For Chicagoans, food is romance.
A well-cooked beef, be it Italian or Kobe, is often one of our sincerest expressions of love. Even Jewel packages steaks in plastic pink heart-shaped containers for Valentine’s Day. The pandering is not only accepted, but celebrated because we feel seen as a people who are hungry for love … and also just hungry.
Throughout the city’s history, there has been no shortage of establishments that provide both the romance and the sustenance we crave. From upscale dining to mood-setting patios and frankly bizarre menus, we took a look at a few of the restaurants diners have flocked to for an intimate meal.
Everest
For nearly 35 years, one of Chicago’s most romantic fine-dining restaurants could be found at the summit of 425 S. Financial Place: Everest. Head chef Jean Joho opened the Michelin-starred Everest in 1986 and laid his claim to the 40th floor of the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-designed building, which also houses the Chicago Stock Exchange. Rightfully, his Alsatian-inspired, farm-to-table dishes became renowned not only here, but around the world. If food is a language of love, then Joho was surely fluent. The selection of over 1,600 Alsatian wines, paired perfectly with each meal, was an added chef’s kiss.
To experience the four-star French fare, diners had to first ascend 39 floors, then reach the peak via a private elevator to the restaurant. There, the climb’s payoff was evident — particularly for romance. With stunning sunset views, candlelight, fresh flowers and attentive service, it was easy for lovers to feel as if they were basking on cloud nine. For this, Everest often earned the distinction of being among the most romantic spots in the city. And who wouldn’t want to prove their love by climbing a modern-day mountain with such sweet rewards?
Everest closed at the end of 2020, but its legacy of exquisite cuisine and warm atmosphere is set in stone.
Waterfront Cafe
Compared with the apex of romantic fine dining that was Everest, the Waterfront Cafe in Edgewater is much more grounded — but no less lovely or off the beaten path (literally). The seasonal outdoor restaurant could not be more hidden; it’s found next to a dead-end behind the Berger Park Cultural Center, with no signage to offer clues.
But once discovered, the Waterfront feels like a tropical destination far away from the shores of Chicago. The patio is surrounded by tall greenery and generously decorated with brilliantly colored flora. The lake becomes a vast ocean. Still, sightlines all the way to downtown skyscrapers hint at your true location. At sunset, the sky melts through watercolor tones into an endless black sky that makes the perfect path for passing planes. Only a sandy walking path divides diners and the water, and it’s up to the strung lights, Tiki torches and moon to provide evening light. Nightly live music, like jazz and classical guitar, keeps guests entertained but not overwhelmed.
Here, upscale dining isn’t the name of the game — ambience and privacy are. But the seafood rolls, summer salads and tropical drinks keep customers plenty satisfied. Using a former coach house as its kitchen, the Waterfront slings seafood classics like blackened Cajun shrimp, brown butter crab, and lobster rolls. It first opened as Dawghaus Cafe in 2007 serving only snacks, then bloomed into the Waterfront in 2009. Its menu is limited, allowing lovers ample opportunity to focus on each other.
Berger Park Cultural Center, 6219 N. Sheridan Road, 773-761-3294, waterfrontcafechicago.com
Palmer House Hotel
Of course, no list of historically romantic Chicago spots would be complete without mention of the Palmer House. Its very creation is the manifestation of love — a wedding gift from Potter Palmer to his bride, Bertha Honoré.
The hotel first opened on Sept. 26, 1870, but burned only a year later in the Great Chicago Fire. It was rebuilt in 1873, and then later expanded in the 1920s, incorporating an elegant art deco theme. The lobby’s luxurious aesthetic exudes opulence. It is an astonishing array of grandeur lined with warm-lit candelabras, flashes of Louis Comfort Tiffany — including two winged statues and decorative embellishments — a grand staircase, and gorgeous elevators designed to reflect a peacock’s plume. Its most famous feature is an astonishing 21-panel ceiling fresco painted by French artist Louis Pierre Rigal depicting scenes from Greek mythology. It is the pinnacle of elegance, romance and fine detail, and therefore a great excuse to wear something fancy, if you so like.
In the main hall, couples can enjoy cocktails, small plates and a limited menu of entrees at The Lobby Bar at Lockwood, which features house specialties such as the Palmer House 1871 Whisky Sazerac and Palmer House Brownie Old Fashioned — appropriate because the hotel also invented the brownie (which you can get for dessert). Its bar list also offers several nonalcoholic cocktails and provides plenty of options to keep an amorous evening going under the Grecian sky. The hotel can also accommodate private dining, including a table for four in a wine cellar and incredible mezzanine views for parties or events — perhaps for an anniversary party or wedding reception, in the tradition of the venue’s inception.
Palmer House Hotel, 17 E. Monroe St., 312-917-3404, palmerhousehiltonhotel.com; lockwoodrestaurant.com
Café Bohemia
For some, finding love is really all about the thrill of the hunt. And throughout its 50-year run, those people may have wound up having dates at Café Bohemia — a restaurant at 138 S. Clinton St. that boasted “Chicago’s Most Unusual Menu” for serving dishes like tiger steaks and hippopotamus.
Owner Jim Jankek opened Café Bohemia in 1936 after taking over for his father, Joe Baseck. The restaurant’s menu was huge, offering eight-course dinners of over 60 entrees that included fresh sweet corn year-round. Many of the recipes were created or inspired by his Czechoslovakian grandmother.
