Room 21 Jerry Kleiner’s latest South Loop eatery is a typically beautiful space serving above-average cuisine (this time its classic American; think upscale surf and turf) in an environment where the buzz both inside and about the venue makes you feel like you’re going to an exclusive party. This time the buzz is all about Scarface Al, who once used the space to warehouse his illegal hooch until Elliot Ness battered down the doors. As the renovation was underway, Kleiner’s guys discovered a secret tunnel connected to the building next door that led to a mysterious Room 21. Never one to miss a marketing gift when it falls in his lap, Kleiner not only named the restaurant after the discovery, he cleaned up the tunnel and gives customers tours himself when he’s around. room21chicago.com 2110 South Wabash (312)328-1198
The Mass Menagerie: How Suburban TV Pioneers Bruce and Claire Newton Connected and Collected the Ephemera of Al Capone, Garfield… The Newtons were extreme collectors. During the early 1980s, I visited their four-story, eighteen-room house in Aurora filled with antiques. A secret bookshelf door in the basement opened to a modest-sized workshop where dozens of marionettes and puppets were created, including Nautilus the Sea Dragon and Polly the Parrot, the latter of which was used for political campaigns of that…
