STREETERVILLE — Water Tower Place has long been a destination for shoppers and diners, but starting this April it will have an attraction for sports fans, too.
The Harry Caray's restaurant franchise will open a 22,000-square-foot "complex" on the mall's seventh floor that will include the 8,000-square-foot Chicago Sports Museum, a memorabilia mecca for tourists and fans of Chicago sports.
"For superfans like me, it will be nirvana," Grant DePorter, CEO of the Harry Caray Restaurant Group and Cubs superfan who famously bought the "Bartman Ball" for nearly $115,000, said in a statement.
The 250-seat restaurant includes a 60-seat bar in the Harry Caray restaurant franchise's signature style — dark wood walls lined with sports memorabilia and HDTVs tuned to sports channels.
Open for lunch and dinner daily, Harry Caray's 7th Inning Stretch will serve American cuisine that includes free access to the adjacent museum.
Admission for non-diners is $6, which will include access to the museum's interactive exhibits, such as a forensics room that demonstrates "how CSI-type techniques can be used to unravel sports theories."
Artifacts like Sammy Sosa's corked bat will be on display.
Also slated for the museum is a "Hall of Legends" where guests can play sports-themed games with virtual versions of Chicago athletes, and a stone-clad "curses and superstitions" room devoted to the Cubs' goat and sports rituals.
Admission to the seventh-floor museum will be $3 for seniors and kids ages 3-11. Kids 2 and younger can visit the museum for free.