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Inside Chicago Athletic Association Hotel restaurant Cherry Circle Room

Cherry Circle Room
Location: Second floor, through the Game Room
Hours: 7 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 5 p.m.-midnight daily. Make reservations online at cherrycircleroom.com or call 312-792-3515.
Good for: Special occasion date, boozy weekday brunch, secret rendezvous in a high-backed booth, a burger at the bar

Stepping into Cherry Circle Room left me feeling like a time-traveler straddling different points in history. The lack of windows, huge curved wooden bar, slick tufted booths and symbols emblazoned on everything from the wall hangings to the napkins feel like Don Draper’s supper club meets illuminati secret society. “We really went off this old-school speakeasy-supper club-steakhouse vibe,” said executive chef Peter Coenen. But the blue ombre-haired hostess and tuna crudo ($13) topped with chicharrones reminded me that this historic restaurant–it served members of the Chicago Athletic Association for decades upon decades–has been revived by one of the hippest up-and-coming restaurant groups of right this second.

Being the hotel’s full-service restaurant means catering to everyone from global hotel guests to young locals to former association members returning for a blast from the past. In the evening, the dining room is romantically low-lit, interrupted only occasionally by older diners using their phones as flashlights to see the menu.

Beverage director Paul McGee’s drink menu (all offerings $13) is split between house cocktails (tweaked classics such as the sherry- and bourbon-spiked Izzy Bizzy Fizz made with pineapple and lemon juices) and historic drinks inspired by a rotating cocktail book–right now it’s the 1914 book “Drinks” by Jacques Straub. After hearing that I usually order old fashioneds, my server steered me to the Toronto, which swaps in Letherbee’s fernet for bitters, giving the drink an herbal edge.

With so many cocktails, it’s easy to overlook the extensive wine list, but that would be a mistake with sommelier Andrew Algren in the driver’s seat. If anyone can combine expertise with humor and a complete lack of pretension, it’s an Alinea vet who can confidently rock the Twitter handle @rieslingslut.

As for the food, Coenen said his philosophy is to “undersell on the menu and then overdeliver … when the plate gets to the table,” which means the descriptions of dishes on the menu are way simpler than they actually are. The best example of that might be Coenen’s beet salad ($12), which at face value sounds like every other beet salad you have had, with goat cheese, baby greens and vinaigrette. In reality, it’s a gorgeous magenta- and gold-striped terrine made from the cheese and beets, surrounded by bits of greens and wisps of shaved beet.

Painstaking preparation also goes into the sauces, which were the most memorable parts of the entrees I tried. Halibut ($33) with mussels and peekytoe crab swims in bloody mary nage–a rich, brothy sauce that Coenen crafts by simmering his own blend of tomatoes and spices with McGee’s housemade bloody mary mix, then emulsifying it with a mussel juice-flavored spiced butter right before serving. A duck dish ($34) features a tender leg and seared slices of duck breast luxuriating in a plummy clove- and juniper-laced sauce.

If you don’t want to mess with fancy plated stuff, you can go for a no-frills steak (maybe The OG, a dry-aged 20-ounce ribeye, $65) and a side of crazy-good buttermilk mashed potatoes ($4) or baby carrots ($7) with carrot-top pesto and a smear of melty burrata, which had me vowing never to eat carrots without either of these toppings ever again. And there’s also the staple of any good hotel restaurant, a burger: Here, it’s a triple patty stack ($14) with horseradish-mustard aioli, caramelized onions and smoked gouda.

Though they weren’t available for the first few weeks of business, McGee’s spin on vintage ice cream drinks ($11) cleverly served in milk bottles were added last week, including a brandy alexander and a grasshopper. Featuring locally made Bobtail ice cream, they’re a fun way to end a more casual meal here if pastry chef Kristine Antonian’s more composed desserts–such as a beautifully plated deconstructed carrot cake–might feel too formal for the given occasion.

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Reporters visit restaurants unannounced and meals are paid for by RedEye. lmarnett@redeyechicago.com | @redeyeeatdrink