Palace Grill - 70 Years of Service

The question has come up many times on this forum about where to get a good breakfast or lunch when attending an event at the United Center/UIC Pavilion/Oprah, etc. My recommendation is usually the Palace Grill, which has been in operation since 1938 serving the working men and women of the west loop. Until now, Palace Grill has not had a thread of its own, so I thought it was high time they had one.

Palace Grill


The Palace is a basic diner at heart, though in recent years, with the gentrification of the neighborhood, the owners have fixed up 1/2 of the diner into a sit down, sports memorabilia themed restaurant. Their collection of memorabilia is extremely good and authentic, BTW.

For me, the old side, with the counter situated in front of the hard working grill men is the place to sit.

Cooking Up Breakfast at the Palace Grill


You can always count on a good breakfast served up hot and fresh. Their potatoes are an interesting version, being basically mashed potatoes that are cooked until the outsides are a crisp dark brown, while the interiors remain light and fluffy. They've got a pretty good hand with eggs and my scrambled easy eggs with cheese were prepared with a deft touch, although the cheese was added at the end rather than scrambled into the eggs as I would have preferred. There are daily lunch specials as well as a pretty extensive menu of diner classics.

Palace Grill Scrambled Eggs with Cheese and Sausage


If you find yourself in the West Loop looking for breakfast or lunch and you don't want to stand in line at Wishbone, the Palace Grill will not disappoint.

Palace Grill
1408 W Madison St
Chicago, IL
312-226-9529

I work a few blocks from there and Palace Grill is in heavy rotation for lunch. I was just there Wednesday and had the superb rueben, which has been mentioned on the rueben thread, justly so. The breakfast choices are excellent, prices reasonable, it's a west loop jewel. It has my vote.

Steve,

Do you know when they remodelled? I started going to the Palace soon after Johnny's Icehouse opened up across the street and that was about 10 years ago; the remodelling had already happened before my first visit.

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I used to go to the Palace with considerable regularity for lunch after morning skates and the various things I ordered were always pretty good (I esp. liked the omelette with feta and tomato) but it was hard to find options that were both appealing and even minimally on the healthy side. The nearby Bombon on Ashland by the intersection with Ogden is a more upscale and in my view more interesting option for lunch but if you're looking for diner grub -- with the usual positives and negatives that that can entail, the Palace is the place in that part of the city. I might be wrong but I believe the Palace now serves beer and wine too, though I say that only on the basis of thinking I have seen a neon beer sign or two hangin in the windows.

Antonius

Antonius wrote:Steve,

Do you know when they remodelled? I started going to the Palace soon after Johnny's Icehouse opened up across the street and that was about 10 years ago; the remodelling had already happened before my first visit.

Tony,

It's been quite some time since the remodeling, which pre-dated Johnny's Icehouse by at least 8 years (maybe longer).

Thanks, Steve. That's interesting, because the neighbourhood was still pretty rough back then. It was a good move on their part in anticipation of the gentrification.

For sports fans, the memorabilia they have hanging up is pretty cool... lots of Blackhawk related stuff... some Bulls and Cubs stuff... maybe Sox as well but at the moment I can;t remember...

As others have said, the place is an institution and I hope it continues to thrive for a long time.

A

Antonius wrote:Thanks, Steve. That's interesting, because the neighbourhood was still pretty rough back then. It was a good move on their part in anticipation of the gentrification.

I think the driving force behind the rennovation had to do with the construction of the United Center, which caused many of the long term business owners to either sell out to developers or fix the place up. A boom in construction in that part of town (and Oprah) followed.

stevez wrote:

Antonius wrote:Thanks, Steve. That's interesting, because the neighbourhood was still pretty rough back then. It was a good move on their part in anticipation of the gentrification.

I think the driving force behind the rennovation had to do with the construction of the United Center, which caused many of the long term business owners to either sell out to developers or fix the place up. A boom in construction in that part of town (and Oprah) followed.

Makes sense. The Palace remains very popular with UC visitors and esp. Hawks fans, I think.

Worth noting too is the fact that the Palace has a reasonably good-sized parking lot; street parking in the area has becomne very tight in the last few years and, of course, when there are events at the UC, it's even worse.

went to the palace for lunch today. ordered my usual - the skirt steak medium rare with a side of hash browns and coleslaw. it was juicy and delicious. my friend ordered the reuben and he was very pleased as well.

one note on this thread that no one has mentioned yet...

as a regular at the palace, i always enjoy schmoozing with the owner, george lemperis. george has some incredible stories from his years at the palace and he's always in a joking and light-hearted mood. george and his family are some of the nicest people around, bar none. everytime i'm there i feel as if i'm at home.

to another 30 years!

HI,

Chef Hans Aeschbacher, formerly of Smith and Wollensky and Trader Vic's, now works at the Palace Grill. According to a radio interview this morning, the diner shifts to a bistro type menu in the evening.

It may be a work in progress because Chef Hans commented he is teaching the staff to make the food consistently the same.

Regards,

HI,

Chef Hans menu is Monday through Friday evenings. I saw the menu, though they had no copies available. One dish caught my eye: beef short rib pot roast.

Palace Grill expects to have a website next week.

Regards,