Chicago Pump Room Photo Treasure Trove is a Time Capsule Revealed
(SALEM, Ore.) - The Ambassador East Hotel, Chicago, was built in 1926 with 285 rooms. Over a dozen years later, Ernie Byfield launched The Pump Room, one of the first high class restaurants to open after the Prohibition era.
It was immediately "the place to be" in Chicago.
Byfield’s inspiration for The Pump Room was based on an 18th Century London pub, depicted in the novel “Monsieur Beaucare” by Booth Tarkington, which was frequented by celebrities and nobility including Queen Anne. The name specifically came from the hot drinks “pumped” into cocktail glasses for the rich and famous at the pub of olde .
Ernie Byfield was a quite a character, a showman, and he knew that his restaurant would be a hit if he replicated that unique noble ambiance. He did it, and it took off like wildfire. From the very beginning, The Pump Room was a hangout for actors and musicians – the delight of epicures, the meeting place of celebrities.
