Bernard's is on the second floor of the Waldorf Astoria Chicago on Walton Street in the Gold Coast. It's named after Bernard Heerey, a Chicago philanthropist, and the interior takes its cues from equestrian culture and Coco Chanel, which is a combination that would be hard to explain without seeing it but lands gracefully in person.

The cocktails are spirit-forward and Prohibition-era in spirit without being costumed about it. The hotel provides the concealment that a basement entrance would elsewhere: most people walking through the Waldorf lobby are not thinking about the whiskey bar upstairs.