Maillard's (restaurant)

Culled from: Drury, John. Dining in Chicago, New York: The John Day Company, 1931, pp. 155-156.

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

MAILLARD'S, 308 South Michigan Avenue

Located on the ground floor of the towering Straus Building, this well-known Avenue restaurant has a front that is deceiving. It looks like a ritzy confectionery shop, but go inside and into the four basement dining rooms and you will be in one of the largest restaurants in Chicago, with a seating capacity of 1,200 persons. This establishment is a branch of the noted New York restaurant of the same name, founded eighty years ago by Henry Maillard, a French caterer, who supervised Abraham Lincoln's inaugural banquet. All of which means that the foods served here are of supreme quality. One of their outstanding specialties is chicken livers saute a la Maillard, with fried apple rings and fresh mushrooms. Daily, Maillard's has been crowded ever since its start here five years ago. The restaurant is richly furnished, very elegant, and French in atmosphere. In the basement you will find the main dining room, the Gold Room, the College Room, the men's Old English Grill, and the "Hall of Fame" in the foyer. Many operatic, musical, theatrical, and movie celebrities, as well as fashionable people and business executives, have meals in Maillard's. Afternoon tea in Maillard's is a Chicago institution. By the by, if you want a thrill, have a light snack in their Tower Tea Room, located on the top-most floor of the Straus tower, which is only open between June first and September first. An amazing view of Chicago awaits you here.

Maitre d'hotel: A. Richard Moulin