While relatively tame dishes like hefty steaks, chops, ribs, veal, venison, fresh fish and fowl were the usual fare, Janek would also supplement his menu with exotic meats such as elephant, pheasant, lion, bear, beaver, elk, buffalo burgers, broiled moose and sheep. Janek would say he’d estimate the ferocity of the upcoming winter by how much fat the bears had that year. The heads of some of these entrees wound up as mounted decor.
Able to eat without the judgment of prying eyes, diners, therefore, loved visiting Café Bohemia. Outside, elk would sometimes be hung, causing traffic jams from gawking passersby. Inside, the restaurant was somewhat posh, somewhat safari. A renovation of the interior in 1965 designed by Warren Black saw the installation of “deep red fabric and stained glass (to) create a colorful and handsome interior, and a fresh red rose at each table” to give a “final pleasant” feel to the atmosphere. Additions included spindle dividers, cushy armchairs, paneling, and “dramatic red leather banquettes.” Most, but not all, of the mounted heads were removed.
To reach the restaurant, diners could call upon its white Cadillac limousine service, which would retrieve those staying at Loop hotels. A limo bearing the Café Bohemia flag would fetch customers free of charge and offer them a menu to peruse, as if studying a map before being dropped off in the wild.
The destination was an offbeat, adventurous and somewhat terrifying concept that fascinated diners for five decades — truly a relic of an older era. While its wild game offerings provided interesting fodder for the time, they only made up a small portion of the menu. Today, the ethics of such a food program are questionable, but at the time it was a novelty. Crisp duck with wild rice became the fan favorite, and by 1970, the establishment had served its millionth duck. Janek also increased the size of his porterhouse steaks by an ounce each year — at its closing in 1986, the steak was a dizzying 86 ounces, or well over 5 pounds. Yes, it was weird — but its charm is that it was something different, maybe even a bit scandalous. And what’s more romantic than flirting with your animal instincts.
Fondue Stube
Located in Chicago’s historically Jewish Far Northwest Side neighborhood of West Ridge is Fondue Stube, a French-concept restaurant with a German name and Japanese American owner. What’s more Chicago than that?
Since 1972, the fondue eatery has been housed within a low-key (and very parking-friendly) commercial stretch of Peterson Avenue, though it can be easily spotted by the pot of melting cheese on its maroon awning. Since the 1960s, Chicagoans have had an obsessive attraction to fondue restaurants for romantic and special occasions, perhaps because it involves the couple doing something hot together. But it’s also the type of place Chicagoans want to go to feel a sense of tradition or to celebrate a special occasion, like a date or anniversary.
“Fondue is a specialty item,” Carol Hiyama Martorelli, whose family took over the establishment in 1977, told the Tribune in 1980. “You’ve got to love fondue to visit the restaurant, since that’s all we’ve got on the menu.”
And Fondue Stube’s customers love it, indeed. It supplies the right mood with low lighting, deep red walls, and eclectic, vintage charm that says supper-club-meets-fondue-diner. Though it shares the same concept as other fondue spots in the city, such as the venerable Geja’s Café, it distinguishes itself with uncrowded seating, better parking, affordability and classical music overtures.
The menu offers cheese fondues in Swiss, cheddar, muenster, and cream cheese lox, served with French bread and apple cubes. Classic fondue dinners come with garlic bread and salad topped with homemade dressing (that customers have requested to “buy by the tubs”). While the Romeo and Juliet option may offer the most romantic name (although the ill-fated couple’s ending was anything but) the best option is the Sinfonia Eroica, which includes Swiss cheese fondue, followed by a sirloin beef fondue served with fresh vegetables and dipping sauces, and finishes off with a chocolate fudge fondue finale, complete with fresh fruits, angel food cake and marshmallows. (Knowledgeable servers offer the tip of roasting those right after the chocolate is lit.)
The place-mat menu is divided into préludes, encores, and finale con spirito, where you’ll find drinks such as the Nutcracker Sweet, Rhapsody in Booze, The Unfinished Symphony, and the Too Hot to Händel. These are a nod to one of the restaurant’s early owners, Steve Kaye, who won a piano scholarship from Roosevelt University and studied at the American Conservatory. He saw to it that for many years Fondue Stube would be as known for its classical music as it was for its mutual melting. Live music from piano, flute and harp duos and trios played for customers, rattling off compositions by the likes of Bach and Vivaldi. A baby grand piano (that has since moved on) was a centerpiece of the room.
It was a classical music destination for serious artists and appreciators, including violinist Jaques Israelievitch, once the co-concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Even Beethoven’s birthday was celebrated with performances by the Windy City Music Ensemble. While there’s no more live music, classical music is played over the speakers.
The change in tune hasn’t deterred loyal customers, who refused to let Fondue Stube’s owners retire in 2010. After an announcement was posted on its website that Valentine’s Day 2010 would be its last waltz, a new message from Martorelli later replaced it saying that she received such an ovation from diners that she decided to stay open. Now, over 50 years later, the melting pot that is Fondue Stube remains a bright spot on Peterson Avenue, waiting to become part of your love story.
Fondue Stube, 2712 W. Peterson Ave., 773-784-2200, fonduestube.com
Linze Rice is a freelance writer.
