The Original Maxwell Street

We love MA, don’t get me wrong. Next month we will have lived in our house for 7 years and I went to college here as well. MA is our home. However, because neither my husband nor I am from here, occasionally we see things that just crack us up. I’m sure it’s quite similar to someone from out East moving to Chicago and wondering what the deal is with all the hot dog places. Hmmm… what’s the deal with the lack of hot dog places out here? Last week I was in my usual morning spinning class when I noticed the teacher staring out the window and smiling. She motioned for the few of us facing the window to look. That’s how I knew there and then that I was in MA. There were four wild turkeys staring back at us. That’s not a sight that I ever saw growing up outside of Chicago.

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Several newcomers follow the New York grilled dog tradition, but there’s a surge of interest in the Chicago school: a boiled dog on a poppy seed bun, seasoned with mustard and celery salt and piled with chopped onions, tomato chunks, a pickle spear, pickled sport peppers (a variety of small green peppers) and a lurid green pickle relish.

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INGREDIENTS
* 1 all-beef hot dog
* 1 poppyseed hot dog bun
* 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
* 1 tablespoon sweet green pickle relish
* 1 tablespoon chopped onion
* 4 tomato wedges
* 1 dill pickle spear
* 2 sport peppers
* 1 dash celery salt
DIRECTIONS
1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Reduce heat to low, place hot dog in water, and cook 5 minutes or until done. Remove hot dog and set aside. Carefully place a steamer basket into the pot and steam the hot dog bun 2 minutes or until warm.
2. Place hot dog in the steamed bun. Pile on the toppings in this order: yellow mustard, sweet green pickle relish, onion, tomato wedges, pickle spear, sport peppers, and celery salt. The tomatoes should be nestled between the hot dog and the top of the bun. Place the pickle between the hot dog and the bottom of the bun. Don’t even think about ketchup!

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As far as food goes, Chicago is known for two things - deep dish pizza, and hot dogs piled high with unusual condiments. Good pizza is easy to get in any city, but no city in the world can match Chicago for it’s hot dog eateries, either in terms of sheer numbers (there are more independant hot dog joints in the city than McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger Kings combined) or in terms of quality. In Chicago, hot dogs, maligned elsewhere as the lowest rung of the fast food chain, can become a true gourmet experience - usually for under three dollars. All across the country, restaurants and food stands exist that purport to sell “Chicago-style” hot dogs, but most of these are far from authentic - most just assume that it becomes a Chicago style dog simply by piling a bunch of crap on top of any given hot dog. Unfortunately, this concept has even spread around Chicago itself. So, what makes a proper Chicago hot dog? First of all, the dog itself should be a bright red color, should snap when you bite into it, and should have a bit of spice to it - the kind of dogs that are sometimes called “red hots.” The dogs should, traditionally, be steamed, not boiled or grilled, and served on a doughy poppyseed bun, with the following condiments:
- mustard
- chopped onions
- tomato wedges
- “sport peppers” (to be either eaten or thrown at cars - your choice)
- bright green relish (the proper kind should look almost neon)
- a whole pickle spear
- celery salt
Some places add might add cucumber slices, green pepper or lettuce, but any place that adds ketchup when you ask for “everything” is not serving up a Chicago hot dog - period. The best places make you add ketchup to the dog yourself, and some of the truly hardcore places don’t have ketchup on the premises at all - and will laugh at those who request it.

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The “Chicago Style” hot dog got its start from street cart hot dog vendors during the hard times of the Great Depression. Money was scarce, but business was booming for these entrepreneurs who offered a delicious hot meal on a bun for only a nickel. The famous Chicago Style Hot Dog was born! They’d start with a Vienna Beef hot dog, nestle it in a steamed poppyseed bun and cover it with a wonderful combination of toppings: yellow mustard, bright green relish, fresh chopped onions, juicy red tomato wedges, a kosher-style pickle spear, a couple of spicy sport peppers and finally, a dash of celery salt. This unique hot dog creation with a “salad on top” and its memorable interplay of hot and cold, crisp and soft, sharp and smooth, became America’s original fast food and a true Chicago institution.

