Here are a couple more pictures from the interior of Gene & Judes, a great way to start our trip:
Gene & Jude’s Red Hot Stand
2720 River Rd
River Grove, IL 60171
708.452.7634
Our next stop was right around the corner from Gene & Jude’s and a decidedly non hot dog venue, The Hala Kahiki Lounge, an old school tiki bar.
As per their website, here is the history of Hala Kahiki:
The Hala Kahiki was founded in 1963 by Rose & Stanley Sacharski and began as a neighborhood tavern on Fullerton & Lockwood named, The Lucky Start. The theme wasn’t tropical from the beginning; that idea came from our customers. The walls were in very poor condition and the easiest way to cover them up was with outdoor fencing that looked like bamboo from Sears and Roebuck. Once the customers saw the change, they asked if we were going to make the place into a tropical tiki bar. Everything snowballed from there. As business grew, the owners needed room to expand and began looking for a larger venue. That was found in the current location in River Grove, Illinois. The idea for the current name came from the owner’s son, Sonny. He was reading ‘Dennis the Menace Goes to Hawaii’. In the Vocabulary section, Hala Kahiki was mentioned, which is a pineapple plantation in Hawaii. Hala Kahiki means “House of Pineapple” and the pineapple is the symbol of hospitality. The location was originally built as a greenhouse, but prior to it becoming the Hala Kahiki, the property was a bar called the Glasshouse which catered to truckers. To create a more date like atmosphere, the bar was transformed into a tropical tiki bar with 7 tables along with the bar. As business expanded extra rooms were added every one to two years.
The place was old school fun. Our introduction to the place was the fact that the waitress TOLD all of us to take off our hats and carded all of us (who are all above the age of 30). We started of with the Scorpion Bowl pictured above and it was all (fuzzily) downhill from there.
Here are a couple more pictures from the interior of Hala Kahiki:
Hala Kahiki
2834 River Rd
River Grove, IL 60171
708.456.3222
From Hala Kahiki we headed to Superdawg Drive-In. A Chicago hot dog institution that has been open since 1948 and still features carhop service to this day.
As per their website, here is the history of Superdawg Drive-In:
In May of 1948, Superdawg® was established at the corner of Milwaukee, Devon and Nagle in Chicago. Superdawg® continues to be family owned and operated in the same location today. Maurie Berman, a recently returned G.I. from World War II, married his high school sweetheart Florence (Flaurie), in August of 1947. Maurie was attending Northwestern University, studying to be a CPA, while recent Northwestern grad Flaurie was teaching in the Chicago Public Schools. With their “school-year” schedules, the newlyweds wanted to open a business that they could operate during the summer months. Many other returning G.I.’s were opening roadside hot dog carts and Maurie and Flaurie decided to open their own roadside hot dog stand, one that would be as unique and distinctive as they were. Maurie designed an architecturally distinct, 20′ x 12′ building topped with two 12 foot hot dog icons to beckon hungry passersby with their winking and blinking eyes. Maurie and Flaurie then created a proprietary, secret recipe to set themselves apart from the other hot dog stands popping up around the city. With a distinctive look and delicious recipe, they were almost ready to open. All they needed was a name. Inspired by the superheroes featured in the newly-created, popular comics of the ’40’s, Maurie and Flaurie named their signature product and restaurant. It was not a wiener — not a frankfurter — not a red hot — but their own exclusive SUPERDAWG™.
The dogs were great as was their packaging. The one thing that is very hard to get on a hot dog at Superdawg is ketchup. They will NEVER put it on a hot dog but will give it to you to put on your hot dog yourself.
Here are a few more pictures from our stop at Superdawg:
Superdawg Drive-In
6363 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60646
773.763.0660
From Superdawg, we soldiered on to what was easily the most fun stop on our trip, The Wieners Circle.
As it says on The Wieners Circle wikipedia page:
It is famous for four things: its signature Chicago-style hot dogs, hamburgers and cheese fries, and the mutual verbal abuse between the employees and the customers during the late-weekend hours.
If you have never heard of or never been to The Wieners Circle, they are famously known for their Chocolate Milkshakes (which have absolutely nothing to do with the milk, ice cream and chocolate syrup!)
I could explain to you what a chocolate milkshake is but this video explains it better than I ever could (warning this video is very NSFW!) We were very fortunate to meet Poochie, the star of this video on our visit.
[youtube]vo1LPf9mnyU[/youtube]
The Wieners Circle also was the only place we ate at on our trip that featured char dogs (cooked over an open flame) rather than the being cooked on a flat top grill.
Here are a couple more pictures from our stop at The Wieners Circle:
The Wieners Circle
2622 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60614
773.477.7444
Our final stop at the end of day one was decidedly a burger place not a hot dog place, The Billy Goat Tavern.
This place is legendary as it was the inspiration for one of the funniest and most classic Saturday Night Live sketches ever.
[dailymotion]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7ms99_saturday-night-live-the-olympia-res_fun[/dailymotion]
We really didn’t stop in for the quality of the burgers, although we did try them. Our goal was just to soak in the experience of this legendary place. The burger was good, not great but the experience was a blast beyond words.
Here are a few interior/exterior shots of Billy Goat Tavern taken late at night:
Billy Goat Tavern
430 N Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60611
312.222.1525
After that we decided to call it a day. Day two of our adventure was just as much fun (if not more). I’ll share that with you next week.
Happy New Year everyone and it feels great to be back into the swing of things.
I will have more fun adventures & stories and pictures to share with you in 2011.
7 Responses
No fries…chips.
you should have asked for ketchup @ Gene and Jude’s.
I see you drug Marc into the Mud. Good job, between his photos and knowledge of bands, I’m sure he will be a great fit.
also – the drink from the Hala Kahiki pictured is a Volcano. The Scorpion has no fire in the middle. However, the Scorpion and the Volcano are the only “drinks for two” on the menu. Both very good
Siwook:
1) As I said Hala Kahiki was a fuzzy recollection and it was a long time ago, so I did the best I could.
2) I know about the ketchup thinkg, picked up this book at the Vienna Beef factory http://www.neverputketchuponahotdog.com/
Flywheel:
Anytime you want to do a guest F4tF posting let me know as you taught me (and I forgot) everything.
jsf3000 – Billy Goat was a blast!
Hot Doug’s better be in Pt. 2 or I’m outta here.