All the Birds, Bars and Rock Icons at 24-Hour Restaurant and Music Venue The Hamilton

Grid View

• The Hamilton's walls are lined with these bird prints from the Field Museum in Chicago.
• The Hamilton commissioned these paintings from artist Hunt Slonem.
• Testing out the sound system and the lights in the below-ground entertainment venue.
• The sushi bar.
• The restaurant has four booths, called snugs, with leather banquettes and doors for privacy.

Holy wow. The Hamilton — the latest project from Clyde's Restaurant Group — is a monster of a restaurant rolled in with a live music venue, sushi spot and the feel of being in an aviary thanks to the 50-some portraits of North American birds lining these walls. Oh, and it'll be open 24 hours a day. The Hamilton is aiming for a December 18 opening, with its first live show taking place on December 23, and while there are still some finishing touches to be made — including the hanging of enormous custom-made chandeliers with Statue of Liberty detailing — Eater took a look around the forthcoming restaurant.

As with Clyde's, The Hamilton is a maze of rooms and bars, each designed ever so slightly differently, such as all mahogany in one room and oak in another. Some rooms are mostly bar space, others dining and one section has four private booths called snugs that are outfitted with doors. While most of the restaurant is decked out with a framed collection of Audubon North American bird prints from the Field Museum in Chicago, across the lobby is what has been dubbed the "arboretum dining room." This space bears paintings of tropical birds like toucans and parrots commissioned from abstract expressionist Hunt Slonem. Upstairs, there's another smaller section to the restaurant that they're hoping will be an after-hours hang space for the bands after their gigs here.

Oh yes. Bands. The basement of The Hamilton is a live music venue whose walls will be adorned with photos of rock icons like Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix that were most recently seen at the National Portrait Gallery. So if that's any indication of the serious money they dropped on this venue. There's no dance space here, though, it's all seating right up to the stage, though there's a small standing-room-only bar space off to the side.

There are two separate kitchens in this place — one for the club and another for the restaurant. The club will be serving things like sushi, pizza and sliders and will only be open when there's a show. Meanwhile, the restaurant level has several menus from which to choose, considering that it's going to be open all day, every day. There's breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, desserts and sushi. Yes, The Hamilton also has a sushi bar because if you already have a live music venue and a bird theme going on, might as well throw in sushi? So there will be things like a Denver burrito for breakfast, hangar steak poutine and muffalettas and more for dinner and something called "the big hot wiener" available late-night because that's sure to be a hit with the drunk folks.

Anyway, come hell or high water, The Hamilton will be opening in the next couple of weeks with its first live show on December 23rd — for which tickets are already available online.

· The Hamilton [Official Site]
· All Previous The Hamilton Coverage [-EDC-]