A Salad Compliments of the Edgewater Beach Hotel

The pink high-rise Edgewater Beach Apartments on Sheridan Road near Bryn Mawr stand as a reminder of the similar-looking yellow Edgewater Beach Hotel structures that once stood nearby. During its heyday in the 1920s through the 1940s, the hotel was a popular spot with honeymooners and celebrities alike. The hotel featured a large private beach and seaplane service to downtown. You could also eat one heck of a salad there.

Chef Arnold Shircliffe worked as the catering manager at the hotel. An extensive collection of his salad recipes, A Book of Salads: The Edgewater Beach Hotel Salad Book, was first published in 1926. It was known as “the bible of salad,” according to the Chicago Tribune archives.

In this book, Shircliffe elevates salads into works of art. Presentation is key, as many of the recipes describe how to artfully arrange the ingredients on the plate. Many of the salads are topped with decorative rosettes of cream cheese and other garnishes. Many also include unexpected combinations of fruits and vegetables. For example, in the Wedding Ring Salad recipe, slices of orange and green pepper and a cherry are arranged on top of a mound of rice to resemble a wedding ring. The Edgewater Beach Salad contains lettuce, pineapple, grapefruit, orange, cress, cream cheese, red pepper, and olives arranged in the shape of the hotel’s monogram design.

In a lengthy Foreword to the cookbook, Shircliffe extols the health benefits of salads and acknowledges that “American women have made the salad an American institution.” Shircliffe writes, “There is nothing that I know of that will cheer the fagging spirits and put joy into a girl’s heart quicker than for her to take one look at an epicurean delicacy in the form of a beautiful salad.” Clearly, Shircliffe knew how to cater to his female clientele.

The heyday of the Edgewater Beach Hotel came to an end in the early 1950s when Lake Shore Drive was extended north from Foster Avenue to Hollywood Avenue, essentially blocking the hotel’s direct access to the lake. Shircliffe went on to become manager of the Wrigley Building restaurant, a position he held until his death in 1952. The Edgewater Beach hotel was bankrupt by 1967 and demolished in 1971. Today the iconic pink Edgewater Beach Apartments building is the only portion of the complex that remains.

But Shircliffe’s elegant salad recipes live on. The Breakfast Salad begins with several lettuce leaves, on top of which is piled tomato, scrambled eggs whipped with cream and Worcestershire sauce, and boiled ham. The Maiden Blush Salad contains a strange combination of lettuce, pineapple, banana, pear, celery, strawberry, bar de luc, whipped cream, and mayonnaise.

Of the many salads in Shircliffe’s book, the Doctor Salad was one of the most popular and one he was most proud of. He wrote, “Once ordered, it meets with favor, and if the author only contributed this one recipe to the book it alone would be worth the price paid.” Of the salad’s ingredients, Shircliffe noted that “Lettuce means health, and health is youth. The tomato has minerals and a lively hue. Minerals for health and color to aid digestion. The cheese has lime, calcium and phosphorous, all health giving elements.” Shircliffe wrote of this salad, “It is economical, it is well balanced, and if eaten with toasted gluten or whole-wheat bread and a glass of milk, it makes an ideal luncheon.”

This healthy salad can help take you back to the Edgewater Beach Hotel’s glory days. The only way to eat it is to dig into the cottage cheese and tomato with a knife and fork and cut up the lettuce leaves into bite-sized pieces. 

Doctor Salad

    *based on salad master Arnold Shircliffe’s recipe in A Book of Salads: The Edgewater Beach Hotel      Salad Book

Ingredients:

Lettuce

Tomato

Cottage Cheese

Chives

Cream cheese (optional)

Cress (optional)

Directions:

Chop a small amount of chives and mix with cottage cheese. Place several large leaves of lettuce on a plate. Place a large slice of tomato in the center of the lettuce. On top of the tomato, place a scoop of the cottage cheese mixed with chives. Be careful not to use too big a scoop of cottage cheese or it will fall off the sides of the tomato slice. Garnish with chopped chives.  If you want to get really fancy, garnish with cress (if you can find it) and cream cheese rosettes just like Arnold Shircliffe used to do.

Sources:

Shircliffe, Arnold. A Book of Salads: The Edgewater Beach Hotel Salad Book. Chicago: Hotel Monthly Press, 1946.

Chicago Tribune archives

“Edgewater Beach Hotel.” WTTW Chicago Time Machine.   

“Saucy Salads and Sandwiches at the Edgewater Beach Hotel,” Forgotten Chicago: Examining Vintage Postcards. August 2, 2020. 

“Edgewater Beach Apartments—History.” Edgewater Beach Apartments.

“Edgewater Beach Hotel.” Wikipedia. May 23, 2023.