Lander's Restaurant / Miller's Pub, Chicago

This one threw me for a loop, since I always assumed venerable Chicago tavern Miller’s Pub had been here forever.

...turns out, it depends on your definition of “here”–Miller’s Pub was established in 1935, but it was located around the corner on Adams Street until 1989. Long before Miller’s moved onto Wabash, Greek immigrant Gus Lander opened up a restaurant here in the Hartman Building in 1937, when it was a nifty Streamline Moderne storefront designed by Alfred Alschuler's firm.

So, what's changed? Well, from the outside, just about everything about the restaurant...but given how fast that industry moves that's only natural. Too bad about those neat lights, though.

On a subtler note, you can just about make out the classical ornamentation on the Palmer House in the postcard, and 70+ years later it's still there. Same with the (much less grandiose) little medallion near the corner of the Hartman Building. Fun to see which details have managed to hang on.

Lander's Restaurant was a success, over the decades expanding to locations in the Northwestern suburbs. In a case of white flight writ small, it appears they prioritized those restaurants over their Chicago location, and their original Loop restaurant became a bit of an afterthought. Lander's Restaurant closed in 1969 or 1970, and the Gallios brothers–Pete, Nick, Jimmy and Van (also Greek, of course)–took over the space, opening Vannie's in 1970.

The Gallioses cut their teeth in Chicago’s restaurant industry working for Bill Sianis (also also Greek) at the Billy Goat Tavern (yeah, he was the one who tried to bring a goat to Wrigley Field and started that whole thing). In 1950, the Gallios brothers bought the Miller brothers’ pub–the story goes that changing the sign would’ve been too expensive, so they kept the name. Over the next twenty years, the brothers built up a little Gallios corner at Wabash and Adams, with Miller's Pub, the Wabash Inn, and Vannie's.

Miller's Pub was always their flagship, though, so when the tavern’s original building on Adams was demolished for a parking garage in 1989, they closed Vannie’s and moved Miller’s Pub into the space. Miller’s Pub has catered to a lunch and late night, theater-going and office-bound, tourist and local crowd in this spot ever since.

Lander’s sleek streamline moderne facade evokes another contemporaneous Alschuler design–the nearby Benson & Rixon building, also built in 1937. I can’t find a single photo of Vannie’s, so I’m not sure how long the Alschuler facade lasted, but the current Miller’s Pub facade dates to 1989. Upstairs, the Hartman Building–completed in 1925 and also designed by Alschuler–was converted into apartments, opening as The Alfred in 2019.

Further reading:

Our Story | Miller’s Pub | American Restaurant in Chicago, Illinois

Chicago institution since 1935 serving up traditional American grub & craft brews in a warm space.

Miller's Pub | American Restaurant in Chicago, Illinois

Getting to Know Miller’s Pub Through its Regulars

Welcome to The Regulars, a new feature written by Patrick Sisson that tells the story of Chicago’s iconic bars from the point of view of those who know it best; owners, staff and regulars. Now,…

Eater ChicagoEater Staff

Restaurant Tours: the Miller’s tale - Chicago Reader

Jim Gallios is as Chicago as the Wabash el, in whose shadows he’s been feeding much of the city for the past 46 years. Feeding it real food: steaks, prime rib, multiethnic specials, and some of the best barbecued ribs this side of 39th Street. Harry Truman once drank bourbon after hours at his joint; […]

Chicago ReaderDon Rose

Miller’s Pub’s Van Gallios, last surviving original owner of longtime Loop hot spot, has died at 86

The bar became a clubby beacon in the night for on-the-road ballplayers and touring celebs who were staying around the corner at the Palmer House.

Chicago Sun-TimesMaureen O’Donnell

Old office building at 30 E. Adams begins residential conversion

The 1925 structure will reopen as 176 new rental units.

Curbed ChicagoJay Koziarz

1925 Loop office building reopens as apartments

The former Hartman Building at 30 E. Adams is also home to Miller’s Pub.

Curbed ChicagoJay Koziarz

It looks like the Gallioses may have very briefly named the restaurant Verro's, before switching it to Vannie's (for Evangelos [Van] Gallios, the youngest brother) within a few months.