Got a dollar? Then you can go shopping on Cermak Road.
Our first thought was that the lengthy sprawl of Cermak Road from McCormick Place to Westchester was too immense for a digestible view of its world–foreign tongues, cemeteries and a hyperactive profusion of commerce. Between east and west, Cermak encompasses the untidiness of Lawndale and the kempt solidity of Westchester. But the skein that unifies Cermak Road was revealed in Pilsen, with a simple comment.
“There’s not a lot of money in dollar stores anymore,” moaned Matteo, owner of the Dollar Value Plus, at 1935 W. Cermak Rd. “Everybody’s out for themselves. One guys sells for a dollar, the next guy will sell for 99 cents. Some people have 10 stores, they don’t care.”
And we got to noticing that dollar stores were everywhere on Cermak Road. Family Dollar, Dollar Buster, Dollar and Up, Dollar Buster Plus–lots of “plus” in dollar-store land. Berwyn had the ultimate–99 Cents and Up–because in the world of a dollar, people still want a bargain. Whether the neighborhood was white, Hispanic or black, there was the ubiquity of a George Washington.
This makes sense as you troll its length, and realize that Cermak is working class through and through. Chinatown, Pilsen, Lawndale, Cicero, Berwyn and North Riverside bus-
tle with movement. These laborer roots make the dollar store–14 of ’em, for those keeping score–a necessity for the people who live and work here.
But those thinking that a dollar doesn’t go very far anymore are wrong. These neighborhood fixtures carry denizens through seasons and needs. At dollar stores, ther are immense, kid-dazzling superhero towels, silk flowers, ceramics and toys for the kids like horses or dinosaurs. The practical side is served by school and laundry supplies, things that lubricate daily life in the neighborhoods that Cermak Road frames.
An just as the dollar emporia that dot is length are the same yet different, each neighborhood along Cermak Road has its own distinct identity.
Chinatown, Pilsen and Berwyn revel in the comforts of the familiar; so a stranger might find English becoming Chinese, Spanish or Czech when a newcomer intrudes upon locals’ comfort zones. Older residents greet each other with a warmth fueled by decades of moments whiled away together: Lawndale asks “what are you doing here?” in the hard stares of the lads hanging out. They don’t blink and you don’t linger: Yet in Pilsen and Chinatown, nobody makes eye contact with you, preferrring to brush past in the bustle, real or fictitious, of everyday life
There’s nobody on Cermak Road in Westchester or North
Riverside (our starting point) to make contact with, nor are there any dollar stores, because there really isn’t anything on this part of Cermak. Here, it becomes a thoroughfare. The speed limit goes up and the lanes widen on a road that, a few miles east, was the center of commerce and a neighborhood destination. Now, it’s an expedient route to somewhere else, and who has time to fool around, says the insistent honk of a horn behind those who delay a bit after the light turns green.
And yet, Cermak Road can also be a lot of fun, especially for those who fancy the neighborhood variances of Chicagoland and want to place gustatory landmarks in their digestive tracts. Chinatown has been chronicled to a degree that makes touching upon it here unnecessary, we believe.
Visible along the barren expanse of Cermak in Westchester–walls of shrubbery guarding its residential blocks, and asphalt–like a beacon in the afternoon sun, was a literal sign of Eden. Eden Lanes bowling alley, at 10159 Cermak, is also home of the Grille Plus, though what the “plus” denotes we never found out, unless it meant plus the boom and clatter of bowlers. At any rate, this is banquet hall chic, with comfort-type eats and warm, friendly service. The Max the Wiener Dog cocktail napkin was as sure an identifier that you were in a bowling center as the pungent, chalky scent of that rental shoe freshener, wafting through the air.
