Woody Allen loved to dine at Eli’s when he was playing clubs in Chicago; law student Marc with Eli at the restaurant.
BY MARC SCHULMAN
PROVERB INSIDE MENU: Great food always, at a profit if we can, at a loss if we must.
“Love is the name of the game. I love people. Without people, I would be nobody. And my mother taught me, ‘Charity will never bust you.’” —Eli Schulman
MY DAD, ELI SCHULMAN, WAS KNOWN AS THE SALAMI SURGEON DURING HIS DAYS AT ELI’S STAGE DELICATESSEN. The Deli was such a popular hangout among the singles of the ’60s that my dad would often plop a parking meter on tables that had been occupied for too long. He’d gleefully announce “Your time is up!” once they overstayed their welcome. He could also be overheard telling the occasional lingering customer to “take it to go” as he transferred the contents of his or her coffee mug into a Styrofoam cup.
Class picture with Eli and Esther and the Eli’s The Place For Steak team.
Seen every Monday night at Table 30: President of the Cook County Board George Dunne and local politician Ira Colitz, in this photo joined by Eli. There were always others hoping to get some business done.
The interior of Eli’s The Place For Steak, the first restaurant architect Martin Lescht ever designed.
Eli was always dreaming. He loved the Deli, but he also wanted to create a white-tablecloth restaurant that could take advantage of his deli roots—a steakhouse where he could also serve traditional Jewish favorites like chopped liver, potato pancakes, and chicken in the pot. He envisioned a place with ambiance and elegance, a place for his politician, celebrity, and athlete friends to gather and enjoy the very best steaks that Eli’s dear friend, Bobby Hatoff of Stockyards Packing and later Allen Brothers Meats, had to offer.
In 1966, Eli’s dream became a reality when Eli’s The Place For Steak opened in the lobby of the Carriage House, an apartment hotel on Chicago Avenue just east of Michigan Avenue. For the critical role of maitre d’, Eli recruited Monroe Elfenbein, who had been the host at Mr. Kelly’s, a nightclub right down the street from the Deli, and was also a veteran of the Copacabana in New York. Eli kept the Deli open for several years while also running Eli’s The Place For Steak, but eventually, a fire forced him to close, and he brought the Deli’s staff over to the steakhouse.
Eli found that he liked having only one restaurant. He could greet every customer and give each the same individualized attention as he would a celebrity. That’s exactly why he enforced a “jacket-required” dress code. “You never know if it’s someone’s birthday, and they only go out to dinner once a year,” he’d say. I held my breath once, when the White Sox’s manager, Jim Fregosi, came in wearing a very nice sweater. He was whisked off to the check room to choose a sport coat to wear during dinner. (Chances are, it was one of mine. Good thing he was tall.)
Eli used to work six days a week until one Sunday night, when Mayor Richard J. Daley arrived unannounced. “Eli here?” the first Mayor Daley asked. When the staff told him that he was off that night, the Mayor left without eating. After that, Eli added Sundays to his workweek.
Eli’s The Place For Steak was like a club, a home away from home for its regulars—dark, comfortable, sheltered, with the kind of vibe that let you know deals were being made, secrets were being told, and Eli was at the helm.
The plaque that hung by the entrance of the restaurant—jackets required.
Irv Kupcinet—known, of course, as Kup to everyone—was at Eli’s The Place For Steak as often as three times a day. He’d appear first at lunch with his regular group, which included Chicago Bears Chairman Ed McCaskey, Steve Neal, Ray Coffey, fight promoter Ben Bentley, Howard Bedno, Sherman Wolf, and Jeremiah Joyce. Those lunches would stretch late into the afternoon, with Eli sneaking out to Arlington Park to catch his favorite horse, Eli’s Cheesecake, in a race. Kup would return later with his wife, Essie, and join Eli and my mother, Esther, for dinner. Kup would surface again much later, when celebrities like Frank Sinatra were at Eli’s The Place For Steak with Sammy Davis, Jr., Liza Minnelli, and their entourages.
Sammy, Frank, and Eli: This was the first occasion that Sinatra visited Eli’s The Place For Steak. Eli wasn’t positive he was coming, but he’d heard rumors. That night, around 11:30 pm, the phone rang at Marc and Maureen’s home. “He’s here,” Eli whispered; he wanted Maureen to come to the restaurant and take their picture. Maureen recalls: “We had two babies at home and no sitter, so we woke them up, got them dressed, and before long, found ourselves introducing them to the great Frank Sinatra. Turns out, he liked babies.”
Chicago Bears founder and legendary coach George “Papa Bear” Halas (seated, second from left) celebrated his birthday at Eli’s with Esther and Eli Schulman (standing, second and third from left).
A common sight at The Place For Steak: Eli with Kup. Kup, who considered Eli to be one of his best sources, could often be found at Eli’s as many as three times a day, entertaining and getting scoops.
Eli’s was a favorite of the Backstreet Boys. They dined there in 1999 during their Millennium Tour and again in 2005.
