Louisa Chu: Drag brunch prevails at The Walnut Room, where history and radical acceptance collide
CHICAGO — Every other weekend or so, if you head up seven floors to The Walnut Room, in the store once known as Marshall Field’s on State Street in Chicago, you’ll feel the music before you see the spotlights beaming from the show.
If you planned ahead, you’ll end up seated somewhere around the fountain, where the holiday tree usually hangs. The tree is literally hung from the ceiling, to keep some seasonal weight off the floor, with the priceless Tiffany domed ceiling below.
That floor has carried the weight of generations. Families come not just for the winter holidays, but new traditions too — notably drag brunches nearly every weekend throughout the year.
Macy’s, which bought Field’s in 2006, announced the first drag brunch at the restaurant to kick off LGBTQ+ Pride Month back in June 2021.
They seemed, for the most part, to have escaped the hate campaigns that escalated in 2022. UpRising Bakery and Cafe in Lake in the Hills, a suburb about an hour’s drive northwest of the city, canceled a sold-out family-friendly drag event after a vandal smashed windows.
