#197: Guess the Meat Biz

A three-parter. Guess each meat-related business. All are on well-traveled streets in the city, visible from car or bus.

197A


197B


197C

Rene G wrote:197A

I had a feeling you'd know Winston's mascot, being fond enough of the big guy to post his picture twice before (here and here). That leaves the pig and the sheep.

Okay, let's take a few steps back.

197B


197C

C is Nea Agora.

Correct! I was counting on you to get this one. Do you have any experience with them? I have to admit I've never stopped in (I think they close pretty early) but it looks like a great old shop.



Nea Agora
1056 W Taylor St
Chicago
312-421-5130

Here's the address of Winston's, home of the big bull. It's Chicago's best source for Irish-style sausages and meats (such as boiling bacon).

Winston's Sausages
4701 W 63rd St
Chicago
773-767-4353‎

I had a feeling the pig might be tough. It's probably not a well known business (I think it's wholesale only) but the building is in full view on a major Chicago street.

Rene G wrote:Correct! I was counting on you to get this one. Do you have any experience with them? I have to admit I've never stopped in (I think they close pretty early) but it looks like a great old shop.

If I hadn't been out of town with no internet the last few days, I would have gotten it on Friday!

Yes, it's a great shop. We get lamb there for Easter. We would shop there far more often if they stayed open later: we are on that stretch of Taylor Street quite a bit in the 5-5:30 range but they are always closed by then.

P.S. love the old-style phone number on their sign...

Amata wrote:
P.S. love the old-style phone number on their sign...

Me too, but I think it is artiface. The actual number for the HA exchange was 7, not 1 (HA stood for Harrison and was the excahnge for my Dad's office back when such phone numbers were used). If that was their real number back in the day it would have been HA 7-5130. I think the 421 exchange is a much more recent invention. Still, I like the way they use it. I wonder if any of their younger customers even realize that's their phone number.

Amata wrote:P.S. love the old-style phone number on their sign...

It's a great sign. I'm mildly obsessed with signage and this is up there with Chicago's best.



It quietly conveys a lot of information in a simple but pleasing format. The name Nea Agora, in quirky hand painted letters (look at that R!), evokes the Old Countries where lamb is highly valued. The picture of the animals leaves no doubt as to their specialty. And the archaic phone number makes it clear they are traditionalists. You expect they still have their rotary dial phone and conduct business just as they did fifty years ago. One of the better black and white signs you're likely to see.

stevez wrote:Me too, but I think it is artiface. The actual number for the HA exchange was 7, not 1 (HA stood for Harrison and was the excahnge for my Dad's office back when such phone numbers were used). If that was their real number back in the day it would have been HA 7-5130. I think the 421 exchange is a much more recent invention. Still, I like the way they use it. I wonder if any of their younger customers even realize that's their phone number.

No, I think it's for real. HA-1 was a real exchange, an abbreviation for HAymarket, not HArrison. Have a look at Como Inn's ad from the 1956 yellow pages.

Rene G wrote:No, I think it's for real. HA-1 was a real exchange, an abbreviation for HAymarket, not HArrison. Have a look at Como Inn's ad from the 1956 yellow pages.

That's great!

Now I'm going to spend the rest of my day trying to wrap my head around the concept of "unlimited parking".

Rene G wrote:No, I think it's for real. HA-1 was a real exchange, an abbreviation for HAymarket, not HArrison. Have a look at Como Inn's ad from the 1956 yellow pages.

I stand corrected. Actually, this is very significant becasue this is the first time I've come across two old named exchanges that shared the same first two letters. That is very unusual...especially for two areas that basically abutted each other. Most of the time, they would have been named something completely different to avoid confusion, for example HArrison 7 and perhaps GAllery 1 or ICarus 1 (or GArfield 1, but I believe there was already a GArfield exchange).

That pig... isn't it down on S Halsted, near Chiapetti?

eatchicago wrote:

Rene G wrote:No, I think it's for real. HA-1 was a real exchange, an abbreviation for HAymarket, not HArrison. Have a look at Como Inn's ad from the 1956 yellow pages.

That's great!

Now I'm going to spend the rest of my day trying to wrap my head around the concept of "unlimited parking".

Here's Como Inn's ad from 1965. The travel time from the Loop has increased a bit but there was still unlimited free parking!

stevez wrote:I stand corrected. Actually, this is very significant becasue this is the first time I've come across two old named exchanges that shared the same first two letters. That is very unusual...especially for two areas that basically abutted each other. Most of the time, they would have been named something completely different to avoid confusion, for example HArrison 7 and perhaps GAllery 1 or ICarus 1 (or GArfield 1, but I believe there was already a GArfield exchange).

I hate to challenge your long held beliefs about old Chicago telephone numbers but sharing the first two letters between two or even three different exchanges was not terribly uncommon. Have a look at these pairs of restaurant ads.







Here are some more:

COlumbus 1
COmmodore 4

GRaceland 2
GRoverhill 6

LAwndale 2
LAfayette 3
LAkeview 5

REgent 4
REpublic 7

ROckwell 2
ROdney 3
ROgers Park 4

STate 2
STewart 3

WAbash 2
WAlbrook 5
WAterfall 8

WEntworth 6
WEbster 9

I'm sure there are more examples. All information is from the 1956 Chicago yellow pages (called the Red Book back then).

A quick search of the entire restaurant section doesn't reveal even a single occurrence of any GArfield exchange (of course, it could have been an uncommon prefix). Oddly, some numbers begin with GArden 2 and others with GArden 4.

Amata wrote:That pig... isn't it down on S Halsted, near Chiapetti?

Very good! Henry Kaminski, at 3762 S Halsted, is almost next door to Chiappetti and across the street from Allen Bros.

HI,

Until his death, my Grandfather always told his phone number was IRving 8 --- he lived around Irving Park and California.

My Opa's business phone number is remembered by my family as GRaceland 2 --- it's on Lincoln Avenue north of Irving Park.

Interestingly, both IR and GR are 47 on the phone.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:HI,

Until his death, my Grandfather always told his phone number was IRving 8 --- he lived around Irving Park and California.

My Opa's business phone number is remembered by my family as GRaceland 2 --- it's on Lincoln Avenue north of Irving Park.

Interestingly, both IR and GR are 47 on the phone.

Regards,

See, that's what I was talking about. The numbers are the same, but they chose two different words to describe the exchange. Lost in my original post was the fact that the phone company rarely used words with the same two letters in areas near each other. In the examples that Rene G posted above, notice that the exchanges with the same prefixes were on opposite sides of the city. The oddity of the Nea Agora phone number (HA1) and my father's (HA7) was that the areas were virtually next to each other. In Cathy's example, the areas were adjacent, but the names of the exchanges chosen were completely different. Which is the way such occurrences were normally treated.

My parents phone number in Evanston was GReenleaf5-xxxx, and my grandmother, who lived across the street, always responded "GReenleaf 5-xxxx" when she was asked for her phone number. That really brings back memories.

My first home in Chicago was KEdzie 3-3465.
My dad's drug store in Chicago was SAcramento 2-0451.
My home phone in Lincolnwood was ORchard 4-9715.

I know it wasn't that long ago that they were
still running commercials with HUdson 3-2700
and NAtional 2-9000. Could those possibly
STILL be on the air?

SCUBAchef wrote:I know it wasn't that long ago that they were
still running commercials with HUdson 3-2700
and NAtional 2-9000. Could those possibly
STILL be on the air?

Sadly, both Bouchelle Carpet Cleaning and Lincoln Carpet went out of business long ago.