Well I was there, for lunch on Friday, and dinner on Saturday. I couldn't get in to lunch on Thursday so I drove the trek over to Tiebel's. I had eaten at Tiebel's once before -- good food and service, but they just can't get it as good as the food is/was at Phil Smidt's. Mainly my prejudice is over the garlic butter. At Smidt's the perch and the frog legs could be ordered deep fried or well sauteed in garlic butter. I always ordered the garlic butter and it was heavenly. At Tiebel's they have beautiful sweet perch filets (no full, whole perch like Smidt's alas) but they just can't get the garlic butter stronger than 'tepid' in intensity. Also their frog legs were very par cooked. They were plump and "juicy" -- I started thinking about 'hey this is frog juice' and I actually got nauseous. I stuck with the perch for the rest of the meal. But back to Smidt's -- I had dinner on the very last night. Waitress was very angry and short tempered and forgot the red potatoes. I understood why the service was off, obviously. I felt so bad for all the staff. I got the whole perch, deep fried, with garlic butter on the side, and a separate order of sauteed frogs legs. I thought both were fabulous, but my dad thought the perch was dry. I didn't care. I ordered the wonderfull gooseberry pie for dessert. I am so going to miss that pie.

My father and I sat there, chatting with the people next to us. TV cameras from Channel 9 came into the dining room and started interviewing people. I thought about all the birthdays and mother's days and holidays I had spent there with my family. I thought about the time we ran into my dentist waiting for a table in the lobby. I thought about my grandparents, great grandparents, my great aunt, family friends Gd rest their souls, my cousins, generations of my family that had eaten there over the past 90+ years. It made me so mad to think of how this current owner and his wife slowly killed the place -- they were horrible business people and drove it into bankruptcy. And they couldn't even come up with a good plan to get it out of bankruptcy properly. I overheard the waitress tell another table that "the bank told [them] that Saturday would be [their] last day." i.e. that their creditors were shutting them down. So, in the over 5+ years these fools owned it, they couldn't come up with ANY better plan for the place other than just let it wither on the vine? Hey, if it's too big to run or to heat, then move to a smaller space or come up with creative ways to boost sales! There had to be ONE place in N. Indiana or in Chicago that would be suitable to have moved the restaurant operation to! As for the comments below, yes, it's true, a lot of the loyal clientelle were older, many were Jewish, and many moved north from the South Side of Chicago decades ago, and many ...died. As the old-timers aged, it was physically more demanding if not impossible for them to travel to the restaurant. Their kids didn't have as strong of a bond with the place so schlepping out to Hammond for an increasingly pricy fish meal wasn't probably as pressing. Historically, a lot of the families who made the place famous were people who stopped by on their way to their lake holidays in Michigan during the summer months way back when. Other patrons were people stopping by on the trains, as the stop runs behind the restaurant. This place had so much history, it was like Berghoff's or the Drake Hotel. Even Ronald Regan had eaten there.

I only pray this idiot owner, assuming he, not his creditors, even "owns" the rights to the restaurant, has the sense to sell it to someone who knows what he is doing, and has the vision, the finances, and the drive to open up a new Phil Smidt's location in a better, more visible location, away from that damn casino (the casino took away a LOT, if not most of Smidt's business). The history, and the food was just too good to now let it die.

One day Marshall Field's will come back -- I pray Phil Smidt's will also.

I want to start this post by saying I have eaten at PS more times then I can remember. It was always a treat to stop in on the way back and forth from MI or to even make a special journey there. That having been said I havent been in a while because on the lsat few visits it just wasnt the same place. When I heard that Sat was going to be the last dinner at PS I called my parents, told my partners and spoke to some friends who all enjoyed this place IN THE PAST. No one I spoke to has any particular fondness for what Smidts had become, everyone became sentimental and kicked around the idea of going out there one last time and everyone passed. It just isnt/wasnt the Phil Smidts that I grew up with, my parents grew up with and their parents grew up with. Recently, The place was always empty, dingy, dirty, run down and sad. That is not the memories I had of the Phil Smidts of my childhood.

Lots of the iconic places of my North Shore Jewish childhood have closed and while I am nostalgic about them, the best part of the memories have to do with my parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles still beimg alive and gathered around the same table at Barnum and Bagel or some weekend at Nippersink witht he whole family...How I loved/hated being forced to have dinner at Hi Howie on Peterson or when my grandfather took me for my bar mitzvah to the Pump Room and showed me the table with the telephone. I miss the idea of those places, but i am certaintly not nostalgic for what Nippersink, Barnum & Bagel, Mr. Ricky, the Pump Room, or a million other places had become.

I hope they dont re-open Phil Smidts in Northbrook, I think it will just make me sad.

JeffB wrote:

Katie wrote:The down side of SW Michigan is that to get there you have to drive across northern Indiana, which, for one thing, (and as a civil engineer this irritates the heck out of me), is an uncomfortable driving experience involving nearly constant turning to the left, and for another thing, looks, especially at night, like something straight out of a Raymond Chandler novel. And he hasn't been on the bestseller list for, oh, a long, long time.

