Killing the Legendary Pump Room - Tribune Shilling for the New Owners?

Note to the Tribune reporter - witness the dearth of Tom Collins glasses? No glass black panthers adorn the tables either. Martinis seem to be the drink to order.


I just left a crowded Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church here on the south side of Chicago. Father Gallagher gave a beautiful and simple homily about the need to accept God's will - the parable of the Chaff and Wheat.

Weeds grow up with the grain and louses, creeps, thugs and low-lifes thrive among simple, hard working, generous and wonderful people. What we want is not important, but what we do with what we are given and how we treat others is all that matters.

The Mass was thick with Catholics - Croatians, Irish, Italian, Mexican, African American worshippers - and as if to add a poignancy to Father Gallagher's homily a wildly obnoxious loud and disruptive crack-pipe aficionado who snorted, farted, fidgeted and interjected occasional commands of "Hey, Boss! Boss! Over here! I'm worshipping. God Bless You." At the hand shake of peace following the Pater Noster, the pipe smoker was greeted with "Peace be with You." and pressings of the flesh.

Not expected and yet ironically welcomed, the gent stumbled out of the pew as Holy Communion was administered bounced down Sacred Heart's narrow and rickety stairs. After Mass, Our Sunday Visitor, the crack-piper, was still bouncing his way from car-to car in the crowded parking lot on 117th & Church Street.

The presence of the crack head only made Father Gallagher's homily more beautiful.

We are all in this Vale of Tears and Garden of God together.

Chicago's Pump Room in the Ambassador East Hotel is a secular temple and house of comfort to travelers and revelers.

The Pump Room has hosted celebrities and helots for decades. Last week, the Chicago Tribune trashed the Pump Room with this sophomoric and whiny narrative by a disappointed reporter. With one visit to the legendary Pump Room, reporter Lauren Viera swept the decades of service, welcome and grace long attributed to the Pump Room into the gutter:

In my recent hunt for the perfect Chicago hotel bar, I was after a particular mood. I wanted to find a classy lounge of yore: dark colors and textures typical of a private club; perhaps a hint of a bygone golden age, with history hanging heavy in the air, and long nights of lounging worn deep into leather booths. And most of all, I wanted well-executed classic cocktails, worthy of predictably inflated price tags.

Check out how we rate Chicago's hotel bars on a scale of one through five.

My first stop was at the Drake Hotel's Coq d'Or, which opened Dec. 6, 1933 — the day after Prohibition was repealed in the United States. Fortunately, the lounge's classy ambiance has changed little in the 76 years since. The burgundy-colored leather booths, the gilded finishes, the tuxedoed bartender — all accounted for. But ask for a Tom Collins, the classic gin-based sour long drink that has been ordered with multiple variations since the 1870s, and you're lucky if it's served in the appropriate tall-glass tumbler (which, incidentally, is named for the drink). At Coq d'Or, my watered-down Collins-mix cocktail was served in a hurricane glass drowning in ice.The Ambassador East Hotel's famous Pump Room was by far the most disappointing, considering its storied history. Opened in 1938, it was at one time the go-to hotel lounge in Chicago, frequented by Marilyn Monroe, Paul Newman and the like.

On my visit, I was one of just three patrons sitting in the bar and still had to wait five minutes before the bartender on duty, concentrating intently on his handheld device, finally took notice. In reply to my Tom Collins request, he produced a watery vodka-soda, splashed with Rose's lime juice, served in a pint glass.

Only after I asked him how he made the drink did he pause, brows furrowed, and ask, "What's in a Tom Collins, anyway?" After hearing out the recipe and trying his hand at a fresh drink, he set it down in front of me apologetically and said, "You should always get what you want. Especially when you're out."

What I want, I'm afraid, doesn't exist anymore.

( click my post title for the full nonsense)

Heavens! A Tom Collins? Why not an Arrack Swedish Punsch, Black Velvet(Guinness & Champagne)The Doctor, or a Diki-Diki? All cocktails.

