’s claims to culinary fame have tended to feed the “city of big shoulders” image–deep-dish pizza and the Chicago-style hot dog, for instance. But great chefs have performed here almost since the city’s founding, and some grand fare has been created and consumed in the century and a half since.
Growth spurt
The city quickly became a commercial crossroads. Hotels and restaurants were in demand from the early days. By 1858, according to the city directory of that year, there were 13 restaurants and a dozen “eating houses” in operation. These numbers increased significantly after the Civil War and in the aftermath of the great fire of 1871.
Visitors to the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1892 and ’93 found much to enjoy. According to “On the House,” a book of Chicago restaurants published in 1955, Diamond Jim Brady and Lillian Russell favored Schlogl’s, a famous literary hangout at 37 N. Wells St., for wiener schnitzel and hasenpfeffer. Inside the exposition grounds, people gravitated to Cafe Marine, run by an ambitious man named Charles Rector. The cafe sold seafood, but its real specialty was tea–strong tea fortified with Scotch.
In the final decade of the 19th Century, eateries that specialized in fish and shellfish were as popular as steakhouses are today. Rector made a name for himself at the Boston Oyster House and then at his own place, Rectors, at Clark and Monroe Streets. He is credited with bringing the first live oysters in the shell to Chicago by train.
Alma Lach, one of the city’s leading food authorities, has fond memories of Henrici’s, a restaurant that was the city’s oldest when it closed in 1962 after 94 years of providing the community with massive overdoses of Vienna-style pastry and coffee. Children and adults alike loved the window displays of cakes and the Old World oil paintings on the walls at 71 W. Randolph St. on the Loop’s Broadway. Although Henrici’s was famous as a late-night gathering place, Lach’s favorite treat was “a breakfast of ‘puff pastry delights.’ They were thin layers of puff pastry with a sweet syrup between each layer. They were heaven!”
Other restaurants with foreign accents became Chicago classics between the two World Wars. St. Hubert’s English Grill featured game and mutton chops. At L’Aiglon, 22 E. Ontario St., Teddy Majerus was serving gumbo as part of his Creole-French menu decades before Jimmy Bannos brought Cajun food to Heaven on Seven in the Garland Building. Julien’s, 1009 Rush St., was famous for frogs’ legs; the De Jonghe hotel in the Loop at 12 E. Monroe St. sold platefuls of shrimp de Jonghe. At The Vesuvio, 15 E. Wacker Drive, “a lot of Italian specialties were served,” according to John Drury in his 1931 restaurant guide, “Dining in Chicago.” But it is unclear if chicken Vesuvio was one of them.
Leonard Solomon, a Chicago wine merchant, came to know the city’s restaurants well during the lively post-World War II years. It was, he recalls, “an era of steaks and chops, with some demand for lake fish. People wanted nothing complicated and nothing too foreign. Italian food was strictly Sicilian, meaning lots of red sauce.”
Italian “banquet” meals were common at Club El Bianco ( 2747 63rd Street) and Club Corsica (7918 S.Western Ave.) (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text). “They called the food ‘northern Italian,’ ” recalls Gerald Hirsch, wine director for Heritage Cellars, “but the owners were from Sicily.”
At El Bianco, “there were 10 courses, with a different sherbet between each course, and the food was excellent,” Lach recalls. “I loved the calamari and a cream puff filled with cream sauce packed with whipping cream.”
Perhaps the most loved American restaurant of the era was Don Roth’s Original Blackhawk, 139 N. Wabash Ave. Opened in 1920, the Blackhawk gained fame as one of first restaurants in the country to introduce a bandstand and dance floor.
In later days, the music went away and the look changed. There was a stone mosaic, wild modern art and a stained-glass ceiling. Roth’s “spinning salad bowl” became a signature item. Hirsch describes his “fail-safe meal in those days”: a 15-count shrimp cocktail, a spinning salad, roast beef and a baked potato.
In 1952, in an “only in Chicago” episode, the Blackhawk was closed by civic authorities on a charge of selling hamburgers made of horsemeat. Owner Roth was found innocent and when the restaurant reopened, business went up.
French invasion
In the 1950s and ’60s, the French increasingly dominated the restaurant scene.
“It was phony French cooking,” Hirsch says, “but they did everything tableside and that was a great show.”
Henri Charpentier, a French chef credited with creating crepes Suzette and the author of a 10-pound autobiography, set a new tone at Cafe de Paris, 1260 N. Dearborn Pkwy. “Good food with finesse will always prevail,” he said. The steak house crowd yawned and Monsieur Charpentier soon departed for sunny California.
