Ernest Lessing (Ernie) Byfield (1890 - 10 February 1950) was a famed hotelier and restauranteur in 1930's and 1940's Chicago. Byfield operated the Hotel Sherman Co., including the Ambassador East and West, the Sherman, the Fort Dearborn and the Drake Hotels and The Pump Room and College Inn restaurants. Wikipedia
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Ernie Byfield. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Byfield
...When Ernie Byfield opened The Pump Room in The Ambassador East Hotel on October 1, 1938, he undoubtedly had little idea that he was beginning an enterprise that would ... www.pumproom.com/history.html