The Lost Glamour of the Department-Store Restaurant

This article was adapted from the June 18, 2022. You can sign up here

My mother only wanted to go to the Macy's on State Street when she was in Chicago. The store was dirty and in bad shape. For a reason, we were there.

Frango Mints are an example of how department-store food used to entrance the American shopper.

Regional stores such as Filene's, Wanamaker's, Frederick & Nelson, and J.L. Hudson's all had elegant restaurants as well.

Most of these stores and their restaurants were off the map because of our cultural need for speed. Many of their specialties have been around for a long time.

More Than Shopping

The title of Zola's Au Bonheur Des Dames sums up the appeal of The Ladies' Paradise. The imported French concept of the department store was a step in the right direction for white, middle- and upper-class American women.

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Women were able to shop, socialize, watch fashion shows, and write to their friends on store stationery. I don't mean plastic-wrapped sandwiches and styrofoam cups.

The Crystal Tea Room in Philadelphia was advertised as a place of rendezvous, recreation, and refreshment. Tea sandwiches, sweet and savory pies, salad-stuffed tomatoes, and elaborate desserts appealed to the mostly-female clientele and kept them in the stores to shop longer.

The homey, familiar qualities of their dishes were extolled on the menu. Exotic fruits and continental sounding recipes can be found in many department store restaurants.

Department-store restaurants were the toast of the town for a long time. My mother is fond of those green boxes of Frango Mints, even though she couldn't afford to eat at these fancy venues. She feels like she was in on an elegant secret.

Taste the Past

There are many online recipes for department store specialties of the past. People often look for instructions from old newspapers and books. Some of the most classic department-store delicacies are represented by the following foods.

Frango mints.

The treat of treats came from our famous daylight kitchens. Frango Mints has long been considered a calling card of Chicago because of its rich chocolate and thick coating of milk chocolate.

Frango Mints started far away from the city. For decades, the seventh floor of the State Street store in Chicago turned out sweets by the million.

The Chicago Tribune reported that the "xenophobic outrage was all-consuming" when Marshall Field began making candy out of state. That explains why Macy's still meekly produces the beloved candy after taking over Marshall Field's.

You don't have to make your own Frango Mints. On the Macy's website, you can purchase them. The classic Frango Mint pie is one of the treats that need to be given to them.

There is a coconut cream pie.

The ladies are crying. The Los Angeles Times said in 1993 that Coconut Cream Pie would never be tasted again. The Monte Cristo sandwiches, the Bombay salad with honey-sweet Poppy-Seed Dressing, the bread pudding, the scones and tea are no longer available.

The Art Deco masterpiece on Wilshire Boulevard used to bustle with shoppers and diners. Almost 30 years after the Tea Room closed, Angelenos still crave the coconut cream pie.

There are many recipes for this pie. If you don't boil the pie filling for two hours, you'll have soup, not pie filling.

The chicken is named Amandine.

Fresh fruit was a luxury back in the day. Guests were lured with exotic and out of season treats, such as fresh strawberries flown in from New Zealand. Other restaurants used canned fruits, but added mayonnaise and other mid century condiments.

The fruit would end up in a salad. Just as often the fruit was blended into chicken salad.

Chicken amandine with frozen fruit salad was the Magnolia Room's specialty. Several kinds of canned fruit, bound together with mayonnaise, powdered sugar, and cream cheese, and embellished with marshmallows and food coloring, were part of the side salad.

If you dare, you can make this unique combination on a restaurant menu, but it won't be on the menu anymore.

Pinkies Up

Department store cuisine is still alive and well. Basic meals are offered by many stores. You will need to find the following restaurants for the past.

There is a room in Chicago.

According to legend, the chicken pot pie was created by a saleswoman at the store in 1890. There is more than one pie on the menu at the Walnut Room. Frango Pie is made with the famous mint candy.

The Zodiac room is located in Dallas.

Pot pie, popovers, and pot roast are all on the menu at the circa-1953 Zodiac Room restaurant, which was the first restaurant in the world to serve department store cuisine.

The L.S. Ayres tea room is in Indianapolis.

The tea room at L.S. Ayres was closed in 1990. There is a replica of the Indiana State Museum. Chicken velvet soup can be found in the Tea Room, which is open for the winter holidays.

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