"The show’s accuracy extends beyond just the kitchen scenes to the messy, meritocratic dynamism that is running an American restaurant—and many of the policies that make doing so harder than it already is.... If anything, The Bear understates the regulatory challenges that aspiring restaurateurs face—especially in a place like Chicago."
What made me successful in my logistics and wholesale distribution corporate management career was what I learned running restaurants, hotels and night clubs. And the show jives with my experiences in both industries. Anywhere in Illinois is tougher than what I dealt with in Colorado, Minnesota (30 years ago), Missouri, Iowa or Kansas. But Chicago is even tougher than the rest of Illinois, and in a whole different league than KC, Saint Louis, Denver – even Boulder was easier to work with once you got your business in – which you probably didn’t. And that, I think, is because Chicago… Read more »
There’s a lot of this, in some form. when you run a restaurant, nightclub or full service hotel in any state. But, yeah – from what I saw, Chicago was absolutely like this in ’76. I worked for two different Chicago owners managing 3 different Rush, Division or Ontario clubs in the early 80’s. It was still like that then, and still seems to be. And it didn’t take you long to learn the really ‘old school’ folks were still in it too. Big stakeholders. The ‘friends of ours’ folks, who really know how to make cash-n-gambling-n-booze-n-guvmn’t work for you… Read more »
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
What made me successful in my logistics and wholesale distribution corporate management career was what I learned running restaurants, hotels and night clubs. And the show jives with my experiences in both industries. Anywhere in Illinois is tougher than what I dealt with in Colorado, Minnesota (30 years ago), Missouri, Iowa or Kansas. But Chicago is even tougher than the rest of Illinois, and in a whole different league than KC, Saint Louis, Denver – even Boulder was easier to work with once you got your business in – which you probably didn’t. And that, I think, is because Chicago… Read more »
Here’s some classic Chicago corruption https://www.topic.com/the-story-behind-the-chicago-newspaper-that-bought-a-bar
There’s a lot of this, in some form. when you run a restaurant, nightclub or full service hotel in any state. But, yeah – from what I saw, Chicago was absolutely like this in ’76. I worked for two different Chicago owners managing 3 different Rush, Division or Ontario clubs in the early 80’s. It was still like that then, and still seems to be. And it didn’t take you long to learn the really ‘old school’ folks were still in it too. Big stakeholders. The ‘friends of ours’ folks, who really know how to make cash-n-gambling-n-booze-n-guvmn’t work for you… Read more »