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New SItsnto MirrRacetrack NeighbBy SHERYL RANIERIOperators of the Sheraton-Homewood Inn at 17400 South Halsted street, Homewood, will emphasize the new hotel’s dining and food service facilities when they open their doors for business late this month Management is planning a grand opening for late August.Ninety per cent of the people hired to staff the new inn are area workers, with the executive staff comprised mostly of hotel business veterans from other establishments, according to Richard Blok. Sheraton-Homewood general manager.Howard S. Skillrud. assistant to the general manager, described the new inn as an “ultra-modern facility,”“WE HOPE to become known for superior food service,” Skillrud said.Facilities at the five-story structure sport a theme compatible with its neighbor immediately to the south, Washington Park racetrack.Dining facilities include the Turf club, the main dining roomwhich features a gourmet restaurant area called the Winner's circle; the Pool and Paddock snack bar; the Thoroughbred lounge, and the the Triple Crown ballroom for banquet accommodations.Tableside cooking will be featured in the Turf club, which will seat 250 guests. The restaurant’s menu will offer continental cuisine for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily.THE WINNER’S circle, reached by mounting stairs to a platform in the center of the Turf club, seats 20 and also features tableside cooking. A specified menu for a complete nine-course dinner will be highlighted each evening in the gourmet section. Menus will vary from week to week.The Pool and Paddock snack bar, located in the recreation atrium, one of two central chambers that torm the inn, is adjacent to the swimming pool area.Live entertainment will be featured six nights each week in the Thoroughbred lounge. The room will accommodate 150 persons.Banquet facilities are available in the Triple Crownballroom Capacity of the ballroom is 800 persons, and partitions divide the room into three smaller quarters - - the Kentucky Derby, Belmont andPreakness rooms - - to accommodate smaller groups. Nine crystal chandeliers imported from Czechoslovakia are part of the room’s decor.DINING facilities will be available to persons other than hotel guests, Blok said.The inn houses 217 rooms available for living quarters, including 12 parlors, rooms furnished with a sofa bed adjoining a bedroom; two custom suites; two wheelchair rooms, and a majority of double rooms.A whirlpool will be available in the recreation atrium, which also houses an indoor-outdoor swimming pool. The two halves of the nine-foot-deep pool, open only to hotel guests, are separated by a floor-to-ceiling glass partition under which pool user's may swim.The new inn in Homewood is owned and operated by Irwin Enterprises of Homewood and managed by Taylor-Irwin, Inc., of Memphis, Tenn.GENERAL Manager Blok, a native of Holland, was general manager at the Sheraton Inn in Lincoln, Neb., before he came to Homewood. Skillrud, his assistant, formerly was assistant to the general manager at the Sheraton in Madison, Wis.Other members of the executive staff are A. L. Weh-meyer, director of sales, formerly with the Sheraton in Cleveland, Ohio; Carl Koch, maitre d'hotel, from the Sheraton in Munich, Germany, and two chefs, one from the Sheraton in Lincoln where Blok was manager , and one from the Ritz Carlton hotel in London.The core of the waiter-waitress staff and the sales force at the inn are area workers. Blok said.“Public acceptance of the facility (the inn) has been extremely gratifying in terms of pre-opening sales,” Skillrud said in reference to early bookings at the hotel.Blok added that banquet occasions - - mostly weddings and bar mitzvahs - - have been booked in the dining and ballroom facilities into 1977.Dining is intended to be a feature event for patrons of the new Sheraton-Homewood Inn. To insure that it is, cooking in the Turf club, the 250-seat main dining room under construction above, will be done tableside. The elevated vacant platform at center will be the Winner’s circle, a gourmet dining area which will accommodate 20 persons.Continentals to PerformTHE STAR: Thursday, July 15,1976HF 3ilt;v». a*.!Sbf;This room and some 200 others like it, furnished in modern decor, are being prepared for guests of the Sheraton-Homewood Inn. The hotel also offers 12 parlor rooms, two custom suites and two wheelchair rooms.IItIr- •vy-X4m*While in service this glass-enclosed elevator’s movements will be visible to persons dining in the Turf club, the main dining room at the Sheraton-Homewood Inn. An identical elevator will be visible from the pool area.*#*»-• Jr.Swimming facilities at the Sheraton-Homewood Inn will include this indoor half of an indoor-outdoor swimming pool. A five-story-high glass partition separates the two halves of the pool, which are nine feet deep at their maximum depth. Pool users may swim in either half of the pool by paddling under the partition.The Triple crown ballroom at the Sheraton-Homewood Inn awaits the final touches that will make the banquet room suitable for a capacity crowd of 800 persons. Partitions will divide theroom into three smaller facilities - - ihePreakness, Belmont and Kentucky derby rooms. Nine crystal chandeliers like the one pictured were imported from Czechoslovakia forthe ballroom.
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Hazel Crest Star
Hazel Crest, Illinois, US
Thu, Jul 15, 1976
Page 4
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USA 08 Jul 2022
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