The Berghoff

The story

The Berghoff opened as a saloon in 1898 and became a Loop institution shaped by German-American Chicago. Murals, dark timber, historic bars and one of the city’s earliest post-Prohibition liquor licences anchor a story of immigration and urban change.

Why The Berghoff is iconic

It preserves a major strand of Chicago’s cultural history in a large, atmospheric downtown restaurant that still functions at full scale.

Selected by Ernst Aben · Information reviewed July 2026