Star Crab - 70s restaurant on Irving Park and Avondale

https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/randoymwo ... 456896181/

They are tearing down the building (it was most recently an alarm company).

What was it like? The sign is cool.

It used to be the Red Star Inn, a fairly famous (and decent) German restaurant whose original location on Clark street near North Avenue fell victim to eminent domain (along with my grandfather's hotel) to build Sandberg Village. They moved to the Irving Park location sometime in the early 70's. I'm not sure when it became the Red Crab.

stevez wrote:fell victim to eminent domain (along with my grandfather's hotel)

Not sure I ever mentioned this to you, but I have a Japanese ink brush painting I bought from that hotel during a final days sale of everything.

Don't mean to hijack.

Just to continue the hijack (apologies). The sign for the old Golden Ox is in the basement of Burger Bar, should anyone want to purchase it from owner/chef and my former neighbor John McLean.

Hi,

This Red Star Inn on Irving Park was why my family stopped dining out on Mother's Day. I was in my teen's when the ordered Lasagna Florentine arrived frozen in the middle. It was also a bad choice for a restaurant featuring German food, but I didn't know better.

We never returned there and almost never dine out on Mother's Day.

Regards,

David Hammond wrote:

stevez wrote:fell victim to eminent domain (along with my grandfather's hotel)

Not sure I ever mentioned this to you, but I have a Japanese ink brush painting I bought from that hotel during a final days sale of everything.

Don't mean to hijack.

David,

I'd love to see your "etching" sometime. I have quite a few souvenirs myself including a scale that is over 100 years old and was used to weigh meat when it was delivered to the hotel.

The Oxtail soup from Red Star Inn is still the gold standard for that kind of soup in my family. We still talk about it.

stevez wrote:It used to be the Red Star Inn, a fairly famous (and decent) German restaurant whose original location on Clark street near North Avenue fell victim to eminent domain (along with my grandfather's hotel) to build Sandberg Village. They moved to the Irving Park location sometime in the early 70's. I'm not sure when it became the Red Crab.

The story of the Red Star Inn, which opened in 1899, is a little more complicated. The restaurant actually survived the widespread condemnation of the area in the 1960s.

The city's plan to clear the entire area bounded by Division, LaSalle, North and Clark to build Sandburg Village provoked an outcry to save the Red Star Inn (and a few other buildings such as the Germania Club). Developer Arthur Rubloff said leaving any of the old properties would be "tantamount to building a new project upon a slum," but preservationists including Everett Dirksen prevailed. Nearly the entire area, including the Plaza Hotel, was demolished by 1967, but the Red Star Inn and a few other buildings were spared. The Inn's owned vowed "the restaurant will not be moved," but a few years later he sold the property after all, following the death of his wife and because business at the restaurant had been in decline. Red Star Inn closed in February 1970 and was torn down a few months later.

In 1970, Red Star's chef and maitre d' opened Rudolph's in Franklin Park using the original recipes. Shortly after, a Mr Riggio from Skokie opened a new Red Star Inn on Irving Park, having bought the name, the sign and some interior decorations when the original closed.

Hi,

My family took Oma for her birthday dinner at Red Star Inn in December 1969. One of her indirect presents was learning we had bought our home.

I didn't realize until this post, I should consider myself lucky for being there just before it closed.

Regards,