Vassar House (restaurant)

Culled from: Drury, John. Dining in Chicago, New York: The John Day Company, 1931, pp. 148-149.

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

VASSAR HOUSE, 540 North Michigan Avenue

Starting five years ago as a small tea room operated by the Vassar College alumnae of Chicago and vicinity for the purpose of raising a scholarship fund, Vassar House is now one of the major restaurants of the Avenue, especially since it moved into its new and larger quarters in the Michigan Square Building. Modern and colorful in decor, its interior is featured by Leslie Thome's black and white murals representing the various styles of women's dresses worn by students since the founding of Vassar in 1868, and the old-style cartographer's maps of the Vassar campus painted on the table-tops. The Men's Grill, a recent addition, serves breakfast in addition to luncheon and dinner. Among the specialties of the house, prepared by those two able cooks, Antonio Gillio and Emile Burckel, is Vassar Devil, a fudge cake known to every Vassar graduate. This place is ideal for tea and has become popular among visitors who come to view Carl Milles' famous statue, ''Fountain of Diana", in Diana Court, the beautiful lobby of the Michigan Square Building." And, if you are a Vassar graduate, you will be interested to know that former Vassarites act as hostesses, among them Mrs. Arthur D. Welton, Mrs. Charles Faben Kelley, Mrs. Eugene S. Talbot, Jr., and other members of the board of directors. An interesting sidelight on the restaurant is that fully seventy-five per cent of its clientele is made up of real honest-to-goodness he men. The excellent and substantial foods served here is what brings them — as well as women patrons.

Maitresse d'hotel: Miss Ruth Isabelle Smith