The Tom Collins is ordered with all the frequency of Keeley's Half & Half, Drewrys, Meister Brau, Andecker, and Grain Belt beers.

AS an old bartender ( Mike Doorhy's Mayfair West at 63rd & Mozart, Connelly's Tap at 63rd & Hamlin and Pete's Guiding Light at 63rd & Pulaski/Reilly's Daughter Pub on 111th, OB Joes at 111th & Sacramento and Leo's Riverside Tap on the Kankakee River), I knew my Mr. Boston Cocktail Bible.

Tom Collins - Voila!

2 ounces gin;1 ounce lemon juice, (freshly squeezed, if possible);1 teaspoon confectioner's sugar;Club soda -Add the first three ingredients for your Tom Collins drink to a cocktail shaker half filled with ice cubes. Shake vigorously long enough to chill, about 30 seconds.

Pour the strained cocktail ingredients into a Tom Collins glass or similar tall glass filled almost to the top with ice cubes. Top off with the club soda. Stir and serve with a straw.
Possible garnishes for your Tom Collins drink are an orange or lemon slice. Some people add a maraschino cherry.

I tried to imagine how this reporter would have reviewed Father Gallagher's Mass. The crack head sat directly behind me at Mass and next to Mrs. Scanlon. Mrs. Scanlon ( an eighty something widow) did not slide away from our Sunday Visitor, but accepted him as her pew mate.

Lauren Viera, it seems to me would have recoiled in utter and loud horror, demanded that the smelly drug addled gent be tossed from the house of worship and then pen a pithy missive of condemnation to the Cardinal.

Sometimes you a get a bum drink. Order something else - something less obscure.

The Pump Room continues to be a great and gracious place for an elegant time with wonderfully talented and fun people ( Max, Steve, Jesse, Bob, Angel, Gloria, James, Yancey et.al.) and handsomely mixed cocktails. The staff of bartenders ( Angel is # 1.) are exacting in the ministrations of the mixologist's arts and more so attentive to the point being family members.

When the Chicago Tribune wants something killed it dances the Joe Medill jig all over it. Might the Chicago Tribune being doing the new owner a service? Provide bum reviews and scare off potential visitors?

An honest reporter would have asked for some other cocktail, if the bartender seemed flustered by such a dated order - something else, or at least had the grace to come back again.

The crack head might be back next Sunday, but so will Mrs. Scanlon and all the other worshipers. Likewise, people who know better than some of the Dinny The Dimwits at the Chicago Tribune - a huge demographic that - will crowd the Pump Room.

God separates the chaff from the wheat.

New York Strangles the Puny Breath Out of Chicago - The Pump Room to be the Chump Room?

Photo -Stairway to Heaven (Sun-Times photo by Scott Stewart)

Maceys is Marshall Fields but they expect Chicagoans to buck-up for the Maple Room? It is awful by the way. The Day Marshall Fields fired every woman on the Christmas Frango Mint Massacre, I stopped tossing coin at the venerable store - it was owned by Canadians anyway. Then Macey's smugly boarded and looted the Flagship Store of Chicago.

Now, thanks to the great Dave Hoekstra ("You Ain't Much, If You Ain't Dutch")Chicagoans get a head's up on the latest Big Apple strangulation of a Chicago Icon - and I don't mean Carol Marin.

The Pump Room of the Ambassador East is going south. Did these eedjits ask Max Weismann? Angel the long-time barman? Businessman Steve Swederlow? Chop House Owner Joe Sullivan? Any of the hundreds of patrons who drop Hundred Dollar Bills on the bar, even though most prefer the swipe card? Nah.

My question - Did the Due Dillinger, er Dilligence Sub-Committee, bother to talk to staff or the the hundreds of patrons who gather in the Pump Room every weekend?

