Carlyn Berghoff, a fourth-generation descendant of one of Chicago’s most venerable restaurant families, is running her own version of the Old World German restaurant beloved by Chicagoans and visitors from 1898 to 2006.
When she officially became the owner of the business and building about a year ago after her parents retired, Carlyn Berghoff started small, closing the restaurant and opening the smaller, lunch-only Berghoff Café on the lower level as well as the bar. She reserved larger dining rooms for catered events.
The vintage dining rooms of the Berghoff, with their hand-carved woodwork, stained-glass windows and hand-painted murals, are well suited for private parties catered by Berghoff’s 22-year-old business, Artistic Events by Carlyn Berghoff Catering. However, private parties would not satisfy the Berghoff’s many fans, who lined up for hours to partake of last meals at the old Berghoff.
“When I realized this would become my home, I didn’t know what I would do with it,” Carlyn Berghoff said. “My background was catering for 22 years. I didn’t know if I wanted to be in the restaurant business.”
The Berghoff wasn’t just any restaurant, especially for someone without strong restaurant operations experience. The multistory, 48,000-square-foot space, requiring a large staff, reportedly was a challenge to run profitably. It grew over the years to meet demand, after starting humbly as a bar with house-brewed beer and nickel sandwiches.
That formula worked well until Prohibition put a temporary end to the bar business. Founder Herman Berghoff and three brothers turned the business into a restaurant and brewed near beer and root beer until Prohibition was repealed. As soon as that happened, the brothers obtained Chicago’s Liquor License #1, which still hangs in the restaurant today.
Although the menu gradually expanded to include full dinners, sandwiches remained a big part of the business, with the hand-carved sandwich bar becoming a downtown lunchtime tradition. Corned beef, a half-pound burger, bratwurst and a steak sandwich, often served on house-made rye bread, were staples. Today, the sandwiches are the mainstay of the abbreviated menu served at the Berghoff Café at O’Hare International Airport.
Women were not allowed to eat at the stand-up bar for years, until 1969, when feminists, led by none other than Gloria Steinem, protested the practice, charging it was discriminatory. They won that battle, and women became a big part of the bar’s clientele.
“I’ve called Gloria Steinem and invited her to come in,” Carlyn Berghoff said. “There still are a lot of walls women have to get over.”
Gaining more self-confidence as the year went on, she now has opened for lunch and dinner the space she originally intended to use strictly for catered events as a public restaurant and renamed it 17/West at the Berghoff. The three dining rooms still can be reserved for private parties.
Comparing the new and old Berghoff, Carlyn Berghoff said: “This is more contemporary and more European. My great-grandfather was from Dortmund, Germany, but he traveled all over Europe to create flavors. I found I could pick the best of his flavors and incorporate what works now.”
Some of the New World menu items are pan-seared rainbow trout with marinated green lentils, pumpkin, crispy leeks and an aged sherry vinegar glaze; warm panko-crusted goat cheese salad with baby greens, grape tomatoes and a balsamic reduction; turkey paillard with quince-infused piccata sauce, potato galette and beer-battered asparagus; and a roasted vegetable sandwich on focaccia.
Carlyn Berghoff retained and updated some of the Old World favorites for which the restaurant was best known over the centuries. They include Wiener schnitzel, a breaded veal cutlet with baby asparagus and pepper salad, Berghoff chips and grilled lemon; sauerbraten, long-marinated roast beef sirloin in sweet-and-sour gravy, mélange of vegetables and whipped potatoes; and grilled veal bratwurst on a Bavarian pretzel roll with sauerkraut.
Ever-popular side dishes available for $2 each include German potato salad, creamed spinach, red cabbage and spaetzle, which are miniature egg-and-flour dumplings.
“We have lighter things and some old favorites, something for everybody,” Carlyn Berghoff pointed out. “My parents tried to make the menu more contemporary, but got a lot of resistance. I will try to keep people happy.”
An annual three-day outdoor Oktoberfest is a tradition Berghoff plans to keep alive this September, complete with tents set up on Adams Street, which the city always has gladly blocked off for the festivities. The event typically draws some 80,000 people.
To ensure that the family’s rich history and its popular recipes are preserved for perpetuity, Carlyn Berghoff and her mother, Jan, and co-author Nancy Ross Ryan wrote “The Berghoff Family Cookbook,” scheduled for release this fall.
