Restauranteur Amy Morton has opened 1898, a 25-seat speakeasy bar, tucked down a cobblestone alley behind The Barn Steakhouse in Highland Park, a Chicago suburb. This is her second concept launch in the same location within months. The entrance is discreet, the seating is limited, and the bar program is built around fat-washed spirits and savory cocktail builds.
The name ‘1898’ references both the building’s original street address and the year it was constructed. Morton has tied her family history directly into the concept. Her great-grandfather operated a bootlegging business in 1920s Chicago under the cover of being a neighborhood pharmacist. During Prohibition, there were 7000 speakeasies in Chicago and the secretive bar community developed through these establishments. The coded means of entering them had a great deal to do with how the social scene in the city developed at that time.
“1898 was conceived as a counterpoint to The Barn Steakhouse. A different tempo, a different mood, but cut from the same cloth. Next door, it’s all about the energy of a full room and a great meal. Here, the focus shifts to something more intimate and more deliberate. The bar program, the scale, the alleyway entrance, all of it is designed to feel like a discovery. The kind of place you stumble upon and feel instantly lucky to have found,” Morton said.
Fat-washed spirits and savory cocktail builds have become a serious point of differentiation in ambitious bar programs over the last few years, and 1898‘s menu is built around exactly that approach.
Eight signature cocktails form the lineup. The Archer is built with olive oil, Castelvetrano olives, and fine sea salt. Green Mountain washes bourbon with aged cheddar and layers in maple. The Pistachio Martini goes fully rich and indulgent. Midnight Service pairs tequila with coffee, built around Mr. Coffee, landing somewhere between a nightcap and a provocation. The Velvet Handshake and Apricot Boulevard work stone-fruit riffs on classic structures, and Drawing Room uses tea in place of citrus for a more tannic, aromatic finish.
The room runs with tufted leather settees, velvet floor-to-ceiling draping, soft ambient lighting, vintage artwork, and layered shelving that gives it the feel of a private library.
Caviar leads the food menu, with paddlefish at $45, hackleback at $70, and Siberian at $120, each served with tater tots and crème fraîche. The menu also includes salted nuts and olives, mezze, butter-poached lobster rolls, rotating artisanal cheeses and small seasonal sweets.
A private room behind the main bar accommodates approximately 60 seated or 80 standing, with full bar integration available for buyouts. Private event reservations will begin this summer.
