A Night Downtown

We finally made good on a Christmas gift the boys gave us. It was a night at the Drake Hotel in Chicago. We got together with some friends for drinks at the Cape Cod Room. Initially were were going to meet in the Palm Room.






It was crowded so we opted to go downstairs to the Cape Cod Room. We haven't been there in years and it still looked the same. It's on the lower level of the Drake but has an entrance also off of Oak Street. The same maitre d is still there. He knew our friends by name and he was happy to see them as they hadn't been there in a long time. Both of the men ordered The Executive- that's one I never heard of before!It was a cocktail with a small carafe with more liquor served on the side. We had a dinner reservation at a restaurant on Rush called Carmines. The place was packed and we were told we were going to have to wait another 1/2 hour! THEN, a bar table opened up and we made a bee line for that. We were all quite hungry. Two of our sons were having dinner at another restaurant a block away so they came over when they had finished dinner. The 10 of us stayed at Carmines till nearly closing time. We had a brisk walk back to the Drake as it was very windy and cold! But that brisk walk back made sleeping all the more wonderful. Our room was very pretty and it overlooked the Drive. And what a wonderful sleep we had. I had an epidural the day before and was traumatized by the whole thing. So a good night's sleep was just the thing! Great pillows, great mattress, perfect room temp...we slept late. To wake up and not have to rush to go anywhere or do anything except chill ~ aahh! The Hotel serves brunch/breakfast and the brunch was part of our gift. Boy, did we eat!
If you are downtown, I'd really recommend having dinner in the Cape Cod Room. It has a new chef and the oysters, not to mention the rest of the menu, are outstanding.