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Getting High at the Signature Lounge

Viewing the city in style with a martini by your side.

Monday Sep 18, 2006.     By Michael Nagrant

Travel + Tourism Feed

I used to scoff at people who told me that I should make a regular effort to be a tourist in my own town. Sure the occasional lazy jaunt through the Art Institute is OK, but I'd be more likely to base-jump off the Sears Tower than hang out in the Hancock observatory. That is until I found the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor of the John Hancock building.

In the company of a friend who aspires to be like Vince Vaughn's character in Swingers, I found myself being wooed to this "money" locale with the offer of free drinks. Never one to turn down a cocktail, I popped in to the Hancock's gold-plated and green glass elevator, feeling like Charlie from the Chocolate Factory. There are only few buttons and they all go to the same place: way up.

A quick ninety-six floors later, we arrived at the velvet rope cattle call, split between locals and visitors: French-cuffed, black-pants-suited Rush Street types stood beside Ohioans sincerely sporting John Deere hats with digital cameras swinging from their wrists.

Fortunately, unlike the nearby Rush Street clubs, there was no booty-shaking or obnoxious boozing going on. Decked with leather-seated banquettes and green velvet and mahogany-trimmed chairs, the room boasted an old, hushed Chicago elegance. Black and white stills of yesteryear's screen stars like Jean Harlow and Clark Gable lined the walls, and Deco murals of the L and street scenes seemed to undulate to the steady groove of bossa nova and a breathy version of "Besa Me Mucho" streaming through the sound system.

As we sat down at a marble table, my eyes followed the diagonal lines of the familiar Hancock trusses forming an "x" across the expansive windows that frame the room. It wasn't hard to imagine old city luminaries like Harry Caray, Irv Kupcinet or Mike Royko hoisting a few frosty ones at the long plank of bar lined with red-velvet-backed chairs. At 8:30 p.m. that Saturday night, the tables were packed, but we scored a table with a view after a mere five-minute wait.

There's no better way to luxuriate over this kind of view than over a classy cocktail. The drink prices were high ($7 beers, $5 soft drinks and cocktails starting at $10.50), but we could have done worse at the local clubs. While I typically like my martinis dirty, the list of seasonal cocktails tempted me to order the Green with Envy, a milky green concoction of Vox raspberry vodka, blue curacao and mango puree that looked a bit like absinthe. The bitter orange flavor of the curacao was overpowering, so I washed away the aftertaste with a vermouth and olive juice-spiked Bombay dry martini while we argued over the definition of a true martini.

By the time we headed out around 10:30 p.m., the lines for tables had grown considerably, wrapping around back to the entry elevators. Walking back into the crisp night air of the Hancock plaza, I couldn't help but feel disappointed. In the Signature Lounge I was on top of the world. Then again, I was able to appreciate how my view from above differed from the ground-level perspective. I've probably cooled my heels in the Hancock plaza plenty of times, but never noticed that the retaining wall is also a sidewalk waterfall. While I'm not quite ready to buy a fanny pack and choke down flying saucer gut-bombs of deep dish pizza, I'm finally proud to be a tourist in my own town.

Guidebook rating: Night casts a rat pack, ring-a-ding elegance over the lounge, where you can cool your jets and slake your martini thirst while daytime visits offer an unbeatable view of the city. Check out the northeast corner overlooking the endless lake.

Stats: Hours are 11 a.m.–12:30 a.m. Sunday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-1:30 a.m. Friday-Saturday. If you pop in for lunch or on a weekday night, it's easy to score a table. After 9 p.m. on a weekend the waits can be interminable. Notable eats include teriyaki-glazed short rib kebabs ($10.50) and the oozy molten chocolate cake with banana emulsion and caramel gelato ($8.50)

Untrapping Tourism is a monthly feature that pits Centerstage's native and nearly native writers against the city's most stereotypical tourist traps.