Chicago Publishers Gallery & Café

Located on the first floor of the Chicago Cultural Center, the Chicago Publishers Gallery & Café is a permanent collection of over 2300 books and periodicals from over 100 book publishers and 75 periodical publishers, as well as hundreds of authors, all based in Chicago or greater Illinois. The Gallery showcases every type of publication imaginable, from best-selling novels to underground comic books; from classical masterpieces to children’s verse; from daily newspapers to full-set encyclopedias; and much, much more. It also includes a café serving fresh food at reasonable prices.

Due to its popularity with visitors and Chicago’s publishing community alike, the Gallery was expanded in October 2009. While the two original nooks on either side of the grand staircase remain in tact, six additional reading areas were added to the main room of the Randolph Cafe: a children’s corner, a writers’ corner, a news corner, a local interest corner, a reference book area, and a browsing table for books of art and photography. The café décor also got an updated look, with new tables, seating, displays of letterpress art, and banners featuring book photography by Laurie Rubin.

Visitors are invited to read books in the Gallery, use the Gallery computer to browse the extensive list of publishing resources, and relax in the lounge with refreshments from the café. Though the books in the collection are not for sale, visitors are strongly encouraged to seek out and buy titles from the Gallery.