Posted by Brian Frederiksen on August 01, 2001 at 07:56:19:
In Reply to: A day with Brian posted by Richard on July 31, 2001 at 15:21:07:
Yesterday was a sad day for Maxwell Street. After 70 some odd years one of
the oldest hot dog stands closed paving the way for expansion of the
University of Illinois Chicago. Maxwell Street has been home of buy, sell,
trade most anything for ages and has suffered because of UIC's expansion -
that's called progress!
One thing still around is the Maxwell Street Polish this isn't for health
nuts or calorie counters. It is about a foot long and a true one is deep
fried (some healthy places boil them)! In true Chicago fashion, there is mustard,
relish and onion. No catsup, ketchup, red stuff or whatever you call it in
the Outback. Fancy places give peppers, pickels and maybe celrey salt. You
know you have a good one when a) they throw it at you (not to you) at the
counter and b) there is grease soaked up by the bag. Unfortunately, I
brought Richard to a high class place that gives the bag instead of throwing
it and there was not much grease on the bag. Both have 1/2 point deductions
on a 1-5 scale so this was a 4 (with a good beat to dance to)! Since it looks
like Richard did not get clogged arteries and hauled into the hospital the
score doesn't go up a point. If he gets his stomach pumped, it would go up a
half point.
There's a great poster by Vienna Beef who akes this thing. Take a look at www.viennabeef.com and select gifts to see the posters. They also have a great one of a hot dog Navy Pier getting mustard from a fireboat.
One thing I showed Richard is a collection of Mr Jacobs' mouthpieces which his son would like to sell. There is no way to determine value except to put them up for an auction. Problem is that with summer here, everyone is one place or another and does not have full access to the web. For this reason we are waiting until September. I will post a list of these mouthpieces soon on www.windsongpress.com