Jacques Garden Cafe, successor to The Crystal Room in the atrium of the beautiful 900 N. Michigan Ave. building that stood on that site until the mid-1980s, was “gorgeous,” Hirsch says. Veal and lobster were prepared and presented well enough to draw most customers’ attention away from the scenery.
Imperial House, 50 E. Walton St., specialized in fresh food, flown from anywhere on the globe, it seemed. Meals were stately affairs, a rear-guard action against the “speeded up” tempo of American dining, according to Patricia Bronte in her 1952 restaurant guide, “Vittles and Vice.” The menu offered 85 variations on Caesar salad.
Chez Paul, on East Delaware Place before moving to a handsome mansion at 660 N. Rush St., had a split personality. It benefited from the introduction of the expense-account business lunch but in the evening drew romance-oriented couples celebrating engagements, weddings or anniversaries. A favorite dish to be shared by two was chicken a la Paul.
Elsewhere, chef Louis Szathmary was serving individual beef Wellington to tons of tourists at The Bakery, 2218 N. Lincoln Ave.
Hirsch insists that the best steak Diane in town was prepared in the French Room of the Hartford Plaza Hotel by maitre d’ Pierre Schneid. Doro’s began a brief but significant run of about a decade in 1974. Located at 871 N. Rush St., this was an elegant Italian restaurant that really did serve the food of northern Italy.
New kids in town
The introduction of nouvelle cuisine in the mid-1970s and the subsequent New American Cuisine movement cleared the cobwebs from many restaurants. Americans began to take over the kitchens. As the dust settled after the Vietnam War, Asian immigrants began to prepare authentic fare.
Former Tribune restaurant critic Paul Camp cited venison with lemon grass at the Vietnamese Song Huong, 5424 N. Broadway, as a treat. His memories of the souffles at Le Perroquet are equally vivid. In 1975, Gordon Sinclair introduced the city to Gordon at 500 N. Clark St. and to the artichoke fritter and flourless chocolate cake.
In the 1980s, the term “signature dish” began to be used as chefs increasingly made recipes their own by introducing new ingredients and techniques or updating rustic classics.
Favorite dishes of the era include diverse creations, among them Carolyn Buster’s roast duck at the Cottage in Calumet City, Leslee Reis’ creamy chicken liver pate at Cafe Provencal in Evanston, blackened carpaccio at the short-lived American Grill in Glenview and spiced rabbit with salsa at Star-Top Cafe on North Lincoln Avenue.
Current restaurant critic Phil Vettel remembers Jimmy’s Place, 3420 N. Elston Ave. “I miss it for the opera music and the gentle grace of the late Jimmy Rohr” he says, “but the food item that stands out in my memory is Tosca’s Kiss, fudgy chocolate ganache on a pastry base.” From that era he also recalls Jackie’s.
“I’m glad Jackie Shen is doing so well at Lawry’s,” Vettel says, “but I miss the imaginative seafood dishes at her Lincoln Park restaurant, such as a ‘seafood trilogy’ that piled crab meat, fish and shrimp over Sichuan-pepper pasta.”
From the late ’90s, Vettel contemplates “some of the clever compositions of Keith Luce,” chef at Spruce who departed to Colorado and later California. One example: roulade of smoked rabbit and rabbit mousse, bound by prosciutto.
Chicago’s restaurant food always has contained an international flavor. Today, with ingredients from across the country and around the globe arriving at O’Hare at the bidding of local chefs, creative juices are running stronger than ever.
New dishes appear on menus almost daily. An eager, sophisticated dining public is willing to try them. A century from now, no doubt, some will have become Chicago classics.
Cafe de Paris’ Chicago cocktail
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Yield: 2 cocktails
Hard-boiled Chicago long has had a soft spot for immigrant chefs. Henri Charpentier came here from France via Long Island, and his Cafe de Paris was a favorite gathering place for social swells from Europe and New York City. They sipped the Cafe’s version of the Chicago cocktail. Look for prepared bar syrup in liquor stores.
1/2 cup white rum
3 tablespoons bar syrup
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
Ice cubes
2 thin lime wedges, optional garnish
Combine rum, bar syrup and lime juice in cocktail shaker. Add 6-8 ice cubes; shake vigorously until shaker is frosted. Strain into 2 glasses. Serve with a lime wedge on the rim of each glass, if desired.
Nutrition information per cocktail:
185 calories, 0% calories from fat, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 1 mg sodium, 15 g carbohydrate, 0.1 g protein, 0 g fiber
Chicken a la Paul
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
Yield: 2 or 3 servings
Chez Paul had a run of eight decades as one of Chicago’s most romantic restaurants, and not the least of the factors contributing to this ambiance were the waiters, specialists in tableside service. When they flamed duckling, sliced Chateaubriand or carved chicken they provided theatrical moments, part of what Patricia Bronte termed a “glamorous glow” in her 1952 restaurant guide “Vittles and Vice.” There is no suggestion of what might accompany the chicken; at the restaurant sauteed balls of carrot, turnip and potato might well have accompanied the carved chicken pieces.
