Henry's Drive-In

"It's a meal in it's self!"

Cathy2 on 'Signage' wrote:I saw this place on Ogden Avenue today:



Henry's Drive-In
6031 West Ogden Avenue
Cicero, IL 60804
708-656-9344

Regards,

Note the fries on the dog? Ya gotta eat it that way.

Mmmm, fries with mustard and relish... ?

It has been a long time since I was there. Perhaps a return visit is in order (I hope they are still open).

Stay tuned...

Interesting. The prehistoric Henry's Hamburger chain, recently discussed, does not serve hot dogs, and does not seem to have that slogan, so I'd guess this is unrelated. On the other hand, the color scheme and general feel of the sign is quite similar. On the other, other hand, the typeface is completely different. Maybe a Chicao hot dog hawker named Henry long ago looked to free ride on the mighty Henry's Hamburger chain's good will.

Panther in the Den wrote:Mmmm, fries with mustard and relish... ?

Looks like a dill pickle spear. Maybe cucumber. I'll have to check this place out.

I worked at a chain Henry's Drive-In in Lincolnwood during high school. The menu consisted of burgers, fries, fried chicken & shrimp, pies, and soft serve. Never any hot dogs. In the mid 60's, the owner re-named the place Alpha's and the menu remained the same.

The Henry's in question has been there since the 50's. It was started by a man whose surname was Henry... I believe he was Wm. Henry. I went to school, in Cicero, with his two sons. He started with a little wagon on Austin, just north of Ogden... that may have been in the late 40's or early 50's. Later, he built the drive-in building show in the picture, on Ogden and 60th Court.

At one point, the large, Henry's Hamburger chain proposed to put one of thier establishments right on the corner of Austin and Ogden. One of the two parties sued, and Mr. Henry won, primarily, as I understood it at the time, based on the fact that his business bore his actual surname, whereas the chain was using a corporate identifier (I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, so don't hold me too closely to the legal details of this). Knowing the Henry family as I did, I hardly think they were looking for a free ride on the other company name. I don't think Mr. Henry even knew of the chain's existence when he opened the little wagon, or even when he built the drive-in.

Henry's younger son later took over the business, and ran it for quite a number of years. I understand he sold it to another party a few years ago.

Yes, they served the fries on top of the dog, all rolled up in the typical, generic paper wrapper. I always took them off the hotdog and ate them separately. They also served the old hot dog-stand tamales.

Back in the 50's, I think they charged 35 cents for the dog w/fries. But then, you could also get premium gasoline for 29.9 cents/gal, a big Buick Special cost $2100, and an an Electrical Engineer made $10k per year.

=gordon=

Of all the provocative posts written on this board, I never thought my explicit and mild speculation regarding the provenance of a hot dog stand's sign from the 50's would stir someone to such an informative and, to my mind, conclusive rebuttal. gordon_k, that was unexpected and very cool. Looking at my posts, you'll see that I share with ReneG and others a strong inclination to delve into the mists of Chicago's culinary past.

Thanks for clearing that up. But I will reiterate that the sign shares some basic characteristics with the burger chain's sign, which led to my initial guess. Now that I know the rest of the story, I'd like to think that your friend erected the sign shortly after he received the judge's final order in the case, sticking it in the (relatively, at the time) big Henry's eye.

Thanks, Jeff...

Through the fog of memory, I seem to recall a Henry's Hamburger place on Cicero Ave, near Midway Airport... and that their sign and that of Henry's Drive-In were similar. Green... Perhaps the cursive script, as well...??? That was a *long* time ago... ;->

I really don't know when the Henry's Drive-In sign went up. It very well may be that it was a poke in the eye to the 'big' Henry's... I hadn't thought about that. I certainly agree that there seems to be too much similarity to be pure coincidence. However, I'm sure that the "It's a meal in itself" slogan was peculiar to Henry's Drive-In.

An additional recollection is being wowed by the 'pile of food' you got at Henry's for 35 cents... That was in the days before SuperSize, Football-size Burritos, Triples w/cheese, etc. Portion size has grown enormously since then.

=gordon=

Hell, EVERYTHING in the 50s looked like that.

Sincerely,
Mr. Retro Design

gordon_k wrote:Through the fog of memory, I seem to recall a Henry's Hamburger place on Cicero Ave, near Midway Airport...

Yes, it was at 5200 S Cicero, where Brandy’s is now. Thanks, Gordon, for all the information on “the other Henry’s.”

For those who care, I posted a little more on Henry’s in this other thread.

I work right around the corner from there, and have been going there since I was a kid. Nothing particularly great about it.

They do serve this raunchy "bbq" beef sandwich, that I actually like once in a while. It is beef in a tangy sauce. There is really nothing bbq about it. I grew up eating it, which is probably why I have an affinity for it.

saps wrote:Nothing particularly great about it.

It wasn't that I didn't believe what you said, but I feel compelled to visit these old hot dog stands. There's usually a reason places stay in business over 50 years. The hot dog at Henry's wasn't bad, just ordinary.

A small skinless (bah!) Vienna with mustard, onion, pickle and peppers plus a generous serving of fries. Nothing stood out one way or the other. They have a fairly extensive menu, including that old-time specialty, tamale-in-a bun. That sign, from the 1960s I believe, is very cool indeed.

Proof that some of the original Henry's DID serve hot dogs...

growing up in rural ND in the fifties chains didn't exist but when we went to the city(grand Forks<40mile>) to visit Grandma sneaking over Henrys (or King Leos) for a dollar bag of hanks was a treat-and poof they were gone!

Had my first Henry's hamburger at the Lincolnwood store in 1956 and worked there from 1961-1966. That Henry's never sold hot dogs, but had great pies and fried shrimp. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry's_Hamburgers