Wine Bar at the Walnut Room

We just stopped in here for a drink one evening after walking around downtown. It took us forever to realize that it was inside Macys! The bar area was a pretty cool place! They had a long row of large tables and you just sit there either next to each other or across...with others sitting to the right of left of you. It feels like a huge long dinning room table. Anyway, it is a different setup and it was nice for a drink...Seems like a fun happy hour place.

Very decent wine bar. Excellent staff. It's nice to still sit in this historic place as an adult. My grandmother used to take me to the Walnut Room when I was a kid (no wine bar back then)  and now I get to sit and sip a glass of Gruet and think about her and how much she loved Marshall Field's. Obviously, part of my review is rooted in nostalgia but honestly, I do give them credit for creating such a nice little bar area. They have happy hour specials that reduce the cost of a glass of wine to $5 and the selections are surprisingly contemporary and intelligent. The food is ok. I had the crab cakes last night and they were semi-cold. There was a nice little salad accompanying it which was appreciated but no bread basket, which I found odd. My husband had the special pasta which he said was good. It's a very interesting crowd that comes to a department store wine bar on a Friday night. The people next to us seemed stunned that last call came at 6:45 p.m. Overall, it's a great place to drop by and relive old traditions at Christmas time or create some new ones after a long day of shopping.

Definitely a yearly Christmas tradition.  If it isn't on your list of things to do at Christmas...it should be.  Just don't go when it's packed.

This year we ordered the egg nog alexander and a proseco.  Egg nog was way too thick and the proseco was warm and flat.  But, got to be near the famous tree at Christmas time and that's the magic of the place.