Lake Shore Drive (restaurant)

Culled from: Drury, John. Dining in Chicago, New York: The John Day Company, 1931, pp. 145-146.

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

LAKE SHORE DRIVE, 180 Lake Shore Drive

When Queen Marie of Roumania, and her two children, Prince Nicholas and Princess Ileana, visited Chicago in 1926, they resided at the Lake Shore Drive Hotel and ate in its dining room — which information might give you some idea of the position occupied by this establishment in Chicago's social life. The Lake Shore is also a favorite stopping and dining place of many other renowned bigwigs — Ira Nelson Morris, former ambassador to Sweden; Mary Garden, the opera singer; Robert P. Lamont, secretary of commerce; Michael Strange, the author and ex-wife of John Barrymore; Jascha Heifetz, the violinist; Anita Stewart, the movie star; Yehudi Menuhin, the boy violinist; Alfred Lunt, the actor, and such actresses as Lillian Gish, Katherine Cornell, Lynn Fontanne, and Ethel Barrymore.

People of this sort demand the best in food — and they get it in the dining room of the Lake Shore Drive Hotel. Not only residents of the hotel, but matrons and millionaires from the residences nearby, come to this dining room. During "the season," all diners are in formal dress. It is a small room, beautifully done in the Adam style, and the china and silver cause you to gasp. The atmosphere is very ritzy and fashionable and the prices are accordingly high.

The hotel occupies a commanding position, fronting on Lake Michigan and the Lake Shore Drive Gold Coast, and only a short distance east of the Avenue. The Loop is five minutes away by auto. If you want to dine with the beau monde of Chicago, or catch a glipse of some visiting celebrity in an informal moment, then the dining room of the Lake Shore Drive Hotel is the place to go.

Maitre d'hotel: Langsdorff