Red Starr Inn

Culled from: Drury, John. Dining in Chicago, New York: The John Day Company, 1931, pp. 75-77.

Note: The Newberry Library holds the personal papers of author John Drury.

RED STAR INN

Bavaria on North Clark Street

Decorative beer steins, leaded windows bearing Teutonic coats of arms, wooden table-tops scoured to the point of whiteness, and fat waiters with a German accent as thick as one of Papa Gallauer's liver dumplings, together with a menu the equal of that of any first-class cafe in Berlin, combine to make the Red Star Inn one of the most interesting of the German restaurants in a city full of good German restaurants. Situated for over thirty years in the heart of the German district on the north side, "Zum Rothen Stern" is unique in that it is a replica of some old tavern in Bavaria — in construction as well as in interior decorations. The only difference is that it hasn't got the real Munchener or Pilsner.

But the excellence of its food makes up for this loss. Francis C. Coughlin, writing in the Chicagoan about the menu in this place, says: "One cannot go into detail over Red Star menus. It is a task comparable to going into detail over a civilization." And so it is. Suffice to say that all the great dishes of German cookery, second only to French cookery in variety and palatableness, are here purveyed in a style that has brought the great and near great, as well as the rich and not so rich, of Chicago to Papa Gallauer's board.

Papa Gallauer, with his white Van Dyke, is himself an institution. A native of Cologne, Germany, he is the perfect German host. Observe him any evening as he goes among the tables, welcoming friends, offering suggestions, or receiving complaints — which, by the way, are few and far between.

His beaming personality is in part responsible for such frequent visitors to the Red Star Inn as General Milton J. Foreman and General Frank R. Schwengel, two of Chicago's outstanding military leaders; Senator J. Hamilton Lewis, of Illinois; Colonel Robert R. McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Tribune; Carter H. Harrison, former mayor; Richard Henry Little, the columnist; Judge Theodore Brentano, pioneer Chicagoan; Burt Massee, the millionaire explorer; Judge John R. Caverley, who sentenced Leopold and Loeb; Harold F. McCormick, the capitalist and former opera "angel;" Edward F. Dunne, former governor; and Judge Joseph Sabath, of divorce court fame.

Representatives of the artistic and literary side of Chicago life also foregather here — Fred Biesel and his wife, Francis Strain, the painters; Vincent Starrett, the bibliophile and writer; Ruth Jameson, another writer; Vladimir Janowicz, the painter; and Lloyd Lewis, the dramatic critic.

We could toss off a great many more names of Chicago notables who dine here but these will give you some idea of the position which this place occupies in Chicago restaurant life. It's the food that attracts them — and the quiet, old-world atmosphere, and Papa Gallauer. And don't forget the special Easter Bock on draught — almost as good as the real thing.

Red Star Inn, German-American

152^ North Clark Street

Open from 10 A.M. to 1 A. M.

Table d'hote luncheon, 85 cents. A la carte dinner, reasonable

Maitre d'hotel: Carl Gallauer