Chicago Dining Icon The Cape Cod Room Is Closing

By Anthony Todd in Food on Nov 23, 2016 3:24PM

The interior of the Cape Cod Room. Photo via The Drake.

I'm gonna parrot John Oliver for a second here: 2016 has totally sucked. At least when it comes to losing classic Chicago restaurants. First, we lost the Parthenon, open for 40-odd years. But compared to the Cape Cod Room, the Parthenon is just a baby. It's been serving since 1933.

Hidden away in a corner of the bottom floor of the Drake hotel on Michigan Avenue, the Cape Cod Room has always featured fancy seafood, fine dining service and old-school hotel restaurant charm. But the Trib reports that, as part of a large renovation of the hotel, the Cape Cod Room will close at the end of the year.

I can't say that the Cape Cod Room would be the very first thing on my list of local recommendations, but it will be missed. I dined there just a few weeks ago, and enjoyed a martini the size of a pint glass, an entire team of servers who looked like they started with the restaurant in 1933 and a delicious Dover sole filleted tableside. Was it up to the fine dining standards of 2016? Probably not, but it was certainly not a mediocre hotel dining experience either. And it has a really cool multi-level dining room, stuffed with enough nautical bric a brac to furnish at least five antique stores.

A plea to the management of The Drake: look at the dining scene right now. Retro chic, especially retro chic that celebrates Chicago history and creates a warm, timeless feel, is super in style. Look at the lines outside the doors of the Chicago Athletic Association! Even if the Cape Cod Room closes in its current form, there's definitely an opportunity for Cape Cod Room 2.0, with a little less dust and a little more glamour. And no, I don't mean what happened to the poor Pump Room when it turned into a sad excuse for a River North hotspot.

The last night of service at this Chicago classic will be New Year's Eve.