Gaslight Club – Chicago: A Throwback From the Roaring 20s Lives On

Not to be bewildered with Gaslight on Racine, the Gaslight Club positioned in the O’Hare Hilton is the past of the primary 20s-period speakeasies that inspired the previous Playboy Clubs. The waitstaff is made up of charming and charming can-can women dressed in corsets, tassels and fishnet stockings. The Gaslight Club’s extends over and above even that, attracting extra of a transient organization clientele with couple regulars coming from the town or suburbs. Gaslight was open to important-keeping members right until 2001 and is now offered to anyone seeking a cocktail, steak or seafood dinner, and reside piano entertainment in a posh throwback placing.

The O’Hare Hilton is located throughout from Terminal 3, inside the confines of O’Hare Worldwide Airport. Visitors both fly in, acquire the Blue Line “L” or park in the brief-term ton. The Gaslight Club is positioned at the northwest end of the foyer, to the suitable of the entrance desk. Serbian owner Ranko (Ray) Dabizljevic leases the room from the Hilton and advertises the dress code as “business enterprise attire,” a rarity these times.

To the remaining of the framed Gaslight sign promising “Stylish Dining & Enjoyment,” you’ll obtain the maitre’ d stand below a white statue of a girl that appears to be like like she’s about to dive into water-probably your wallet rather… If you happen to be eating, the hostess will direct you to your desk down a slim carpeted aisle with Victorian wallpaper and illuminated by Tiffany lamps. A tiny area to your proper attributes a handful of very low-slung, four-seater tables, throughout from a collection of tall, leather-based-upholstered picket booths. More compact, two-seater tables lie beneath faux bookcases along the eastern wall.

Beyond the dining spot is the heart & soul of the position, The Longhorn Area: a square, two-story area that is just huge plenty of to accommodate the massive crystal chandelier brought in excess of from a castle in Europe. Several smallish, very low-slung wood tables fill this place, looked upon by large, ornately framed Rubenesque nudes and a photograph of Jimmy Durante smiling broadly and surrounded by the primary Gaslight Club girls. Nightly leisure centers all around the piano located halfway down the western wall. Although Dixieland Jazz was at the time highlighted, you’ll discover the standard piano bar include music in its place like what you’d listen to at Redhead Piano Bar, Zebra Lounge or Davenport’s. Probably it is the gigantic chandelier overhead, but the piano looks a little bit smaller, specially with the loosely piled stack of music guides stacked upon it. A portal under the substantial “Longhorn Place” signal hanging on the japanese wall leads to the kitchen area, further than which is a tiny aisle for servers that is flanked by two elevated tables.

The bar is uncovered at the north close of the home with an amazing wood back-bar framed by stately columns. The signature cocktail is the lemon fall. Rather than the shots you could possibly have experienced at a position like the now-defunct Spike’s Rat Bar, this 1 arrives in martini kind, built with Limoncello and a lemon wedge. A quite pedestrian beer record (no craft brews, thank you) has its counterpoint with a fine dessert range of ports, cognacs, single malt whiskey, and a few other delectable spirits. Though as soon as served in ceramic mugs, all drinks are now served in their customary glassware.

The menu is undoubtedly geared to those people on an cost account. Signature steaks and chops run $34-49, the major conclude of which is the Gaslight Steak (primary bone-in rib chop), and surf & turf goes for $60+ (filet mignon and lobster tail)-all of which are served à la carte (count on $6 for a baked potato). For these seeking a move down in value, the Chicken Florentine and Wienerschnitzel are advisable. For dessert, the lemon mousse hits the spot rather properly, however the chocolate mousse and Eli’s cheesecake are very likely a lot more well-liked.

Of training course, dinner and beverages are served by friendly, slender, very well-endowed, mostly Jap European Gaslight Women sporting small-slash tops, frills masking their backsides, fishnets or nylons, and superior-heels-similar to a Playboy bunny outfit, minus the tail (after all, it was this outfit that encouraged the bunny outfit). H2o and bread (served on a cutting board) are dispensed by elegantly dressed busboys.

The initially Gaslight Club opened on Oct 27, 1953 in Chicago’s Gold Coastline community, by Burton Browne-a Colonel Sanders seem-alike that sincerely felt he was a mountain lion in a previous life. The authentic Gaslight Club was in these large need, that it experienced to go to a larger place at 13 E. Huron (now a high-rise) that also featured the bar from the infamous Everleigh Club. A next Chicago location was added at the Palmer Residence (closed in 1988).

In 1956, the New York Club opened in a plush old mansion and highlighted Elizabeth Taylor as a Gaslight Female, although filming scenes there for Butterfield 8, for which she won and Academy Award. The Washington DC club opened in 1959 and then Paris in 1961. Gaslight Club O’Hare opened in 1973. Just after Burton Browne handed on, board member Robert Fredricks ran the clubs until finally 1984 when extended-time Gaslight Club member Jim Roberts, Jr, took the reigns. At its top, the Gaslight Club boasted more than 26,000 users, just about every with a gold-plated key. Having said that, by the late 80s and early 90s, desire in customers-only golf equipment significantly declined and both of those Gaslight and Playboy Golf equipment had been shut with raising frequency. Till a new Playboy Club opened up a short while ago in Las Vegas, Gaslight Club O’Hare was the only one of its type to survive.

Currently, the Gaslight Club is deemed an oddity, cherished by individuals number of who know about it and enjoyed on layovers. Although either the area and/or cost of the entrées scares off most Chicagoans and suburbanites, the Gaslight Club is a just one-of-a-variety initial and absolutely truly worth a visit. Just get to O’Hare an hour in advance of you have to have to be there, resist the urge to wedge on your own into the very small, nondescript bar close to your gate, and have a consume at the Gaslight Club bar instead. Just make sure you do not permit the Gaslight Girls make you overlook your flight… For more information, check out out the Gaslight Club web-site. Money!