Ikosium Cafe at Foster and Clark. They served a variety of sweet and savory crepes. I loved the Crepe Marrakesh with lamb sausage and goat cheese. Their Algerian Mint Tea could make all your troubles float away on sweet fumes of mint. How could they go out of business when they were always so crowded? They had a segment on Check Please and now they’re gone.
A similar fate fell as mysteriously on Wellington’s, a small eatery on Randolph between Franklin and Wacker. Wellington’s had a wide selection of dishes, all of them exceptional. You could go there every day of the week and never get tired of their menu. Delectable chicken wings six different ways, baked potatoes with a myriad toppings. Soups that I weep to think I will never taste again.
And one day, in the middle of the workweek, they were gone. The store was stripped, including the fixtures. No word, just gone. I still wonder what happened to make it vanish like that.
There are others, What’s Cooking near McCormick Drive with their Chicken in a Pot. Carson’s Ribs long abandoned on Ridge near Clark. I used to love Ground Round when I was young.
What remembered restaurants can make you sigh as for a lost love?
Indianapolis, Indiana, and I miss Farrell’s and the Sizzler. And an Oriental place whose name escapes me that had vegetable tempura that I loved and went out of business some 15 years ago.
Gage & Tollner, which opened on Fulton Street in downtown Brooklyn in 1879. Burnished old wood; gaslights; comfy leather seats; great martinis.
I knew it in the '80s and '90s during the era of the great Edna Lewis, who introduced her Southern haute cuisine to New York there. But she kept a lot of the 19th century specials on the menu, like broiled clam bellies, chicken Maryland, and mutton chops.
Going to Gage & Tollner was like a little jaunt in a time machine, with good food and booze included.
The Old Heidelberg on Chapel Street, New Haven, Connecticut.
Ordered my first legal booze there (I turned 18 in late October of my freshman year), which I believe was rum over ice in a rocks glass. Terrible choice, but I remembered it as being Hunter S. Thompson’s favorite drink. This was 1978.
The Old H. opened sometime in the late 1700s. A great place for an afternoon beer, and the occasional meal. Good steaks. Too pricy to be a regular hangout, though.
Atlanta. The Sitar. First time I ever had Indian food. I still drive past the spot where it was - it’s been gone for years - and think about the lamb rogan josh and the gulab jamun in rose water. Yum. Sigh.
omfg. I went there once or twice a week when I was in high school. They had this sandwich on marbled rye that was to die for. And their peanut butter pie - which wasn’t peanut butter and whipped cream it was like a goddamn 2" Reese cup - is probably responsible for 10% of my current body weight still.
I was just thinking about it this week. I think I still miss it every day, 20 years on.
When I was a kid we didn’t go to McDonalds or Burger King, we chose either Burger Chef or AW. Burger Chef had the Super Chef Burger and at AW (of course you’d get a root beer) but you had the choice of the Papa Burger (large), Mama Burger (medium) or Baby Burger (small).
Wow, I haven’t thought of Beefsteak Charlie’s in YEARS! I loved that place as a kid. I just looked them up on wikipedia, and I guess it was a chain that originated in New York, but I would be remembering it from suburban Baltimore as well.
I used to live in Raleigh, NC, and the city had THE BEST Chinese restaurant ever in my entire existence. Hunan (80’s through late 90’s) was incredible, and I honestly never had a bad dish there, ESPECIALLY the Scallion Lamb. To this day, Scallion Lamb is my utmost favorite Chinese dish ever, and I have yet to happen upon another Chinese place that actually has it on their menu. Though when and if that day ever comes, I doubt another place’s Scallion Lamb would be as lights out awesome as Hunan’s was…it really was THAT good.
More recently, my southwest VA digs had a divine Indian restaurant called Mint that was freaking delicious. It was, quite surprisingly as much as I’ve always loved Asian food, my first bonafide Indian restaurant experience, and I was blown away. My favorite dish were these AMAZING spicy hot dumplings with chicken and rice (unfortunately can’t remember the proper name for them), with the lentil and coconut (PERFECT for dessert) soups behind them. Unfortunately, the restaurant lasted just a little under or over a year (2009-10).
Another one that closed down very recently (just several months ago) was a Yamato Japanese Steakhouse that was across the street from my home…GREAT hibachi joint that allowed takeout and THE WAY to have surf (predominantly shrimp for me, but I sometimes changed it up and got scallops) and turf. Now I’m clamoring for ginger sauce covered rice (THE way to use up the rest of the ginger sauce after eating the meat and veggies) again… sighs
