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^pera for Dessert by MARION ODMARK
Chicago's Kungsholm Restaurant is the only place in the world where puppets sing for your supper . . . Not a who-dun-it, but a how-dood-it!
A CHILDHOOD hobby, a belief in the better, more beautiful things in life, and a connoisseur's appetite are pretty slim promises of of success in the restaurant business. Yet these three factors put Frederick Chraemer and his Kungsholm restaurant, Chicago, in the national spotlight. It's a spotlight, incidentally, that's all his. For no other restaurant in the country affords grand opera for dessert, at no extra charge, without leaving the dining premises.
Chraemer began his restaurant career with three strikes against him, the three successive failures of earlier leaseholders of the Leander Hamilton McCormick mansion on Chicago's Gold Coast. There was dramatic elegance to this imposing, three-story edifice. But, once seen, the curious public found it unrewarding in interior warmth, cuisine distinction or hospitality.
And then Frederick Chraemer, against the counsel of his friends, took a try. He enlivened its sprawling rooms with color richness. He resurrected the type of dining made famous by such names as Rector's, Kinsleys, Richelieu and the old Grand Pacific. He called it Kungsholm, specializing in a bountiful smorgasbord and rich Scandinavian feasting
and wining. The final clinch to recognition was adding his hobby, puppet operas.
What was once the ballroom on the top floor he converted to the Kungsholm Miniature Grand Opera Theatre, approached by the grand staircase, the Swedish decor of the spacious theatre lounge, two charming foyers flanked with massive Italian torcheres from the original home. The general royal blue decorative scheme of the auditorium is modernistic, with soft restful contrasts. As large a group as 125 may be accommodated at one time, with comfortable chairs that may be placed at will. Needless to say, there's never a hat in the line of vision.
This illusionary and musical program brings into play the twofold fascination of life-like puppets acting to opera recordings that Victor and Columbia successfully garnered from the world's two greatest opera companies. La Scala Milan and L'Opera Paris. To present Chraemer's repertoire of 14 operas, 40 musical masterpiece albums are reproduced. By simple addition, that's a total of 420 records, 840 sides. And the guest artists include, naturally, such celebrated stars as Melchior, Flagstad, Tibbett, Jepson, Pons and on down the line.