I'm no engineer, but the bridges, smokestacks and steeples are pure art. And you emerge from it into dunes and vineyards. What's not to like?

What's not to like about the roadway alignment is that good engineering design would incorporate a balance of leftward curves, rightward curves, and straight stretches of road. Too much of any one or more of the three, even straight segments, contributes to physical and mental driver fatigue. Excessive curving in one direction without occasional curves in the opposite direction are especially fatiguing.

What's not to like about bleak scenery? Nothing, if that's your thing. Dunes and vineyards, hard to see at night. I'm just saying I can see it's not what everyone wants to drive through to get to their lakeside Michigan vacation rental.

trudie wrote: www.thetimesonline.com has an article on phil smidts and a slide show of the last night.reminded me of john's in calumet city closing

These restaurants served their local communities back in the day, the people of the Region: Hammond, East Chicago, Whiting, Lansing, Calumet City, Gary, etc.

These families had 4-8 children back in the 1940's-70's when restaurants like this and Vogel's, Condess, John's pizza, and Teibel's were in their hey-dey. These were restaurants for Sunday dinners, special occasions, holidays, family gatherings, etc.

Today the children of these Region families are in Munster, Dyer, St. John and Schererville, etc. so they no longer live in proximity to Phil Smidt's, and traffic on 41 is horrendous to even contemplate making the journey.

The old neighborhoods around PS aren't what they once were, the population density isn't there either, and the newest residents are the area aren't European-Americans to whom this food appeals. If they were to relocate it, it'd be best to do it near Routes 30 & 41, where the children of the old-timers live, but ironically that's where Teibel's is!! It's really that simple. I don't think the idea of Jews traveling on summer weekends to/from Michigan really has much to do with the big picture of Phil Smidt's clientele or its revenue stream throughout its history.

I HAVE HEARD FOR YEARS THAT PHIL SCHMIDT'S FOOD WAS NOT AS GOOD AS IN THE PAST. I HAVE BEEN GOING THERE 8-10 TIMES A YEAR FOR THE LAST 20 YEARS. I WILL ADMIDT I ALWAYS ORDERED THE SAME THING. LAKE PEARCH BONED & BUTTERED. I WENT ON WEDNESDAY NIGHTS , I WENT ON FRIDAY NIGHTS AND TO ME THE MEAL WAS ALWAYS THE SAME. EXCELLENT. THIS WAS NOT A CHEAP PLACE TO DINE AT AND NEVER WAS. OVER THE YEARS I SAW THE PLACE LOOSING CUSTOMERS. THE LAST TIME I WAS THERE WAS THE SATURDAY NIGHT THE CUBS ENDED THE 2007 SEASON. 8-10 TABLES OF DINERS AND NO LIQUOR LICENSE , 7:30 P.M. I WANTED TO GO ON THE SECOND TO LAST NIGHT THEY WERE TO CLOSE. 3 HOURS WAIT FOR A TABLE ! I HAVE SEEN THIS BEFORE. A PLACE ANNOUNCES THEY ARE CLOSING AND PEOPLE CRAWL OUT OF THE WOODWORK. WHERE HAVE ALL THESE PEOPLE BEEN ? IF IT WAS SO BAD, WHY DID PEOPLE HAVE TO GO FOR THE LAST TIME ? I WILL MISS PHIL SCHMIDT'S VERY , VERY MUCH. I HAVE HEARD THAT PREVIOUS OWNERS WANT TO BUY IT BACK AND MOVE TO A SMALLER LOCATION IN HAMMOND. I HOPE THEY DO.

Hi,

I was reading how several out of towners missed Phil Smidt's perch, frog legs and gooseberry pie. Someone commented, "Phil Schmidt's is closed? Horrible. It was always my opinion that they served what would have been the regional cooking of the Chicago area had it never developed into an international city."

Once at Phil Smidt's, the waitress advised they did not bake gooseberry pie on the premises. It was baked (to their recipe) at a bakery.

I checked Hoosier Mama's website. I briefly talked to Paula who advised gooseberries are an expensive ingredient, which is keeping it from being offered.

I checked Marilyn's Bakery who offers gooseberry pie as a special order at $9.49 for a large pie.

http://www.marilynsbakery.com/
Marilyn's Bakery
8960 East Ridge Road
Hobart, Indiana 46342
(219) 962-BAKE

Is anyone aware of another gooseberry pie at a restaurant or bakery in northwest Indiana or Chicago area?

Regards,

I had the gooseberry pie at smidt's once. Although it was my favorite place for perch by far and a place I miss terribly I thought the pie was quite bitter. I never ordered it again.

RiverWester wrote:If they were to relocate it, it'd be best to do it near Routes 30 & 41, where the children of the old-timers live, but ironically that's where Teibel's is!!

I always liked the idea of putting it by Cabelas at 80/94 and Indianapolis Blvd.