Last Patty Melt at Standee's

I'm not sure how many will care but Standee's, the 24 hour Edgewater diner, will close its doors on Sunday.



Yesterday I stopped by for a patty melt.



Maybe not the culinary highlight of the year but it was really damn good. The not-so-special ingredients were assembled with care: bread was toasted on the griddle, the patty wasn't overcooked, and I especially appreciated how the cook lightly grilled the onion and tomato before adding them to the sandwich.

Standee's is hoping to reopen in March across the street on the other side of the L tracks. I hope their wonderful old sign will make the move too.

Standee's (closing Jan 3, 2010)
1133 W Granville Av
(to reopen at 1104 W Granville)
Chicago
773-743-5013

I went in there about a month ago for breakfast and it was like a Charlie Bukowski Christmas Special in there. The crowd was sort of folks who wash up on the shores of a big city somewhat worse for wear, not derelict by any means but clearly people who've had a few hard knocks, and are thus of a temperament and place in life to sing along with the Eagles' "Peaceful Easy Feeling" at breakfast in public. The food was serviceable, perfectly all right in a standard way, nothing I would race back for in itself, but would be happy enough to return to sometime (whoops). But the best thing about it was, even given the roughness of the crowd and the dinginess of the place, there was real warmth between the owners/staff and the regulars going on in there, the kind of feeling you expect to find in a small country cafe but much less expect to find in the sharp-elbowed city. It's especially striking when you get that homey feeling in a place where you also have a sense of potential personal danger at the same time (Moon's comes to mind, for instance). I'm glad I went there once, before it was gone. I'm sure many others will be glad Bananas Foster and M. Henry are right there for a nice breakfast. For me, it's another piece of the vanishing city where, no matter how hard and gritty life might have been, there were still places of fellowship and good cheer for the poorest of us.

I've got dibs on the sign!

I care very much. This is shameful. When places like Standee's disappear, the city loses a tiny bit of its soul.
I had a surprisingly un-lonely Thanksgiving dinner there back in 2003, before I met my wife. They carved a turkey to order, had all the fixins I could ask for. The staff made me feel like I was eating in their home.
Great diner food, great jukebox that had both Zep and Miles Davis, and, mercifully, was rarely played during the hangover hours of daylight. Waitresses who looked like your favorite grandmother and called you 'hon'. That miraculous neon sign over that inviting storefront facade on that quintessential crosscut of a Chicago street which could've been featured on a classic Blue Note album cover. Open 24 hours, which meant after we locked the doors at the bar, we could head over for a post-shift meal or 9 am breakfasts followed by a walk along the lakeshore. The rumble of the train nearby. The drunks and the students and the first-shifters eating breakfast next to third-shifters eating dinner. Great view through the front window. And, for some of us, tons of memories from decades of sitting in those cozy booths. How sad that it's going away.
I read that the M.Henry crowd is taking over the spot. We lived around the corner from the Clark/Bryn Mawr location. We went twice, each time wanting to make it our new breakfast spot, but left thinking both times that it was average food priced too high. And now, I wish nothing but misfortune for both the landlord and the M.Henry group for their respective parts in the Standee closing. May their new year be filled with drunks vomiting on their doorsteps, and may they discover it a footstep too late.
Good luck Standee and staff. You'll be missed. And I know I'm not gonna be the only one who will keep warm memories of that wonderful little diner.

Count me among those who will miss the old place and hope the best for the new space and the sign. Used to live nearby in single days, and it was the default weekend breakfast for me and a former girlfriend. It was the local cheap bacon and eggs place that everyone should have nearby, especially when they're single and working a low-wage job. It wasn't quite as good as the similar but larger Greek coffee shop that used to abut the Morse L station on the northwest side (now a sort of dollar store, I think), whose greek omelet was perfection, prices low and overall atmosphere just a shade less grungy than Standees, but it was close enough. And the grunge/warmth combination at Standees was/is unique and good in its own way. It always felt like the place where the night-time denizens of Sharon's Hillbilly Heaven next to the Lawrence L ended up in the morning. Here's to it.

Dave148 wrote:I've got dibs on the sign!

Sold American. For just $500: http://chicago.grubstreet.com/2010/01/s ... en_in.html

David Hammond wrote:

Dave148 wrote:I've got dibs on the sign!

Sold American. For just $500: http://chicago.grubstreet.com/2010/01/s ... en_in.html

Oh Man!

Hi,

The upfront cost may be low, but dismounting, transporting and reassembling will cost a pretty penny. Hopefully it still works at its destination.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:The upfront cost may be low, but dismounting, transporting and reassembling will cost a pretty penny. Hopefully it still works at its destination.

If not, it could end up here - http://www.signmuseum.net/ - a very cool place.

Dave148 wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:The upfront cost may be low, but dismounting, transporting and reassembling will cost a pretty penny. Hopefully it still works at its destination.

If not, it could end up here - http://www.signmuseum.net/ - a very cool place.

Or here. Also a very cool place.

Cathy2 wrote:Hopefully it still works at its destination.

It wasn't working so well at its original location. Here's the great old sign on New Years Eve (the sign's other side was completely unlit).



I was very happy to read the positive comments above. Thanks for sharing your memories of Standee's.

stevez wrote:

Dave148 wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:The upfront cost may be low, but dismounting, transporting and reassembling will cost a pretty penny. Hopefully it still works at its destination.

If not, it could end up here - http://www.signmuseum.net/ - a very cool place.

Or here. Also a very cool place.

now you're talking... truly one of the coolest places around

Drove past today, on my way to Metropolitan Coffee, and there was a crane and a rigger attempting to
demount the sign.
Guess they were in a hurry to get it.