Breakfast for Two at Sixteen
For the first 15 minutes or so, it was just the two of us, which meant that we were the most fascinating people in the room. The staff kind of hovered. Even though construction of the 92-floor building won’t be finished until summer of 2009, things looked pretty swanky from where we were sitting. Which just happened to be in the River Room, in cerulean blue chairs next to one of the 30-foot-high windows, with a very nice view of the Wrigley Building’s clock tower. It’s a striking space, full of beautiful swirly-grained African wood.

As soon as we sat down, our waiter asked if we wanted freshly squeezed orange juice. Sure. Skinny shooter glasses filled with yummy berry juice came as freebies. Faced with numerous possibilities for upscale morning fare, I foolishly ordered the plainest plate on the menu: sunny side-up eggs, ham, home fries, tomatoes Provençal, and toast ($15). For some reason, they brought out just the ham and eggs. As two side orders. No tomatoes, no home fries, no toast. (I asked for the tomatoes, which eventually arrived, and just wrote off the other two.) The eggs were good, but they were just eggs; the ham flavorful and meaty. Nice tomatoes (though they’ve got nothing on the tomatoes Provençal that my mom makes); the breadcrumb topping held together pretty well. I know this because I knocked some of it onto the floor and it was easy to pick up. The food was fine, but at these prices, I expected more. I also expected the rest of my order.

My companion went with the eggs Benedict ($17), which our waiter recommended. Perfectly cooked eggs, puffy toasted English muffin. And Sixteen brings home the bacon—it’s moderately crispy, not too fatty. The highlight of the breakfast, though, was the crumpets ($3). We shared not one but two orders of the savory snack, which were tasty and doughy and fluffy, excellent with a bit of butter.

Service was great. The staff was attentive, and our friendly waiter even took us on a field trip to the ballroom after our meal. A nice touch that even The Donald would appreciate.