Excuse my esoteric bent today but I found these old matchbooks from a few vintage Chicago businesses and had to share them with you as an homage to the lost world of my youth. For those of you out there who grew up around Belmont Avenue and Sheridan Road in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in the 60's, this first one is a trip down memory lane.
I'm sure I remember this dude Jack's face from around the neighborhood.
I never worked at the Barry, but I did have a job as a delivery boy for Pinsky's pharmacy which was located in the former Belmont Hotel just around the corner. It was kind of a creepy gig as the hotel was a faded transient pile of bricks that noir poet Cornell Woolrich would have been at home living in and writing about, had he not been dying of gangrene in New York City at the time.
The Club Alabam was really before my time, although North Rush Street was still the home for the tail end of the jazz chanteuse music scene that seems to be promised by this enticement.
But the Como Inn was one of my longtime favorite spots and was still going strong serving thousands of patrons every weekend to heaping plates of pasta and glasses of Chianti or the kind of marbleized giant steaks pictured above.
There was also a place downtown called The Cart which took the business of beef quite seriously and used to come to the table with this giant metal rolling trolley housing a huge side of beef and a waiter dressed in a white robe and chef's hat holding a huge carving knife so the patron could make his selection of cut and size. The blood stains on the front of his apron just added to the overall effect of carnivorous bacchanalia.
If anyone finds a match book from The Cart, I'll post it here!
Enjoy!
william
wow... I can't believe you have a matchbk from club alabam. I have one from B/G diner and one from the Little Pleasures ice cream shop (Old Town). I remember the Cart, but alas, no mbook.
Pete Lekousis
Posted by: Pete Lekousis | March 11, 2011 at 05:20 AM
Love those old matchbooks. My parents had a bunch of them when they smoked (Benson and Hedges). Love the one from the Barry Beauty salon. I swear that is where Julie's mom got her beehive constructed every friday,
Posted by: Jennifer | March 13, 2011 at 12:34 AM