Ernie Byfield

Ernest Lessing Byfield (November 3, 1889 – 10 February 1950) was an American hotelier and restaurateur from the 1930s through the 1950s in Chicago, Illinois. Byfield operated the Hotel Sherman Co., including the Ambassador East and West, the Sherman House Hotel, the Fort Dearborn and the Drake hotels and The Pump Room and College Inn restaurants.

Biography Byfield was born to a Jewish family in Chicago on November 3, 1889. His father, Joseph, the son of innkeepers in Hungary, immigrated to Chicago in 1867 as a teen and changed the family name from Beifeld to Byfield. The Pump Room was the preferred stopping-off point for celebrities changing trains in Chicago while travelling between New York City and Los Angeles. Stage and screen stars of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s would be invited to join Byfield in Booth 1 at the restaurant and would often boast to their friends that they had "lunched with Ernie" while they were in Chicago. The Pump Room has been described as the most famous restaurant in Chicago and was known for bringing theatrics to the restaurant business. The number of flambé dishes served by his restaurant, The Pump Room, was noted and started a trend in the post-war United States.

Personal life and death Byfield was married three times. His first wife was Gladys Rosenthal who was also Jewish; she was the daughter of Benjamin J. Rosenthal, the founder of the Chicago Mail Order Company (later known as Aldens). His third wife was beauty salon owner Adele Sharpe Thomas, a gentile who was thirty years younger; they remained married until his death. He died on February 10, 1950. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall attended the funeral and Chicago mayor Martin Kennelly did too.

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