yes, they had around 300 locations if you add them all up.. including places like california, colorado, texas... they even had locations in belgium! http://www.geocities.com/sandyshamburgers2/sandyslocations2.html

two more Sandy's Chicagoland locations were in Addison and Hillside. Sorry for forgetting those two in the original post

Hamburger Hamlet

Hy's of Canada

Orbit (Polish on Milwaukee)

Maximillian's (sleeper Italian on corner of Diversey & Laramie to this day the best Chicken Vesuvio ever had....wish I knew who had the receipe!

El Sol (Fullerton) a dump but great food and even greater Margaritas

Como Inn

Sauer's (anyone that went to IIT remembers this one great great burgers coleslaw fish .....

La Gondola, Ashland just north of Fullterton. Best fried calamari in the city.

La Gondola still exists in the strip mall north of Diversey on Ashland, though it's smaller and I can't swear to the calamari.

La Gondola lives on as a mostly takeout operation in the Jewel strip mall right there. While not a fan of the pizza or pasta (doesn't leave much), the soups are scratch and very good, as is the tripe -- something you don't see on too many Italian menus anymore. My frustration with the place is that the Italian-speaking owners (managers?) who clearly came to the US as adults play it straight when I dig around looking for "secret menu" type cooking. I know they aren't eating baked ziti in the kitchen.

Ah, what I'd give for a good baked ziti. It's hard to find even the dried stuff. It was a staple of my high-school cafeteria, and they made a good one.

Mostaccioli--feh!

JeffB, I'm betting the two Sicilian guys that own La Gondola don't have a secret menu. When I asked them for a Sicilian dish or two on the menu (I recommended pasta cu li sarde), they reacted as if I'd suggested widgety grubs in a beurre blanc. I agree the tripe (at the old place) was pretty good, but not enough to lure me into the Jewel parking lot.

annieb wrote:Ah... baked ziti...was a staple of my high-school cafeteria...

The mind shrinks in horror. But, then again, I attended The Grand Guignol School for the Reforming Arts.

Choey,

My mind recoils in horror at many cafeteria versions of baked ziti, but my high school made a good one until they quit serving hot lunch and installed vending machines.

I have had baked ziti at two outposts of SUNY that were particularly vile.

Lisboa Antiga (Portuguese on Wells, north of North)

La Llama (Peruvian on Halsted)

Can't recall the name, but a Brasilian/Portugues place around Wilson on Kedzie. They made the classic dish of clams/pork in a cataplana.

What a great thread!
La Bastille, Le Boudeaux, Tuttoposto, Blackhawk Lodge, Glory, Eat Your Heart Out, the old location of Feast.
But most of all St. Germain-the best boule (rustique) and baguettes ever in Chicago. Michel Maloiseaux (later of Resto22) was the chef, the baker may have had a last name of Corral. Terrific Sunday brunch too. Surprisingly did not serve a good cafe au lait, not that the coffee was bad, but it was served in a narrow Irish coffee glass instead of a bowl or wide mouth mug-not really appropriate for my normal breakfast there of cafe au lait and a basket of breads.
Fortunately many of the above restaurants were peopled by those that moved on but stayed in Chicago.

Just today, I was reminded of Davidson's Bakery. Best chocolate eclairs ever. RIP.

Has anyone mentioned Andy's, a little hamburger place on Greenbay Road in Evanston? They had great burgers and even better milkshakes (made with custard from Homer's).

Andy's was WAY BETTER than the nearby B&G on Central Street (as kids we were sure we knew what B&G really stood for).

On another thread today, someone mentioned L'Escargot in the Allerton Hotel. I miss that place, but miss even more their original location on Halsted where Irwin now resides. I'm surprised that L'Escargot hasn't been mentioned in this thread already. It was the first French restaurant in Chicago that was approachable for a nice mid-week dinner without having to get dressed to the nines and speak in hushed tones during service. They were open late, too (which was a definate plus for me in those days).

Yeah, I loved that place. I lived about two blocks away. A friend of mine got his first job there and has been in the hospitality industry ever since. Do you remember that B & G was called Walker Bros. before they sold and started the Pancake place, plus they owned the KFC franchise at Lake and Greenbay in Wilmette. The place I really miss is Mary's Cupboard, further n. on Greenbay. It may be a time enhanced memory, but my whole family really liked the BBQ chicken. Great sauce, sort of like tomato sauce gone bbq. Always had Green River to go with.

