This year marks my 10th anniversary at the Chicago Tribune. I’ve been your critic since 2022, but I started as a reporter with the Food & Dining team in 2016, after a lifetime in the restaurant industry with a few big detours along the way. A lot has changed, not only with our section and the Trib, but — as we know all too well — the world we cover. Some events, however, feel familiar.
For my milestone Tribiversary, I wanted to check in with some of the people whose stories I’ve had the privilege to share in the past decade by asking them 10 elemental questions. You may know them well, or this may be your introduction to the food icons of Chicago.
We begin with Gus Rickette. The legend behind the Uncle Remus restaurants turns 100 years old this year. He and his late wife, Mary Rickette, co-founded the Black-owned house of fried chicken and mild sauce in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side, where he still lives.
The following interview, which was conducted with assistance from Charmaine Rickette, has been edited for clarity and length.Q: What is your full name?
A: Gus William Rickette Sr.
Rickette Sr. and his wife had three boys and nine girls, including his namesake son and their youngest daughter, Charmaine Rickette, whom they appointed company CEO before retiring in 1991.Q: When were you born?
A: Aug. 11, 1926.
For his 95th birthday in 2021, the Rickette Foundation, their family philanthropic organization, celebrated with a gospel concert.
Last year, for his 99th birthday, the nonagenarian just wanted the American Southern-style food from MacArthur’s nearby, plus cake and ice cream, of course, and he went to work the next day.
Q: Where were you born?
A: Leland, Mississippi.
That’s where Rickette met Mary Francis Roberts, also born in Leland, before they married in 1942.
He left their hometown alone for Chicago in 1943, intending to find a job with the railroad to support his new family. Instead, Rickette spent his first night in the city in jail. “That sounds bad, but it turned out it was a blessing,” he told me in 2019. “Because I didn’t have no place to stay anyway.
Q: What was your first job?
A: My first job was a janitor. So what does that mean? In the wintertime, you had to keep putting charcoal into the system to build up that steam. So that was my type of janitor. Most janitors got drunk on the weekends, and people wouldn’t have no heat. So can you imagine, you got six or seven buildings? That’s as many as you could take care of. Although they wasn’t far apart. That’s the only good part. Because you had to walk to those buildings.
He had a job, but no bed, instead walking back and forth from the West Side to the Loop, then sneaking into movie theaters to sleep. “That’s what made me,” said Rickette in 2019, his voice breaking and eyes welling with tears. “It destroyed some people, but it heightened my determination.”
Q: What is your title?
A: Founder.
Rickette served in the Army during World War II, which sent him to Germany. The couple finally reunited in Chicago. They worked a number of jobs before starting their first restaurant with a friend. G & G Chicken Shack opened at 135 S. Pulaski Road in March of 1962, but closed after just a year. The Rickettes went on to open Royal Chicken in 1964 at 3350 W. Madison Ave. It thrived, but burned down during the 1968 Chicago riots following the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. They relocated within a year to 4350 W. Madison Ave.
Q: What is your restaurant’s name?
A: Uncle Remus Saucy Fried Chicken.
The name came not from the fictional literary character, but literally a sign, discounted by a sign maker after a would-be restaurateur abandoned it.
Q: When did you open?
A: February 1969.
The first Uncle Remus Chicken Restaurant opened at 210 S. Cicero Ave.
Q: What is your signature item?
A: Six wings with fries and our mild sauce.
Their fried chicken wings are scratch-made, double-battered and extra crunchy, drizzled or drenched in the singular condiment known as mild sauce. There’s no documented creator of the Chicago-style sauce that tempers hot sauce with the flavors of barbecue and ketchup. Rickette has shared with me how he first created the original, and I believe him.
Q: What is your most memorable moment?
A: Serving the Black Panthers. They stood up as nobody else did. I was right there, and I was glad to feed them.
The couple fed the Black Panther Party through Royal Chicken in 1968. He secretly dropped off food to party headquarters just east of the restaurant. Meanwhile, the Panthers fed the community through their Free Breakfast for Children Program.
Q: What are a few words of wisdom you would like to share with the next generation?
A: Hard work is always there. But that’s not it. It’s consistency.
Rickette and his late wife continued to work even after their official retirement. She died at 76 in 2001. He’s no longer allowed to drive, limiting his regular visits to the restaurants, but he cut the ribbon at their Broadview reopening in 2024, after it was closed for 375 days of remodeling.
And Rickette is writing a song he calls “Free” on his electric keyboard, even though he’s never studied music, but plans to take piano lessons soon, before his 100th birthday this year.
Uncle Remus Saucy Fried Chicken; 5611 W. Madison St. (takeout only); 2537 S. Wabash Ave. (inside Picnic Food for takeout only); 1801 Roosevelt Road, Broadview; 877-201-0719; uncleremususa.com
Big screen or home stream, takeout or dine-in, Tribune writers are here to steer you toward your next great experience. Sign up for your free weekly Eat. Watch. Do. newsletter here.