There are no more blues on Maxwell Street.
It is a sunny Sunday morning market day and the street is nearly empty. A fellow named Lockhart who has sold tube socks on the street for the last fifteen years is still hawking his wares to anybody that stops for a Polish at Jimmy’s on Halsted and Maxwell. Business is not good. He looks down the deserted street and sees only ankle deep garbage piled in the gutter. If the city of Chicago ever provided services to this area of town, they have long since stopped. The buildings are abandoned and boarded up. They wait for the wrecking ball that the folks down at city hall have been trying to wield for over a hundred years.

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For about one hundred years, Maxwell Street was one of Chicago’s most unconventional business—and residential—districts. About a mile long and located in the shadow of downtown skyscrapers, it was a place where businesses grew selling anything from shoestrings to expensive clothes.

Maxwell Street Market, 1917

Its immigrants arrived from several continents and many countries shortly before the turn of the century. First to come were Germans, Irish, Poles, Bohemians, and, most prominently, Jews, especially those escaping czarist Russia, Poland, and Romania. In the 1940s, Southern blacks worked in Maxwell Street’s stores and entertained its crowds with Delta-style blues. Later, Mexicans, Koreans, and Gypsies joined its teeming environment. From its own poverty-stricken homes came many famous—Arthur Goldberg, William Paley, Benny Goodman, Barney Ross—and infamous—Jake Guzik and Jack Ruby—people.  Goods on card tables and blankets competed with goods in sidewalk kiosks and stores. Sunday was its busiest day since the Jews worked on the Christian Sabbath, when stores were closed in most other parts of the city.
Blues Musicians on Maxwell St., c.1950
Merchants battled city officials to keep Maxwell Street alive despite its reputation for crime and residential overcrowding. Its eastern section was destroyed in the mid-1950s for the Dan Ryan Expressway. In the 1980s and 1990s, virtually all of the rest was razed for athletic fields for the University of Illinois at Chicago. What remained of the market was moved several blocks to a place with none of the flavor of the old street.

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Before we explain what a Chicago Dog is and what makes it so special, let’s take quick look at what a Hot Dog is. If you look up the definition of “Hot Dog”, you will generally see the following:
hot dog or hot·dog (hot’dôg’, -dog’)
noun.
1. A frankfurter, especially one served hot in a long soft roll. Also called red-hot.
2. A type of cooked meat in the shape of a sausage; it is usually served in a long bun.
3. One who performs showy, often dangerous stunts, in order to attract attention
A Dog With a Difference
A Chicago Style Hot Dog is more than just a Hot Dog; it’s a taste sensation with the perfect blend of toppings. So, what exactly is a Chicago Dog? A Chicago Style Hot Dog is a steamed all beef Hot Dog topped with yellow mustard, bright green relish, onions, tomato wedges, pickle spear or slice, sport peppers and a dash of celery salt served in the all-important steamed poppyseed bun. The toppings are just as important as the order they are applied to the Hot Dog. Add toppings in the following order:

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Chicago is famous for its signature deep dish pizza, Italian beef sandwiches, the Maxwell Street Polish and the Chicago hot dog, which is made of Vienna beef and loaded with mustard, onion, tomato, pickle relish, celery salt, sport peppers and a dill pickle spear; putting ketchup on a Chicago ‘dog’ is completely taboo. A few of the city’s best pizzerias are Bacci Pizzeria, Pizza Broker, Pizza Ria, Edwardo’s Natural Pizza, Pizzeria Ora, Pizano’s Pizza & Pasta, Rosati’s Pizza & California, Pizzeria Uno, Reggie’s Pizza Express and more.

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Exploring the “Home of the Blues,” the Chicago Blues Audio Tour narrated by Chicago-local Buddy Guy has found an astonishing audience in just six months. The podcast has been downloaded more than 97,000 times and is currently averaging over 1,000 downloads per day. The free, 50-minute tour combines an interactive map, tour stop directions, archival photos, video, music clips, and interviews – a true multimedia experience unlike anything else available.Listeners are abl

I can remember every day I spent in that building that had no air conditioning but for a single window unit in the training director’s office. Rank has its privilege. The classrooms were large and noisy. You could smell the Vienna Sausage Company’s products in the air from several nearby hot dog stands on Maxwell Street.

