by lisanti

August 19, 2004

From journal 48 Hours in Chicago

The Signature Room is a restaurant and lounge/bar on the 95th (restaurant)/96th (lounge) floors of the Hancock Building. Now, the Hancock Observatory is on the 94th floor. You do the math.

To get to the Hancock Observatory, you will pay $9.75 for adults, $7.75 for seniors 62+, $6 for kids 5 to 12, and free for kids 4 and under. To get into the Signature Room Lounge - it's FREE (with a one drink minimum).

We arrived around two on a Saturday, and found the long line to go to the Signature Room Lounge (separate elevator and waiting area than the observatory), but it only took about 20 minutes to get on the elevator. The elevator was nonstop and took less than a minute to get to the top. [Note: If you are going to eat at the Signature Room Grille, you have priority and can skip to the front of the line]

Once you are in the lounge, you are overlooking the grille below, and the view of Chicago through the windows is breathtaking.

Since it was Saturday afternoon, the lounge was fairly crowded, and we were seated in the middle, away from the windows (I saw one guy slip a waiter some cash to get a seat by the windows).

With the one drink minimum, you will need to buy a drink - a soft drink is $5, beer is $6.50, champagne is $9, and specialty martinis and drinks are $10-12. We each ordered a specialty martini, which was very yummy, but small.

With our table in the middle of the room, we could see out the windows, but only towards one side of the building - not really well enough to take any decent pictures. We got up and looked out the window, but I kind of felt I was invading other people's space.

After finishing our drinks, we decided to walk around, and found the other side of the Signature Room (through the hallway)! This is where you should go!! There was much more space with tables and a large bar in the middle. You could easily walk around, and the people were very friendly about letting you get close to the windows (which there were a lot more of - with three sides of the building to look out of). The atmosphere was much more casual and it was really sunny. Much better!

Also, the Hancock Observatory (94th floor) is only open (daily) from 9am to 11pm, whereas the Signature Room Lounge (96th floor) is open Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 4pm to 12am and Friday to Sat 4pm to 1am.

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