Pump Room’s Replacement to Close in Gold Coast

After almost two and a half years in Gold Coast, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises’s Booth One is closing inside the 285-room Ambassador Chicago Hotel. The restaurant, a revamp of the legendary Pump Room, will serve its last meal on June 29. Hotel management will open a replacement restaurant in July and Lettuce will exit the operation, according to a news release.

The decision was mutual, the news release added. This marks another chapter for the Gold Coast space at 1301 N. State Parkway. The last iteration of the Pump Room, a nostalgic restaurant that once drew celebrities, closed in 2017. LEYE took over the space, but didn’t have the legal rights to use the Pump Room name. The company decided on Booth One, a reference to the best seat in the house. This is the second time LEYE has exited the space. Chicago’s largest full-service restaurant company ran the space from 1976 to 1998.

Reps for the hotel didn’t immediately share upcoming plans — they’ll know more in about a week. After the Pump Room closed in 2017, the hotel ran a basic restaurant to serve guests until Lettuce took over the restaurant’s operations. Perhaps that’s the space’s short-term future, but stay tuned for updates.