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The quick answer to your question is “yes.” Maxwell Street Market is still there, and it goes on year round. Chicagoist even shows up once in awhile. Every Sunday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. along Canal Street at Roosevelt, even when there’s a wind chill of 25 below, 450 vendors line the street (and even more vie weekly for the limited spaces) to sell their wares and serve up Mexican food. Plus, when it’s a little more reasonable outside weather-wise, there’s live music. We should quickly point out that the market hasn’t always been in that exact location, and for that reason is officially referred to as the New Maxwell Street Market. Historically speaking, the market, which was once the largest open-air market in the country, was on (not too surprisingly) Maxwell Street, just a few blocks west of where it is now. Founded in the 1870s, it was a place Chicago’s immigrant community could go to start to earn their livelihood in the city. Pretty much everything, legal and illegal, was sold at one point on Maxwell Street, creating a vibrant community and social gathering place. The city of Chicago moved the market in 1994 to its current location, causing quite a bit of controversy. UIC wanted the take over the market in order to expand, and had actually been slowly creeping into the area since 1965, gradually shrinking the size of the market until finally officially moving it with the backing of Daley in 1994. Community activists tried to make the area an official historical landmark in 1994 and 2000, but failed. The historical location aside, one of the biggest complaints about the current location is that it lacks the “flavor” that the historical market had. Hopefully this news will help remedy that — the market’s slated to move one more time in September of this year to its permanent home (so says the city) on Desplaines from Roosevelt to Harrison. Well, maybe we should believe them this time, as the plans include an official entry gate at Roosevelt and Canal, 85 more spaces for vendors, permanent booths, street banners (oooh), and sponsorship opportunities which they promise doesn’t mean the name will be changed to something like “The Chase Bank Market.” With any luck this is a true sign that Chicago’s finally behind the history of Maxwell Street (even when it’s not actually on Maxwell Street). So enjoy the market next weekend, Julie, if you want. We’ll probably wait until spring before heading over there, but it’s nice to know that if you don’t mind the cold it’ll be there.

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If you stand at the intersection of Halsted and Maxwell streets on Chicago’s Near West Side and take a look around, you won’t really see anything special. About a mile southwest of the Loop, it’s just like many other gentrified areas of the city, complete with modular brick housing, bars, a Caribou Coffee bar and a Jamba Juice. Once one of the city’s busiest crossroads, this was the nerve center of the Maxwell Street Market, an old-world-style bazaar that brought together people of all nationalities and religions, but all that remains is a sanitized version of its former self. Noisy curbside vendors no longer hawk their wares to throngs of eager customers, and racks of rumpled men’s wool suits no longer line Maxwell Street. The smells of polish sausages, onions and mustard linger no more here, but several blocks away on Union Avenue.

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Maxwell Street is significant to the history of blues not just because music was performed there, but because music was created there. Beginning in the 1920s, Maxwell Street was the first stopping place for thousands of African-Americans newly arrived from the Mississippi Delta. There, the newcomers could hear established city musicians, and vice versa. This continuous interaction over the course of several decades produced, in the period immediately following the Second World War, what is usually called Chicago Blues, but which could just as easily be called “The Maxwell Street Blues.” Where in previous decades, recorded Delta Blues had been modified to fit the popular song styles of the day, on Maxwell Street it was left raw and simply amplified, both in volume and dramatic intensity. When recorded, the result became not only the dominant form of blues, but radically changed the emerging sound of rock and roll. The sound of bands like the Rolling Stones, Cream, Led Zeppelin and many others came about when English teenagers tried to duplicate the music of Maxwell Street bluesmen.

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Chicago’s Maxwell Street Market has a long and richly diverse cultural history. The one aspect of this history is its musical heritage. Chicago Electric Blues, born on Maxwell Street, was an inspiration to other blues music and blues rock. Its influence can still be heard in some of today’s music. I have selected blues music that originated on Maxwell Street to accompany my photographs of the Old Market.

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Cats like me, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Memphis Minnie, Jimmy Reed, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter Jacobs, all of us came to Maxwell Street. This is the backbone and the roots of what everyone is listening to today. It started right here.”

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