" Hi, I'm Ian Schrager! I could care less about you, your City, this pile of rocks, much less the Jumping Pump Room! Why don't you and your Hundo Stuffed Gold Coast Wallets take a hike? How's that question?"

January 4, 2010



BY DAVE HOEKSTRA Sun-Times Columnist


Chicago cabaret singer Nan Mason includes "One for My Baby (One More For the Road)" in her repertoire. Chances are Mason will include the Sinatra classic on Jan. 30 when she makes her final appearance at the legendary Pump Room bar and restaurant.


Mason's contract has not been renewed, and the restaurant is being downsized.


"Like other hotels in the Chicago area we've had to rethink our fine dining experience," said Paul Lauritsen, general manager of the Ambassador East, home of the Pump Room.


"Four- and five-diamond restaurants have had to rethink the public's willingness to go through with service and menu price in these economic times. The bar will remain open and we will feature a lighter bistro menu. There will be no seating in the main dining room."


It will sit empty except for special occasions.


The New York-based Ian Schrager Co. is bidding to buy the Ambassador East from the current owners, local developers Peter Dumon and David Bossy. Schrager is a co-founder of the Studio 54 nightclub in New York that revolutionized the late 1970s disco dance scene.


They did not sing "One for My Baby" at Studio 54.


The Pump Room opened on Oct. 1, 1938. It thrived on a celebrity culture that no longer exists.


Original owner Ernie Byfield recruited celebrities to sparkle in the dimly lit elegance of the Pump Room. Celebrites stayed over in Chicago for a day or two instead of rushing to a private jet. The late Sun-Times columnist Irv Kupcinet worked from Booth One in the 225-seat restaurant. The original Booth One is in storage at the Chicago History Museum .


The Pump Room had a declared style. Situated on the north end of Rush Street , once known as "the Street of Dreams," the Pump Room was a place where those dreams came true. Anyone could be like Bogie and Bacall, who stopped at the Pump Room en route to Hollywood the day after they wed in May 1945.


"Ernie invited Essee and me to join the Bogarts at table No. 1," Kupcinet recalled in his 1988 memoir Kup (A Man, An Era, A City). "What I remember best was the lovelight in the eyes of both Bogie and Baby."
The Pump Room could do that to you.


"The Ian Schrager plan is not a done deal yet," Lauritsen said. "I do know it is his intention to renovate the hotel and the Pump Room. We don't know if it still will be called the Pump Room."


A New York spokeswoman for Schrager had no comment.

Happy New Year! Happy and Productive and Above All Else Safe in 2009 and 2010!

May This New Year Bring all of us Happiness, Fulfillment, Prosperity ( remember that one), and, God Help Us, Peace.

God gave us another 365 days to do all that we are meant to do. That is a Blessing!

God Bless You All!

This great faux Edwardian Chap comes fro Max Weismann of the Center for the Study of Great Ideas! Happy New Year, Max - and all the Gang at the Jumping Pump Room!

An Enchanted Encounter - from the Files of Max Weismann

Having already downed a few power drinks, she turned around, faced him, looked him straight in the eye and said, "Listen here good looking, I screw anybody, anytime, anywhere, your place, my place, in the car, front door, back door, on the ground, standing up, sitting down, naked, or with clothes on, dirty, clean... it doesn't matter to me.I've been doing it ever since I got out ofcollege and I just love it!"
Eyes now wide with interest, he responded,"I'm a lawyer too, what firm are you with?"

Andrew Distel - Jazz Genius at the Pump Room!

Click my post title and listen to young guys who treat music with respect.

Andrew Distel fronts a quartet of young jazz artists who grace Chicago's Pump Room* on Friday and Saturday nights from 8-10 PM.

There is absolutely no room on the tight stage for any nonsense or clinkers. With a clear and clever voice that delicately places the intent of the composer up on a Waterford Crystal mantel, Andrew sparks the piano, bass and drums **when adding the trumpet, flugelhorn and coronet to the International Songbook.