Fortified with tasty food and a “Nice to meet ya” upon exiting the Grille Plus, we were ready for more exploration of Cermak Road, only to find ourselves having to make room for Sawa, as in Sawa’s Old Warsaw Buffet, at 9200 W. Cermak. Again, the mood was banquet hall, friendly as the day is long, complete with a $7.95 lunch special (drinks extra, bub) that offers Polish-style delicacies such as blintzes, pierogies and stuffed cabbage rolls. The place smells great, and the food was delicious. And did we say it was $7.95?
There isn’t much to Cermak Road in North Riverside, unless you’re a mall fan. Then you have North Riverside Park mall, but come on . . . really. Did you come to see a mall? Cross the road to marvel at Woodlawn Cemetery, billed as the “West Suburbs’ Finest,” as if its denizens care. What you will care about, amid the manicured, rolling expanse of the cemetery, is Showmen’s Rest. It’s famous, but never overplayed, a final resting spot for circus performers. We can presume that the famous Baldy (or so says the headstone) in fact was. There are ringmasters, sideshow performers and other circus notables interred here–and those elephants.
You can see them from Cermak Road, but no, elephants aren’t buried there. These monuments, elephants with lowered trunks (sad elephant) are to commemorate the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus train wreck in June 1918, which took the lives of 50 performers and circus crew. A military train, having missed all the signals that a stopped train was ahead, almost obliterated three of the four sleeping cars of the circus train.
But cemeteries creep us out, so it was time to move on.
Hobby City, at 6910 W. Cermak, 21 years old, is a surreal little place. The front of the store is mostly dollhouse supplies, including lighting fixtures. There are little lamps so that you can light your dollhouse (no, these are way beyond Barbie), along with furniture, washing machines and carpeting. As men who are used to working scale models get older and begin to lose their ability to work in wee scale, dollhouses become appealing.
On a clear day, you’ll be able to see the bargain of dollar stores from the front of Hobby City, the 99 Cents Plus, at 6719 W. Cermak. “Plus” is a big word in the world of the dollar store, though what it denotes, aside from the reality that a lot of stuff in dollar stores costs more than a dollar, is anyone’s guess.
Cermak Plaza Shopping Center, at Cermak and Harlem Avenue, boasts the darndest collection of outdoor sculpture going, including that crazy Car Spike, “Bee Tree” by George Rhoads and guess what? A Dollar Tree.
You won’t be able to see its beautiful interior, but the Berwyn National Bank building, at 6801 Cermak, is a dazzling example of pre-Depression architecture, along a stretch of road that used to be called “Bohemian Wall Street” for its collection of banks. The building’s dome looms over Cermak, drawing your attention like a magnet. The building, owned by the city of Berwyn, is now shuttered, its exterior now in disrepair thanks to its new, multi-use (hanging out, public lavatory) status.
Even if you’re stuffed (and we were), it’s worth stopping at Klas’ Restaurant, at 5734 W. Cermak, in Cicero. Cicero–banners trumpet Viva Mexico! Viva Cicero!–might match Berwyn for cultural whiplash. Both suburbs mix Mexican and Czech establishments and people. In Berwyn, the Bohemia Bakery and Deli, at 6512 W. Cermak, nestles right next door to a supermercado. Inside, Bohemia would make your mouth water, if you could read Czech. We couldn’t, instead settling for grabbing a few treats: a simple, buttery twisted braid with cheese on top, and an apple flat, a delicate, melt-in-your-mouth goodie filled with what we came to think of as delayed-reaction apple filling. You take a bite, and about midway through the mastication, the flavor hits you . . . “Boy, that’s good.”
Within a block of Bohemia Bakery is a favorite commercial whiplash moment, Gabby’s Flowers, at 6502 W. Cermak, and Lovers’ Paradise, at 6504 W. Cermak. The latter is precisely what its name implies, with more teddies (including plus sizes) silky, slippery things and unguents in one place than the law allows. Very cool.
