Nine Hundred North (restaurant)

Culled from: Drury, John. Dining in Chicago, New York: The John Day Company, 1931, pp. 141-142.

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

NINE HUNDRED NORTH, 900 North Michigan Avenue

This place was aptly described recently as "Modern — but beautiful!" And so it is. If you are a lover of modern art, here is a thrill for you. It was designed by Mrs. Howard Linn, the talented Chicago society woman, and its first manager was Mrs. William Vaughn Moody, widow of the noted poet and foremost of the town's hostesses.

The Crystal Room is where the main thrill lies. Small, oval in shape, exquisitely done in black and white and with many hexagonal columns of black glass and hidden colored lights, the room looks large and intricate by virtue of the clever arrangement of French mirrors.

Several novel private dining rooms, notably the Straw Room, made of hand-painted straw squares, are also features of the place.

During the sultry evenings of summer, however, most patrons dine in the Patio — a large open-air court with a fountain in its center. Here, under the July stars and to the strains of an orchestra, you may enjoy Chef Charles Font's delightful Stuffed Lobster Thermidor, or any of his other dishes, in a most gay Monte Carlo-like atmosphere. This courtyard, by the way, is part of the Nine Hundred North Michigan Avenue Building, designed by the Jarvis Hunts, Senior and Junior, noted architects, and occupied by numerous Chicago millionaires and their families on the cooperative plan.

Here, then, you are likely to see many of these residents at dinner — Fames MacVeigh, Edward Swift, Jr., W. C. Boyden, Joseph M. Cudahy, Hopwell L. Rogers, Thorne Donnelley, Ira Nelson Morris, Cyrus Hall McCormick, D. F. Kelly, and George E. Porter. Rudolph, in his polite Continental way, is there to welcome you; the cuisine is perfection; you will not feel out of place in formal dress; and the prices are within reason.

Maitre d'hotel: Rudolph