![]() ![]() ![]() Another entrance can be found at the west end of this area, giving you access to a small, marble-floored arcade of shops that make up the rest of the first floor at the Drake. Many still remember when pianist Buddy Charles entertained guests at the Coq for more than 50 years until his retirement in 2001. The current cabaret-style line-up consists of Judy Roberts and Greg Fishman, who play jazz and blues standards Thursday through Saturday, from 8:30pm to 12:30am. More seating can be found to the left of the bar in another long, narrow space filled with more low slung tables, wallpaper featuring the lounge’s namesake, and a piano. After a few cocktails, the ladies will find their restroom embedded in the wood paneled southeast wall, whilst the gents will have to step out of Coq d’Or and out into the hallway, through the southern entrance, to find their restroom a few steps on the left.Īcross from the bar are more tables, another banquette and a second French mural. The bar area is rather conducive for conversation, as you’re bound to find a few gentrified regulars and the two TVs above the bar have the volume turned low. A small variety of beer on tap and wine is also available, the latter of which is stored in the embedded wine rack in the eastern wall, just past the bar and next to the portal to the kitchen. ![]() Coq d’Or also serves the “Old Fashioned” made with sugar, bitters, fruit, bourbon and soda, as well as “The Perfect Manhattan” made with whiskey, dry and sweet vermouth, and shaken not stirred, just as Bond would have it if he ever got off martinis. You can also get yourself a Red Apple Martini, “Drake Kiss,” or sample from a few of other drinks menu selections. It may appear pricey, but you’re actually getting 1.5 martinis. The bar’s specialty is the martini, highlighted by the “Executive Martini.” This four-ounce concoction is made with eight ice cubes and is poured from a brandy snifter when you order one on the rocks. Feel free to take whatever free table you like as there are is no hostess stand, or walk a little further and you can pull up a high-backed wooden barstool at the bar that runs half the length of the north wall. A banquette of red leather lies against the western wall and below a mural of the French countryside sometime during the Napoleonic Era. As you pass through the plate glass door framed in wood, you’ll find a somewhat narrow, hallway-like space filled with low-slung wooden tables with white tablecloths and red leather-padded chairs. As you pass through the southern threshold, Coq d’Or’s entrance is located just a few steps to your right. The Golden Cockerel and Executive Martini Coq d’Or, French for “golden cockerel” (a cockerel is a young rooster), is located on the first floor of the Drake Hotel, at the top of Michigan Avenue on the Magnificent Mile, and the bar is most easily accessible from the elegant southern entrance through the revolving door. All of the above makes Coq d’Or one of the best cocktail lounges in the city and is one of the few hotel bars with character in the entire world. ![]() Coq d’Or became the second establishment in the city to serve alcohol following Prohibition and, since then, continues to offer an intimate space in which to enjoy an expertly poured martini, a cup of the legendary Bookbinder soup, and the sounds of jazz piano on weekends. What I found was a charismatic Chicago room that embodies the classiness of the hotel itself, which has drawn the likes of Emperor Hirohito of pre-war Japan, Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth II, Jawaharlal Nehru (first Prime Minister of independent India), Princess Diana, Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, Eleanor Roosevelt, Walt Disney, and a host of U.S. As a resident of this great city, I rarely spend time in downtown hotels and, more importantly, I don’t happen to know anyone prestigious enough or having enough money to spend a night in the Drake… Regardless, my curiosity was finally satisfied recently, just prior to the second Chicago History Museum Pub Crawl, which made its second-to-last stop at Coq d’Or. Until my recent visit, I did not even realize that I had never stepped foot within the Drake Hotel, in which Coq d’Or can be found. For years I have been intrigued by the red leather piano bar, Coq d’Or. ![]()
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