The Gaithersburg Maryland Hilton has a restaurant called Rook’s Corner and is totally a chess theme. I visited a small tournament being held there this afternoon and took some photos posted at members.cox.net/tournaments/photo_gallery.htm
Part of the EF for the tournament was a buffet dinner. How cool could it be eating in a chess restaurant
Mike
p.s. I had nothing to do with the tournament and this isn’t an advertisement. A chess restaurant just strikes me as so cool…and they contacted Omar to do tournaments!
I asked about that and it was just the idea of the manager or the restaurant manager, so yeah, they must have chosen that option. Only thing they needed to add was a black and white checkerboard tile to replace the rug
I didn’t see any chess-themed menu items, but deep fried sacrificial bishops, Passed Pawn Pound Cake, Stalemate beer and other delicasies come to mind…
The Renaissance Hotel (Northbrook, IL), is similarly themed. In fact, the restaurant here is also called the Rook’s Corner and looks just like yours! Unfortunately, though, I’ve yet to play in a tournament that is hosted in the restaurant itself (there are frequent tournaments at the hotel by the Renaissance Knights group) but then again, that food might end up being distracting
Interesting, a lady at the Gaithersburg Hilton said they were the only chess themed restaurant and that it was an idea of their managers. Either they picked the design from a book when designing the hotel, or this manager’s idea became popular.
Both places called “Rooks Corner” and they look exactly alike seems to stretch the laws of probability. Seems more likely to have been a choice from a Hilton Restaraunt planning guide.