I went to check the hours for the Box Car Cafe. I had never been, but thought I'd take my 2 yo for her birthday.

http://www.boxcarcafe.net/

They are closed as of 7/31

Fong Yuen was an obscure but important presence in Chinatown--the first Mandarin/Szechuan restaurant in the area. Tucked away on 23rd Place, it opened about 1972 and lasted only a couple of years. But in that short time, it introduced to the street Kung Pao, hoisin, cashews and all the other elements of a cuisine we now totally take for granted.

That first hot/sweet/garlicky/tangy bite changed my taste in food forever.

I may have mentioned it earlier on this thread (the mind is the first thing to go:-) or on another thread, but a great restaurant in Calumet Park right off I-57 at around 124th and Ashland, the Gulfport Cafe. The chef was trained by Lucien Verge (and the Army) and it was worth a trip to Cal Park to eat his food, (soul with some French technique thrown in on some dishes, some straight up Cajun or Creole standards). In what had been the coffeeshop of a motel, with chef's choice music playing, great jazz.

I was just talking about Gulfport Cafe with another poster here; I made a trek down there with some friends, at a time when I had hardly been south of Jackson at all, for Cajun food, c. 1989 or so. I can barely remember it, but it's one of my key proto-LTHForum events. (This thread has suddenly taken a turn in my direction; I ate at La Llama, probably my first South American meal, and tried Lisboa Antigua once, too, I think I even had feijoada there. Overall, not thrilled, but that could have been beginner's ignorance.)

Quite another sort of memory which the mentions of L'Escargot, etc. has dredged up was a meal with my future wife at Le Perroquet, on Oak Street or somewhere thereabouts, around the same time-- about the first time I'd blown a three digit wad anywhere. Contrary to Steve Z's admiration of L'Escargot for serving French without pretension, this was sort of like the great Roz Chast cartoon of "the man who was known for his lack of lack of pretension," which showed a man in a smoking jacket with a cigarette holder and a precious little mustache, saying "Let's only speak French for a while."

We entered a small elevator and were whisked to the second floor, which might as well have taken us back in time while we were at it. The room was done in grandmotherly shades of cream and gold (and so were the other patrons), we were seated at banquettes next to one another (which I've always found odd, unless there are people opposite you), the waiters were all about 60 and old-school formal, and-- completing the resemblance to grandma's house-- the tables had little lampshades on them and next to them, little glass figures of dogs, parrots (perroquet=parakeet), etc. (I couldn't help but think of the National Lampoon parody of a magazine for little old ladies, with helpful tips on how to arrange 950 little glass souvenirs on a small tabletop.) It felt like being in the big city for real, that was for sure, because it was so much like my image of life in the big city from movies from half a century ago, Eloise books, etc. I'm sure it's the closest I'll ever get to all those long-lost places in John Drury's book-- though ironically, given how old-fashioned it felt to us, Le Perroquet was one of the first nouvelle cuisine spots in Chicago.

Mike G wrote:We entered a small elevator and were whisked to the second floor, which might as well have taken us back in time while we were at it. The room was done in grandmotherly shades of cream and gold (and so were the other patrons), we were seated at banquettes next to one another (which I've always found odd, unless there are people opposite you), the waiters were all about 60 and old-school formal, and-- completing the resemblance to grandma's house-- the tables had little lampshades on them and next to them, little glass figures of dogs, parrots (perroquet=parakeet), etc. (I couldn't help but think of the National Lampoon parody of a magazine for little old ladies, with helpful tips on how to arrange 950 little glass souvenirs on a small tabletop.) It felt like being in the big city for real, that was for sure, because it was so much like my image of life in the big city from movies from half a century ago, Eloise books, etc. I'm sure it's the closest I'll ever get to all those long-lost places in John Drury's book-- though ironically, given how old-fashioned it felt to us, Le Perroquet was one of the first nouvelle cuisine spots in Chicago.

I also have a fine memory of a dinner at Le Perroquet. Mike is correct, Le Perroquet was at the far end of the Pretentious French Scale (PFS). I remember the food being beautiful and tasting great and also having the ability to hear a pin drop because the atmosphere was so stern & sterile. The price tag was sky high, but it sure impressed my date (whom I didn't marry).

Banquette seating side by side a city thing? TOO funny.

When Himself and I were caravaning from Denver to Chicago pre-wedding, we stopped overnight in one of the least inviting places on one of the least inviting highways ever: Oglalla, NE off of I-80.

Checked into the motel (coupon for a free breakfast, no meat, if you wanted meat you had to buy the whole thing. They wouldn't even give you the free breakfast and allow you to order a side of meat at full price. But that was the next morning.)

