Adam's Ribs
Adam's Ribs
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Adam's Ribs
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Post #1 - April 19th, 2009, 7:40 am"A river of liver and an ocean of fish" Hawkeye Pierce
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Post #2 - April 19th, 2009, 8:10 amMhays- Thanks for the link - the Adam's Ribs episode is one of my favorites and I always wondered about Adam's Ribs folklore. (For awhile, I had that Hawkeye quote as my signature.)
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Post #3 - April 19th, 2009, 8:30 pmI've passed by Adam's Ribs on Milwaukee in Buffalo Grove (just a short skip over the Lake County border), but I haven't had the chance to try, figuring it's got to be a poseur. Anyone ready to take one for the team?What is patriotism, but the love of good things we ate in our childhood?
-- Lin Yutang
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Post #4 - April 20th, 2009, 6:45 amJoelF wrote:I've passed by Adam's Ribs on Milwaukee in Buffalo Grove (just a short skip over the Lake County border), but I haven't had the chance to try, figuring it's got to be a poseur. Anyone ready to take one for the team?
It is a poseur. There was a recent interview in the Sun-Times with Larry Gelbert (who, for the record, is not related to or created by Mike Gebert) that the Adams Ribs of M*A*S*H fame is a pure fabrication and was not based on any real rib place in Chicago.People of a certain age have long assumed that Gelbart and the late Laurence Marks, the episode's writer, modeled the rib joint after a real-life eatery -- just like the producers of "Cheers" modeled their fictitious restaurant after the Bull & Finch Pub in Boston. Indeed, entire threads in the blogosphere have been dedicated to trying to figure out what restaurant served as the inspiration for Adam's Ribs.
But when asked about it recently, the 81-year-old Gelbart acknowledged for the first time what so many have long suspected: namely, that Adam's Ribs never existed.
His acknowledgment also included the surprising revelation that, not only wasn't Adam's Ribs a real place, but it wasn't inspired by any restaurant, either. Instead, both he and Marks concocted it out of their own fertile, comic imaginations.
"Part of it had to do with the city's 'hog butcher for the world' reputation," Gelbart explained, "but it principally was just a conceit, a loving homage, to a place that I can never forget."Steve Z.
“Only the pure in heart can make a good soup.”
― Ludwig van Beethoven
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Post #5 - April 20th, 2009, 7:38 amSteve,
I knew it was posing as MASH's beloved rib joint, the question is whether they are barbecue poseurs or if they're making good smoke.
JoelWhat is patriotism, but the love of good things we ate in our childhood?
-- Lin Yutang
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Post #6 - April 23rd, 2009, 7:09 amActually, there was a place called Adams Ribs, across from the Wilson El station.
When I was a kid in the late fifties, I could see it from the window of my grandmother's apartment at the Sheridan Plaza Hotel, where she was head of housekeeping. It had a big neon sign and that "seen better days" look of one of those landmark restaurants from an earlier era. Watching M*A*S*H years later, I just assumed that was the place they were talking about.
Edit-- Now that I think about it, it may have been called "Adam's Rib." I'll check further.
Edit 2-- Duh, missed that one by a mile. Here's what my friend, noted Chicago historian Eric Bronsky, shared with me:
"The name of the restaurant was Mr. Adams and I remember it very well, having dined there with my parents occasionally during the early 60s. Basically coffee shop fare; their fried chicken was especially good. It was in the McJunkin Building (which was recently restored sans most of its decorative terra cotta following a major fire). The parking lot was under the "L" yard and the pedestrian walkway to the street was formerly the entrance to the old ground-level rapid transit station."
Paul SL
"I have a great memory. Too bad it's so short."