1 onion, chopped
6 whole cloves garlic
1 chicken, about 2 1/2 pounds
Juice of 2 lemons
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons each, plus more to taste: salt, freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place onion and garlic cloves in center of a roasting pan. Place chicken on onions, breast side up; pour lemon juice over chicken. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with oregano and 2 teaspoons each of the salt and pepper. Cover; roast until temperature in thickest part of the thigh reaches 165 degrees, about 1 hour.
2. Remove chicken to cutting board. Tent lightly with foil; let stand 10 minutes. Strain liquid from chicken pan into small saucepan. Discard onions, herbs and garlic. Spoon off fat; heat remaining liquid to a simmer. Season to taste with salt and pepper; strain into small serving bowl.
3. Carve chicken; arrange on plates. Sprinkle with parsley. Pass cooking liquid at the table.
Nutrition information per serving (based on 3):
565 calories, 57% calories from fat, 35 g fat, 9 g saturated fat, 150 mg cholesterol, 1,700 mg sodium, 12 g carbohydrate, 49 g protein, 2.4 g fiber
Shrimp de Jonghe
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Despite Chicago’s predominately steak and potatoes diet, the first restaurant dish created here to become popular around the country was made with seafood. Shrimp de Jonghe was first served in De Jonghe’s Hotel on East Monroe Street. before World War I. This simple but rich recipe is a close approximation of the original, developed by either owner Henri de Jonghe or his chef, Emil Zehr.
1 1/2 quarts water
1/2 small onion, sliced
1 rib celery, halved
3 black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 pounds large raw shrimp in the shell
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons dry sherry or white wine
1 1/2 cups coarse French bread crumbs
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
1 tablespoon minced shallot
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1. Put water, onion, celery, peppercorns, bay leaf and salt into large saucepan; heat to boil. Add shrimp, cover; return to boil. Drain immediately. Cool shrimp slightly; peel. Place in large bowl. Add half of the melted butter and sherry; toss to mix.
2. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix remaining melted butter and bread crumbs in small bowl. Stir in parsley, shallots, garlic, paprika and red pepper.
3. Spoon half of the shrimp mixture into a buttered 11/2-quart baking dish. Top with half of the bread crumbs. Top with remaining shrimp mixture. Top with remaining bread crumbs. Bake until crumbs are lightly browned, about 10 minutes.
Nutrition information per serving:
475 calories, 51% calories from fat, 26 g fat, 15 g saturated fat, 265 mg cholesterol, 585 mg sodium, 31 g carbohydrates, 27 g protein, 1.2 g fiber
Rectors’ fried oysters
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 6 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
In the 1880s, Charles Rector left a job as cashier at the Boston Oyster House, the city’s first important seafood restaurant, to open Rectors a block away. He surpassed his former place of employment by bringing the first barrels of live oysters in the shell from the East Coast to his restaurant. (Previously oysters had been shipped shucked and in cans.) This was one of the most popular oyster preparations at Rectors.
1 pint (two 8-ounce containers) shucked oysters, drained, liqueur reserved
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
20 saltine crackers
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 eggs
1 teaspoon each: ground mustard, Worcestershire sauce
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 can (6 1/2 ounces) lump crab meat, drained
1 lemon, quartered
4 sprigs parsley
1. Place oysters on a large plate. Season with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and pepper to taste. Crush saltine crackers in plastic bag with a rolling pin. Pour into a sieve; push crumbs through onto a pie plate with fingertips to make extra-fine crumbs. Sift bread crumbs into a second pie plate. Whisk together eggs, ground mustard, Worcestershire and 2 tablespoons of the reserved oyster liqueur in a small bowl.
2. Heat butter and oil in medium skillet over medium-high heat. Roll oysters, one at a time, in crushed crackers. Dip in egg mixture. Press 1 teaspoon of the crab onto each oyster; roll in the bread crumbs. Cook half of the oysters, turning once, until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Drain on paper towels; keep warm. Repeat with remaining oysters. Season with remaining salt. Serve with lemon quarter and sprig of parsley on each plate.
Nutrition information per serving:
385 calories, 48% calories from fat, 20 g fat, 10 g saturated fat, 240 mg cholesterol, 1,450 mg sodium, 26 g carbohydrate, 24 g protein, 0.8 g fiber