We're in nowhere (and I'm a real fan of off the beaten track, but this was the worst kind of nowhere, accessible by Interstate to anyone within an hour's drive) and we walk into this place and are greeted by a short middle-aged man in an undyed canvas caftan. He escorts us past the "wine cellar" which is about 20 carafe shaped bottles each of Paul Masson red, white and rose. He seats us side by side in a practically empty restaurant on a raised dais across from the longest salad bar I'd ever seen.

We drink a beer. We decide beef is the way to go. A large party of middle-aged women come in, seat themselves, and immediately hit the salad bar, right when we've decided we might as well take a look. Lots of exclamations over the various kinds of jello and especially the peas and cheese salad.

We retreat to our table. We eat our modest pickings of lettuce, pickled beets, three bean salad. We eat our beef.

On the way back to our room, I think I need something to read, so we stop by the book stands in the lobby. They are all inspirational Xtian tract literature.

We go up to our room (we chose the second floor not because the first was full but because you saved $5 on a second floor room). It's hot as hell outside, and our room overlooks an empty swimming pool.

In the parking lot there is a huge stand of calirhoe, a prairie wildflower.

We address our wedding invitations in bed. We mail them the next day from a Holiday Inn in Lincoln, NE where we stop for a lunch buffet, not because it will be good, but because you can always trust a Holiday Inn to have a mail drop.

I have refused ever since to be seated at a side-by-side banquette. One memory of it is enough.

Yeah, I grew up in Kansas and went to Nebraska all of twice, both times on business. It's Kansas minus the thrilling parts.

Speaking of John Drury's book, when I read something like this I wonder:

CAFE ROYALE 3854 Roosevelt Road
Here is Bohemia in the true sense of the word. The Cafe Royale is an intellectual and artistic rendezvous of the west side Jewish quarter... the walls are decorated with rustic murals by the artist, DeVries...

So many of these places had painted decor, murals. Many of no more merit than some sign painter's version of Venice, but some were undoubtedly of real reknown and quality-- after all, Ivan Albright paintings hung at Riccardo's, for instance. Some of them, I have to believe, still exist inside abandoned buildings in places like far west Roosevelt Road. What ghosts of gay Bohemia still haunt these forgotten spots?

I have made it a point to not do I-80 through Nebraska for years. Fly, or last time we drove, did the Missouri River Valley, up a bit into So. Dakota, back down into NE where we bushwhacked through the sandhills and saw magnificent vistas, lots of coal cars heading east, and maybe 5 cars in 100 miles, on county roads.

Heading back from Denver, we needed to make up some time, so we took I-70 through Kansas and I was just enchanted (no pun intended, even though we did just see CSO do Harold Arlen's score to the Wizard of Oz at Ravinia--with the movie and lots of little girls in blue gingham and ruby slippers:-)

At a certain point on trips like that, you're just checking the map to find out how far it is until you're home (unlike children, who just ask, how soon until we get there). I-70 through Kansas and St. Louis, staying on the Interstate all the way, adds about 50 miles.

Instead, we did I-70 from CO to Kansas City, lunch at Bryants, and then took uncrowded roads through the fruitbelt of NW Missouri (great peaches), crossed the river at Hannibal, MO, spent the night in Quincy (I think) and came up on little back roads along the Rock River until we were practically in Chicago.

I don't think it took any appreciable amount of time longer than I-80, where the traffic can be brutal.

But don't sign off on NE, there's some incredible topography there.

Was this it, Annieb?

http://watchic.net/shannon/crosscountry/ogallala.html

No, it was a generic, right off the highway motel, used to be a chain until it became so run down that it failed to meet the standards of any chain and was taken over by whatever sect or cult that was then running it. The maitre d' in the restaurant looked like a cross between a monk and a circa 1970s roadie for the Rolling Stones.

Ah! The Gulfport!! We loved that place. It quickly became a favorite of ours and we were sorry when it closed. Rumor has it the chef opened a restaurant in Country Club Hills called Sweet Geogia Brown (on 183rd Street), but we never made it there. The restaurant is still there, but I have no idea if it is under the same owner/management.

Suzy

My foundest memory of Le Perqueot was a pillow was given to all the woman so they could take off their shoes and rest their feet.
Paulette

paulette wrote:My foundest memory of Le Perqueot was a pillow was given to all the woman so they could take off their shoes and rest their feet.
Paulette

I'm surpised they allowed such a public display of nudity is such staid surroundings.

One classic Wells Street spot hasn't been mentioned. Little Pleasures Ice Cream Shop. Petite Rum Baba!!