I enjoyed your articles about the Loop. Since the mid-1980s, the landscape of the Loop has changed fundamentally.
There are now very few independent restaurants at street level, most of which were replaced with chains. What I miss most of all are the coffee shops along Jackson Boulevard, especially Nick’s Snacks, where the owners and wait staff knew customers well enough to hand them their morning paper of choice as they entered the restaurant.
With their snaking counters and homey atmosphere, these coffee shops were the downtown equivalents of barbershops and similar places of congregation, where you would meet and talk with people you otherwise would never meet.
For me, the most devastating loss among these street-level eateries was the demise of Bev and Bob’s, which occupied the space now home to Rhapsody. B&B’s was the closest one could get to an East Coast-style deli in the Loop. From the crowded sandwich line, to the unique personalities of the servers, you’d be hard-pressed to reproduce the style and substance of that wonderful place.
What I miss the most about places like Bev and Bob’s is that you have to search pretty hard to find a restaurant that serves as interesting an a la carte menu as they did, steps from the Art Institute. My favorite lunch was a bowl of mushroom barley soup with a side of one potato pancake. This could be had for $1.85 in 1985. I realize that it’s nearly 20 years later, but I really miss the independent spirit of street-level merchandise.