And speaking of perfect placement, Old Fashioned Candies is at 6210 W. Cermak, right next door to Art’s Cycle and Fitness, at 6212 W. Cermak. Enter the latter at your own risk if you’re a chocoholic. You can buy your name in chocolate letters, nosh on chocolate-covered Oreos, or nibble candies gummy or sticky. We liked the Oreos, but trust us . . . three is too many to eat. When you exit, feeling bloated and guilty, there’s Art’s.
Klas’ bills itself as the “largest Czech restaurant in America.” Legend has it that Al Capone hung out here, but have someone show you the banquet rooms. They are beautiful, all carved wood and dark-toned ambience. We couldn’t eat another bite so we took a pass on the restaurant.
Cruising through Lawndale, there are seven storefront churches, names brimming with optimism–Sure Deliverance, Brotherly Love, Message of Christ. There isn’t much on Cermak Road in Lawndale, though it would seem as if a storefront church tour beckoned. But it wasn’t Sunday, so all were shuttered.
Ultimately, Cermak Road hurtles you through ethnic and demographic profiles, groups that are different, but have no idea how alike they are. Businesses, people, then as now, making a go of it by working for a living and dollar stores galore. A dollar might not be much to some, but here, it can unite disparate groups who might never know that someone the next neighborhood over has that same big-eyed ceramic frog sitting on a shelf in their home.
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Create your own tour of Cermak Road
Hit a couple of dollar stores, to set the mood. We like the
Dollar Value Plus, 1935 W. Cermak Rd. (773-376-4061), and Dollar Tree, in the Cermak Plaza Shopping Center, at Cermak Road and Harlem Avenue (708-788-0368).
It’s cheating, but the little gem that is the Czechoslovak Heritage Museum, at 122 W. 22nd in Oak Brook (800-543-3272), is worth a visit.
Kegglers can hit Eden Lanes, 10159 Cermak Rd. (708-865-0515), in Westchester to hang at a new-look, old-school bowling center.
Sawa’s Old Warsaw Buffet is at 9200 W. Cermak Rd. (708-343-9040), for a Polish-style smorgasbord.
Woodlawn Cemetery, 7600 W. Cermak Rd. (708-442-8500), is cemetery heaven. Showmen’s Rest, final resting place for circus performers, is a must-see.
Hobby City, 6910 W. Cermak Rd. (708-795-0280), is a tranquil little time machine filled with little stuff–trains, dollhouses, trees, you name it.
The Berwyn National Bank building, 6801 W. Cermak Rd., boasts exceptional architectural style.
Central Foundations, at 6743 W. Cermak Rd., (708-484-7330), is an example of the highly specialized business that is a calling card of this road. No, not house foundations, foundation garments.
Drop in Lovers’ Paradise, at 6504 W. Cermak Rd. (708-795-8552). You won’t believe the selection. We sure didn’t.
At Bohemia Bakery and Deli, 6512 W. Cermak Rd. (708-788-5292), you’re at an advantage if you can read Czech. We were reduced to salivating and pointing at what we wanted.
The World’s Largest Laundromat (yes, that’s the name) is at 6244 W. Cermak Rd. (708-749-1545), a colossus that boasts “250 machines, no waiting.” Those panels on the roof are for the recently installed solar hot water heater.
Old Fashioned Candies, 6210 W. Cermak Rd. (708-788-6669), will tempt you with milk chocolate letters, so you can spell your name in chocolate.
The beautiful Concordia Theater, 6134 W. Cermak Rd. (708-652-3333), deserves more life than it has, but you can gawk at its renovated, old-style glory.
Check out Klas’ Restaurant, at 5734 W. Cermak Rd. (708-652-0795), for old-world style in the “world’s largest Czech restaurant,” with its warm, woody banquet rooms.
Do something, anything at Apollo’s 2000, 2875 W. Cermak Rd. (773-247-0200), which began life in 1917 as the Marshall Square Theatre. It’s hopping on many weekends with live entertainment events.
Visit the CTA’s Cermak/Chinatown “L” stop, 138 W. Cermak Rd., to see a beautifully decorated space.
— Kevin M. Williams
