I found myself in the Merchandise Mart because I was looking for a cheap Chinese buffet-------I couldn't find one in the neighborhood, so I thought I'd try the food court in the Mart. I didn't find a buffet, but I did end up taking a brief unauthorized tour of the building. Only the first two floors of the Mart are open to the public. Everything above that is for the wholesale trade only. However, there was no one to stop me from taking one of the elevators in the lobby, so I got in a car and punched a number at random. I'm always curious about what goes on "back of the house", as they say in the restaurant industry. I was hoping to maybe stumble across the executive dining room. Or better still, the executive bar. However, I only explored one upper floor, mainly because what I found was so dull. The first two floors are pretty impressive-looking: long corridors------VERY long corridors, monumentally long corridors-------with a handsome art deco decor. (Or maybe it's art moderne. Or Streamline. I don't know, I'm no architectural historian.) There are lots of home furnishings stores on these floors-------it's virtually a mall. The upper floors, however, are very drab. They had all the ambience of the shopping arcade in the Eighth Ave. subway station in New York, the one next to the Port Authority bus terminal. (And just like in the subway arcade, many of the stores in the Mart were closed.) When I started getting strange looks from the people who were authorized to be there, I booked. The Mart is located on the Chicago River. After I exited the building, I lounged against the balustrade out in front of the Mart, the one that overlooks the river. The river itself is about twenty feet below street level. There are esplanade-like plazas beside the water that would be great locations for, say, a coffee cart. With a few tables and chairs, they would be a perfect place for tourists, or anyone, to laze away a few minutes out in the fresh air, but shielded from the din of traffic. For some reason, however, all of the gates that led to the stairways that went down to these esplanades were locked. In my opinion, this could be one of the most charming spots in downtown Chicago, if it was opened up to the public.