Charles Contnental House - Effin classy, baby!

In 1974, if you had a couple of hours to kill at Chicago's Midway airport, you could find an Ihop, or eat at Jack-In-The-Whatever, or you could get classy by dining at the Charles Continental House, pretty much at the foot of the runway. It was located at 5400 South Cicero, near 55th street and Archer Ave.

When I am elected Supreme Ruler of the Universe, all restaurants will be hideously overdecorated by a member of the Gambino family. It doesn't matter which one. I bet even the Gambino's dog would have had a certain flair for paneling. One could say that the Charles Continental House (or CCH) had a color scheme, but one would be pretty wrong. Yes, it had a color scheme in that they hatched a scheme to use color.

"Let's see. We got your blue squishy divider thing there, and your kinda corpuscle-red carpets. Byootyful, byootyful. Good start. Howsabout some of them green water glasses there, just to make sure people don't think we only know blue and red, hah? And order us up a couple gross of them fancy statuaries there, you know, to give the place a nice schmear of class."

Accessorizing their dining room was handled with similar restraint.

"We needs us a chandelier. None of the ones in this catalog looks nice enough. Order me up a couple two three of them and we'll stick em all together into one big nice chandelier, yeah!

"Roll through the rest of this restaurant stuff catalog, and if you'se see something that's got gold on it or looks like a Greek wit no arms, you buy it!"

In the lounge, you'd be pampered with the best of the carpet that was left after the fire at the Condessa Del Mar. If you were dining in the lounge, you'd be insulated from the exuberance of the bar area by a completely soundproof patio railing. Meanwhile, your mood would be complete, with the help of the light filtering through the colored plastic wall divider thingy, enchantingly. Music was provided by the complete catalog of Sergio Mendez and Brasil 66.

So, the next time you've got a layover at Midway in 1974, please drop by the Charles Continental, won't you? The atmosphere makes the food seem undercooked, and nobody cares how you smell in an airport.