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We advise you not to miss Joe's finnan haddie, served with an admirable cream sauce infused with the most luscious of small red shrimps. It is a rare gastronomic pleasure. As for his lobster Newburg, sufficient comment is made on it when we say that those two epicures of Chicago, Amy Leslie, dean of dramatic critics, and Louis Swift, the packer, come to the College Inn almost weekly to partake of it. On the other hand, the late Raymond Hitchcock preferred Joe's chicken shortcake to any of his other specialties. There are others among famous people who come for the wide variety of oysters, served at the new Oyster Bar.
What with its main dancing and dining room, its adjoining hors d'oeuvres bar and oyster bar, and Ben Bernie, the College Inn is probably the most interesting and unique restaurant in Chicago. Ashton Stevens, an habitue of the College Inn, even goes further and says that it is the most successful night club in America. Around the walls is a modernist design of a tropical aquarium, done by the painter, John Norton; and when the lights are turned low for dancing, strange and exotic fish appear in a glow of phosphorescent pastel colors -- an effect obtained by the use of radium paint. The firm headed by Ralph A. Bond, the prominent clubman and backgammon expert, laid the dance floor which, it is said, resembles a backgammon board.
A word about the famous "Theatrical Nights'* on Thursday nights in the College Inn. Don't miss attending at least one. Stevens says they have "actually become a scandal all over the United States." Actors and actresses, famous and not so famous, come here after the theatre on these nights and put on an impromptu performance that you will never forget. And they come because they like Ben Bernie, Ernest Byfield, Dr. Albert Byfield, and Frank W. Bering, manager of the hotel and noted polo player.
One local drama critic made the remark that on the evening he attended Theatrical Night "there must have been at least $70,000 worth of theatrical talent