From Haunting to Healing: The Spiritual Cleansing of Chicago's Historic Restaurant
Updated: Sep 29
INTERIORWERX SUCCESS STORIES
Pain, Clues and Healing · Outcomes Worth Sharing
Have you ever walked into a room and known—without anyone telling you—that you were not alone?
Maybe the temperature changed.
Maybe the air suddenly felt heavy.
Maybe lights flickered, doors moved, objects fell, or a particular corner of the room simply felt… occupied.
We often dismiss these experiences as coincidence.
But what happens when the unexplained events continue happening in the same place, over and over again?
And what happens when that place is one of Chicago’s most historic restaurants?
This is the story of The Berghoff, an iconic downtown Chicago restaurant—and an unusual energetic clearing that became one of the most memorable experiences of my nearly 20 years working as an intuitive coach and energy healer.
The Call About a Haunted Restaurant
One evening, I received an urgent call from a colleague.
She had an astrology client who believed her family restaurant was haunted. The disturbances had become significant enough that she was considering asking a priest to perform an exorcism.
The restaurant was The Berghoff, the historic Chicago institution established in 1898.
The woman I would be meeting was its third-generation family owner. She had grown up inside the restaurant, where stories about unexplained activity were nothing new. Her grandmother had even referred to the original section as “the haunted side.”
And there appeared to be reasons for the nickname.
Trays would mysteriously drop.
Beer would spill.
Customers would become uncomfortable and ask to move to different tables.
For the owner, this wasn't simply an interesting ghost story.
It was affecting her restaurant.
She summed up the problem perfectly:
“I’m a businesswoman. I want my seats back. It’s hard to make a profit when you can’t use half your tables.”
I loved her practicality.
She wasn't interested in being frightened by what might be there.
She wanted the problem resolved.
And that is where InteriorWerx came in.
Could I Clear the Energy of The Berghoff?
My colleague asked whether I could help.
I didn't immediately know the answer.
I had worked intuitively with people, physical symptoms, emotional patterns and unusual energetic experiences—but I had never performed an energy clearing of a historic restaurant quite like this.
Could I actually help whatever—or whoever—might still be occupying the space?
I wasn't certain.
But I had made a personal commitment years earlier: if my intuitive abilities could be used responsibly to bring greater peace to people, I would use them.
So I said yes.
Preparing for the Spiritual Clearing
The owner and I spoke by phone beforehand, and I gave her very specific instructions.
“Do exactly what I tell you. No questions. Bring a wide white candle and a lighter.”
We arranged to meet at 6:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning, when downtown Chicago would be unusually quiet and the restaurant would be empty.
When we arrived, she unlocked the front door.
I positioned her outside, directly across the street from the entrance, holding the white candle.
Her job was simple:
Hold the light.
She lit the candle.
And I walked inside alone.
What I Saw Inside the Dining Room
What happened next remains extraordinarily vivid to me.
As I entered the empty restaurant, I perceived what looked like a silvery mesh veil shimmering in front of me.
And beyond it, the dining room didn't appear empty at all.
I saw beautifully dressed ladies and gentlemen sitting at the tables, quietly conversing with one another.
Their clothing appeared to come from another era—long gowns, formal suits and waistcoats reminiscent of the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.
Some looked toward me with curiosity.
Then they simply returned to their conversations.
What made the experience particularly striking was that I could perceive these figures while simultaneously seeing the physical restaurant around them.
I could see the chairs.
I could see the tables.
And I could see through the people occupying them.
In my perception, The Berghoff was filled with spirits.
A Possible Connection to Chicago History
Only later did another piece of the story occur to me.
The Berghoff was established in 1898.
Five years later, in 1903, Chicago experienced the catastrophic Iroquois Theatre fire, in which more than 600 people died.
The tragedy occurred only blocks from The Berghoff.
As I reflected upon the elegantly dressed people I had perceived in the restaurant, a possibility entered my mind.
Could some of these souls have been connected to that terrible night?
I began to imagine theatergoers fleeing the horror and confusion of the fire—or perhaps, after death, moving instinctively toward a familiar gathering place where they might ordinarily have gone following an evening at the theater.
Perhaps The Berghoff had been that place.
There is no way for me to historically prove that connection.
It was simply the intuitive information that arose as I considered what I had experienced.
But the thought stayed with me:
Maybe they never reached their destination in life.
And perhaps, in another form, they had arrived there after all.
Standing inside the restaurant, I raised my hands toward the east side of the dining room.
I spoke:
“I see you. I honor you. I release you.”
I expected something to happen.
Instead, I heard something.
A voice seemed to say:
“No. Go in the alley.”
That was not the direction I expected.
But one thing I have learned through years of intuitive work is that the clue that appears often makes sense only after you follow it.
So I did.
The Clue Was in the Alley
I stepped outside and retrieved the owner.
I asked her to take me to the alley behind the restaurant.
As soon as we turned the corner, everything changed.
I felt what I can only describe as a tremendous wave of anguish and terror move through my body.
I stopped.
I asked the owner to light the candle again.
And then an image appeared to me.
I perceived a man being thrown from what seemed to be a third- or fourth-floor window.
Again.
And again.
The emotional intensity was overwhelming.
Standing in the middle of that Chicago alley, I raised my hands and repeated the same words:
“I see you. I honor you. I release you.”
Then something shifted.
I felt an intense sensation of cold, white light moving upward through my body—from the soles of my feet toward the crown of my head.
And then...
Peace.
The anguish was gone.
Whatever I had been perceiving felt complete.
Returning to The Berghoff
Now I understood that there had been something else requiring attention before I could return to the restaurant.
So we walked back to the front entrance.
Once again, the owner stood outside holding the candle.
Once again, I entered alone.
And once again, I perceived the dining room filled with elegantly dressed figures.
This time, I counted them.
Forty-two.
I stood before them and repeated:
“I see you. I honor you. I release you.”
Then, in rapid succession, I perceived them disappearing.
Pouf.
Pouf.
Pouf.
One after another.
Until the room was empty.
The atmosphere felt different.
Lighter.
Quieter.
Complete.
From Haunting to Healing
What if some hauntings are not something to fear—but something asking to be acknowledged?
That experience at The Berghoff changed the way I thought about haunted spaces, spiritual energy and energetic clearing.
Rather than thinking only in terms of removing something unwanted, I began to see another possibility:
Sometimes what remains may simply be waiting to be seen.
Seen.
Honored.
Released.
That is also why I have always admired The Berghoff's third-generation owner.
Her brilliance wasn't simply in preserving an important Chicago family business.
She paid attention.
She recognized that something unusual seemed to be happening inside the space, and instead of dismissing the experiences of her staff and customers, she was willing to investigate.
She wanted her restaurant back.
And she was open to an unconventional answer.
What Is Taking Up Space in Your Life?
You don't have to own a haunted restaurant to understand what it feels like when something from the past continues occupying the present.
People can carry old grief.
Old anger.
Old relationships.
Old fears.
Old experiences stored so deeply that we may not even recognize how much space they are taking up.
A building can have a history.
So can a body.
And sometimes the first step toward changing what we are experiencing is becoming curious about the clues.
What keeps repeating?
What feels unresolved?
What are you carrying that no longer belongs in your present?
The story of The Berghoff reminds me of something I have witnessed again and again through InteriorWerx:
What we cannot immediately explain may still contain information worth exploring.
Sometimes the clue is in the body.
Sometimes it's in an emotion.
Sometimes it's in a repeating life experience.
And every once in a while...
the clue is waiting in the alley behind a haunted restaurant.
Susan Curry
InteriorWerx
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