The Berghoff

First And Last Of The Great Chicago Restaurant Institutions

If you were to miraculously transport someone from the Chicago of the end of the nineteenth century, and someone from the Chicago of the middle of the twentieth century, to the Chicago of today, there isn't much they would recognize. The landmarks they knew would, by and large, have vanished. But if they were dry and hungry from their wanderings and happened to pass by the corner of State and Adams, they would smile. "There's The Berghoff," they would say. "Let's have a stein of beer and a plate of Wiener Schnitzel." And both of those things would be waiting for them, not all that different from what they remembered.

When people gather to discuss "fine dining" in Chicago, The Berghoff (or just Berghoff's, which is how everyone refers to it) doesn't get a mention. But when you're downtown for a show and need some dinner, or when you have friends coming in from out of town and want to take them to someplace that embodies Chicago, it's one of the first places you will think of.

To walk into Berghoff's is to walk into the past. The large dining rooms are paneled in wood and covered with pictures of the Chicago of its past, which is most of Chicago's past. While you wait for your meal, you can walk to the east end of the main floor dining area and see the display case that holds, among other things, liquor license Number One, granted to Herman Berghoff because he was the first person in the line waiting on the day Prohibition was repealed. Turn around from that case and walk through a door in the partition and you will see a hardwood bar stretching the length of the room. Until 1970, it was The Men's Bar. Then one day some women walked in and asked for drinks and were served, and that was that.

But restaurants mean food; what about the food? It's pretty good. Soon after you sit down, you will have a plate of sliced rye bread and sliced millet bread placed in front of you, as well as individual plates of butter. If you're inclined toward such things, this is the time to order a stein of the beer. They have it brewed specially for their restaurants, and it's good. Light and dark and always there, but there are some season variations as well.

If you're going to the theatre afterwards, you'll want something light, and the ever-changing menu will accommodate you with grilled fish and with salads. But if you're making this your only stop of the evening and don't mind using your available blood supply for digestion for several hours, go for the "Classic Berghoff" entrees, where "grilled" foods never see mesquite, but are, instead, slapped down hard on a hot, greasy surface. The schnitzels are always good, and you will have your choice of Wiener (veal) or Rahm (pork). Corned beef and cabbage is scarcely German, but the version here is wonderful. Make sure to ask for a crock of horseradish when the dish arrives. Then, there's always Schweinsfilet, braised pork tenderloin in a cream sauce. If you can't get to Berghoff's, you can click here for our Webmeister's version of the dish.

You know from my past reviews that I'm not a dessert kind of person, but it's hard to sit in Berghoff's for any length of time without seeing a lot of Black Forest Chocolate Cake being carried past you, so it seems that the people are speaking with their forks, and they're giving this dish a vote of confidence.

When you walk out of Berghoff's, turn around and squint a little. If you can block out Mies Van Der Rohe's Federal Building in the background, you'll be seeing Chicago as it was before most of us were born, and you'll probably be happily sated.