Along with pianist Pete Benson ( who reminds one of Errol Garner when he solos), Mr. Distel elevates the tones and textures which give music its ability to level out the cant and narcissism that seems the hallmark of contemporary performance artists masquerading as musicians.

These young men are the real deal. They are journeyman geniuses . . .lacking any and all of the puffery of egomaniacs with microphones. Distel scats like Torme! My personal favorite is Andrew's take on 'Sleepy Time Down South.'

If you love your wife as you should, allow Andrew Distrel and his sidemen to lead you to the dance floor for some serious affection reconnection through real music.

You will meet some of the nicest and brightest people in Chicago; especially Commodore Max Weismann who holds court over a crowd of regulars known to the Pump Room irregulars as the Hole in The Wall Gang. Max and the late Mortimer Adler developed the Center for the Study of Great Ideas and the Great Books Program.

Here's a Great Idea!

Dress up; Put on the Dog; and Get to the Pump Room. Treat yourself to real music by Andrew Distel.



* Pump Room in the Ambassador East Hotel:
1301 N. State Parkway
(312) 266-0360

When Ernie Byfield opened The Pump Room in The Ambassador East Hotel on October 1, 1938, he undoubtedly had little idea that he was beginning an enterprise that would still be thriving to this day. Today, The Pump Room remains a magnet for movie stars and celebrities as well as a highly-acclaimed restaurant and Chicago landmark.
In 1938, Mr. Byfield was inspired by a place called the Pump Room that dominated the scene in 18th century England. Located in the resort city of Bath, The Pump Room was a place where Queen Anne and other stylish Londoners converged to revel in the social life at night after a long day. The Pump Room was named after the hot water drinks “pumped” into its patrons’ cocktails.

Byfield’s Pump Room was a success from the day it opened. Chicago’s socialites perched themselves along the large room’s western wall to observe the celebrities who made their appearances along the east side of the room. Those guests seated in Booth One, perhaps the more renowned table in the country, attracted the most attention. Famed actress Gertrude Lawrence, who was starring in a play in Chicago at the same time as The Pump Room’s debut, established its reputation. Miss Lawrence staged a nightly gathering in Booth One during the play’s entire 90-day run. From that moment on, The Pump Room became the place to see and be seen.

John Barrymore roared for champagne; Bette Davis could be found curled up on the piano bench; Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall celebrated their wedding in Booth One, as did Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood. Liza Minelli grew up in Booth One and has fond memories of dining there with her mother, Judy Garland. Ms. Garland immortalized the restaurant in the lyrics to “Chicago”, with the words “we’ll eat at The Pump Room/Ambassador East, to say the least”. And of course, Frank Sinatra held court in Booth One countless times.

After Byfield’s death in 1950, The Pump Room held on to its allure as a place for stargazing. A new generation of luminaries took up residence in Booth One. Mel Brooks personally greeted each guest; Paul Newman and Robert Redford lunched on ham sandwiches and pilsners every day during the shooting of “The Sting”. Michael J. Fox, Eddie Murphy and Jim Belushi have all continued the tables’ famous tradition.

Opera star Beverly Sills has added some high notes to the room, while a few rock and roll legends like David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Olivia Newton-John and Mick Jagger, have added some of their own. A little known drummer was refused entry when he failed to pass the dress code and titled his solo album, “No Jacket Required” after the incident. His name- Phil Collins. (He was sent a new jacket by way of apology.)


Executive Chef Nick Sutton

The real command presence of the Pump Room:Bartender Extraordinaire - Angel!


**Andrew Distel Quartet at the Pump Room:
Andrew Distel - Vocals - Trumpet & etc.

Pete Benson - Piano ( 'nuff said!)

Jake Vinsel - Bass ( Jazz Bass Man named Jake!)

Brian Ritter - Drums ( Brian keeps it all together with delicate and clever precision)

http://www.pumproom.com/history.html