Working on the weekend shift on Monroe Avenue was the start. We had plenty of options for lunch. There was Burger King across Franklin on the other end of the street. We could walk to McDonald’s on Adams and Wells, my favorite one back in the day. Mostly though, we walked over to the food court on Madison and Canal at the Ogilvie train station. Mostly, there were a number of us that would walk over together; we were all late teens/early 20s… both guys and girls. Like I said, we had a lot of fun. The food court had plenty of good options, but for me, my favorite was Arby’s… not a whole lot of those around like when I was growing up. Yeah, give me a good old roast beef sandwich with potato cakes and plenty of Arby’s sauce… and throw in a chocolate shake while you’re at it. I remember the one time I got a free lunch at Arby’s in the train station; I had a knack for getting free food when girls were working behind the counter… they must have saw how much I loved food… haha. Yes, each weekend, back and forth we went across the Chicago River to lunch. After a year or so, I started working full-time; now I would be downtown during the week.
I loved it. So many people downtown, like I said, the streets were bustling. Our pizza truck would park on Monroe, sometimes Franklin; we’d come down later in the morning for a slice and pop for cheap. Yes, Reggie’s Pizza… good stuff. You know, they’re still around… in the back of a bar… right across from where I currently work downtown… you’re damn right I stop in there now and then. If you wanted to get fancy on Monroe Avenue, there was Italian Village… not necessarily a place I went with folks from work, except that one time, when we were snowed in… and a handful of us stood at work; yeah, we enjoyed a nice meal that evening. Italian Village is where I went on a double date with my future wife and her girlfriend WAY back in the day; if I recall correctly, the night didn’t exactly end nicely…
There’s a theater on Monroe a little further east, just before State Street; we’ve been there before too. What else on Monroe? Well, maybe that’s it for now… of course there are the other presidents, whose names represent the streets north and south downtown… I’ve already mentioned Madison; there’s Washington too. Going the other way, you have Adams, Jackson, Van Buren… a little outside downtown proper Harrison, Polk, Taylor, Roosevelt… OK, bring it back in.
I think we’re done with Monroe, but how about all these other streets downtown? Should we stay there or head back into the neighborhoods? Let me think about that for a second. Be back soon… I hope… and I was almost caught up before…
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