The staff recognizes the faces of myself and RegionRat as we walk in for a Chicago Style hot dog. In Bloomington (IN), this is probably only place to get a big hunk of Vienna Beef between two poppy-seed buns.
Billy's Chicago Place is a new restaurant in Bloomington near what I call "The 4th Street District"; a block of the street that features a whole slew of ethnically-themed restaurants that were built into previously residential-purpose homes. The owner, I'm assuming the following is his name, is "Billy" - a shaggy-haired 23 year old recent graduate of Indiana University who had an aspiration from the age of 18. He's a devout Cubs fan, being clad in blue jeans and Cubs paraphernalia every time I've seen him scoot across the dining room area to the bar and back to the kitchen area.
Inside the bluish-purplish house, the place is staffed with waitresses clad in black shirts with the backs of them proclaiming the establishment as "a tradition since 2007." The place is extremely laid back with many flat screen televisions to watch while your grease-bomb is being prepared in the back.
"Billy" sees us and immediately turns the channel to Comedy Central as before, at that same time last week, the both of us (okay, just RegionRat) watched the new South Park episode.
The other televisions in the restaurant are all turned to MLB-related things, games, and the like. It's a very "Chicago-feeling" place, pictures of the massive skyline skirt the walls. However, by RegionRat's standards, the place isn't purely a Chicago Style place with their absence of a Polish Dog on the menu. Then again, this is the same guy who puts ketchup on his dog. Then again, I do as well because what's a hot dog without ketchup?
The hot dogs are purely Chicago tasting and I almost let out moan as I bite into one. straight out of O'hare airport where I used to frequently fly through from the West Coast to visit my family in the Pittsburgh, PA area. I can vividly remember being about 7-8 years old in O'hare's Terminal One after a long 3 hour flight from San Francisco basking in the glory of the Chicago Style Hot Dog with ketchup all over my face and poppy seeds all over my lap. Those things truly kept me going during those long trips.
From that, my love for Chicago Style Hot Dogs will never die.
"Billy" has a fine establishment here but the future of it is still uncertain. Statistics have shown that nearly 70% of all new businesses will fail within the first three years of operation. People still have yet to discover this place as it is virtually hidden and frequently passed by many. Personally, I think that a larger, more visible sign would help attract more business.
However, with the right direction and decisions I believe the place will flourish and could even turn into another cultural staple of Bloomington.
Blasted. With all this talk of hot dogs, I'm starting to crave one..
Sunday, October 28, 2007
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