Svobada’s Nickelodeon Tavern- Bar and grill with antique amusment collection.
Riverview- Amusement park.
Kiddieland- Another amusement park near Stony and 95th.
The Pickle Barrel- Restaurant with peanut shells on the floor, sandwiches and burgers and the balloon twisting guy.
Tai Sam Yon- For years the top rated restaurant in Chicago.
Skeet Shooting on the Lakefront. Never did it, but it was fun to watch.
So, how about it? Who has fond memories of things no longer around Chicago?
Skate on State
The Berghoff (mostly gone)
Old Comisky
The Kiddieland on North Avenue in Melrose Park
The Clark Theatre - showed double features of old movies, changing the bill every day. Sigh.
I remember that. It was cheap, too.
There used to be lots of repertory movie theaters on the north side. But the advent of the VCR and the ubiquity of the video rental store (both gone now as well, ironically!) killed off nearly all of them. The Music Box is the only one remaining that I know of.
Adventureland in Addison.
My favorite memory there is riding the fire truck. The seats faced out one side, and each seat had its own little hose nozzle. As you rode past an old shack it would burst into flames, and you’d aim your hose to help put out the fire.
Cheesy, but it was great fun as a kid.
Maxwell Street on Sunday mornings!
Kiddieland!
Old Chicago in Bolingbrook.
The original, cheap Pasteur on Sheridan before it burned down without anyone, particularly Tuan, having anything to do with it.
Spaetzels and magic at Schulien’s.
I was at Maxwell St. two days ago. I had a wonderful handmade quesadilla and picked up a telescope for ten bucks.
It’s on Des Plaines now starting at Roosevelt and going north a few blocks.
Does anyone recall the Cafe 1999 bookstore up by Loyola University in Roger’s Park? I want to say it was on the 6500 block next to the L stop. I remember it when I lived in the area in the late 1980s.
What was noteworthy about the bookstore portion (which was on the second floor of the stores there) was that the bookcases were not in rigid rows, but in a free-form set of curves and angles. I was trying to describe this to a friend who is a librarian, then tried to find pictures online, to no avail. Does anyone know of anything like that?
Where did the statue honoring Jack Brickhouse go? I used to pass it every week as I walk down Michigan Ave and now it’s gone. The chrome moose is still there, as is the statue of American Gothic (with suitcases). What did they do with my childhood sports announcer (who was MUCH better than Harry Caray ever was, but that’s another thread).
Any ideas?
Removed for repairs. Have no fear: Jack will be Back.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-talk-jack-brickhouse-statuenov06,0,7783147.column
Marshall Field & Company
Minnie’s (yeah, that’s new, but still, that was a great restaurant my wife and I frequented a LOT. Always crowded, even during the worst of the poor economy.)
Chicago Stadium
Top Enchilada (a great Mexican restaurant I went to years ago in the Irving Park neighborhood)
Virgin Megastore (I know, not a Chicago oldie, but I had some good times there)
The Carson, Pirie, Scott & Company at State and Madison
Demon Dogs (never had a chance to go there before they closed)
The City of Chicago store by the Water Tower
Flat Sammie’s in the same building (I went to that building many a time, as both a tourist and a Chicago resident, and the day I finally decided to eat there, it was gone!)
St. Michael’s Church in Bucktown (where my mother went as a kid)
I spent a couple years working there while I was in high school. What a great place for a teenager to work, really - anyone that did has some incredible memories.
Chicago Amphitheater (sp?). Bulls started there in the mid 60s. Chicago Auto Show, Outdoor Show and others before McCormick Place came to be. I graduated from high school there - De La Salle.
And while we’re on south Halsted, the Stock Yard Inn.
How about those giant MAGIKIST signs? I was a kid in the back seat of my parents car when I saw them, so I don’t even remember exactly where they were…TRM
Man, Tim…that Magikist post made me think of the Entenman’s factory along I-294. Still there, but…why do they no longer have the little animation on the message board?? I always loved that. Now the message board is just blank.
In Oak Lawn–at 95th and Cicero. It was built in the 50s during the giant fad for all things Hawaiian. As I child I thought it perfectly normal to walk from the parking lot through a Japanese style rock garden and into the Swiss chalet lobby. The area around the concession stand was Tudor half timber, but the theater itself was decorated with giant Tiki masks and a series of murals depicting the discover and settlement of Hawaii by the Polynesians.
Now I realize the place was just nuts.
Rose Records on Wabash (?), Field’s (of course) and the smell from that candy/chocolate factory on one of the bridges (can’t think which) which someone reported as pollution to the EPA and made them close down or change how they vented stuff. 