The regulars were there so often that the kitchen had a shelf set aside just for certain customers’ favorites: Essie Kupcinet’s hot sauce, a French press coffee pot for a couple who preferred plunged coffee, dry mustard for Cook County Board President George Dunne’s mushroom salad with blue cheese (that wasn’t on the menu), and white bread for when John Rogers ordered grilled cheese for dinner.
It’s safe to say that Eli even launched a few political careers inside those four walls. Before he was elected Governor of Illinois, Eli’s great friend James R. Thompson served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois from 1971 to 1975. While in office, Thompson assembled a dream team of prosecutors who have gone on to great success in their careers, including Sam Skinner, Tony Valukas, Dan Webb, Ilana Rovner, Gary Starkman, and Joel Flaum, to name a few. Over the years, Thompson and his team frequently came to Eli’s The Place For Steak for dinner after long days in the courtroom. Eli, always the consummate politician, made sure to seat defendants and their attorneys across the dining room from the prosecutors.
Eli and Thompson became close friends, and it was Eli who created Thompson’s first political slogan on a button: “Big Jim Will Get the Job Done.” When Eli presented the idea to Thompson one night at his table, Thompson quipped, “Eli, what’s the job?” In 1975, Thompson successfully ran for governor and went on to hold the office for 14 years, making him the longest-serving governor in Illinois history.
Eli’s The Place For Steak’s piano bar, with legendary jazz and blues pianist Hal Roach at the keyboard, was a Chicago fixture. Roach knew all the regulars well and made a point of playing their favorite songs when they’d walk in. Maureen’s was “Best That You Can Do.” Longtime society columnist Ann Gerber’s was “Satin Doll.” Hal always played “My Funny Valentine” for Merri Dee. “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” and “Chattanooga Choo Choo” were our daughters’ favorites, and they occasionally sang along with him at the bar.
Then–First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton celebrating her 50th birthday in Chicago. Surrounding her, left to right: Mayor Richard M. Daley and his wife, Maggie; President Bill Clinton; and Maureen, Marc, Kori, Haley, and Elana Schulman. The birthday cheesecake was a combination of Mrs. Clinton’s favorite flavors: Eli’s Chocolate Chip and Espresso Cheesecakes.
Jim Thompson’s first political button, slogan courtesy of Eli Schulman (1975).
Past Illinois Governors Pat Quinn, Jim Edgar, and Jim Thompson with Maureen and Marc Schulman present a tiered chocolate cheesecake, decorated with edible copper-leafed chocolate pennies, for the celebration of Lincoln’s bicentennial in Springfield, Illinois, in 2009.
President Barack Obama, a Lincoln aficionado, was the keynote speaker at the event.
Illustration by John Kenzie.
An article from Chicago Magazine, September 2014.
Eli (third from right) in 1982 with Chicago’s business leaders and fellow McCormick Place board members at the opening of the first Morton’s in Washington, DC.
Bill Clinton visited Eli’s Cheesecake during his first run for president. This photo ran on the front page of almost every major newspaper.
Eli’s was frequently asked to supply cheesecake to Air Force One, especially when the flight departed from Chicago. We were thrilled to receive this photo of President Clinton and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Sir John Major being served Eli’s Cheesecake on the plane.
President Bill Clinton and the Schulman family at Eli’s The Place For Steak.
The best entrance of all occurred one night when President Bill Clinton came to Eli’s The Place For Steak for dinner. The Secret Service agents had warned me not to tell anyone, including the staff, of the President’s impending arrival. Maureen suggested giving Hal a heads up not to react, but the agents flatly refused. Sure enough, when the President walked in, Hal looked up and without hesitation played a robust rendition of “Hail to the Chief.” The secret was out.
In order to spend more time with my mother and me, my dad would close Eli’s The Place For Steak on some of the biggest restaurant nights of the year: Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and for three weeks over the Christmas holidays. My dad proudly passed on his Eli gems of wisdom, which taught me to respect the people I work with. His first rule was: “Treat the other as if you are the other.” At Eli’s The Place For Steak, the most valuable people were the busboys and the dishwashers—those who turned the tables and kept the dining room and kitchen pristine.
One of Eli’s dearest friends was the late Steve Neal, political editor of the Chicago Sun-Times. Shortly after my dad passed away in May of 1988, Neal wrote: “Although Eli Schulman liked to get around, the town’s great saloon keeper was a constant presence in his own place…Schulman would be working the table, greeting friends at the entrance of his dining room or sitting with some of the regulars in a chair with a good view of the door. Schulman never missed a detail…Eli Schulman was a great and good man.”
Esther and Eli with a photo of Marc on the wall at the Eli’s entryway.
Legendary piano bar entertainer Hal Roach tickled the ivories at Eli’s for more than 36 years.
Second City producer Joyce Sloane, known as the “mother of Chicago theater,” with Eli’s “Cows on Parade” sculpture.
Chicago Bears football great Gale Sayers, a very close friend of Eli Schulman, poses at the restaurant with Marc.
An Eli’s The Place For Steak server brings an order to the dining room.
Tony Martin and Cyd Charisse at Eli’s.
Two cooks prepare Liver Eli in the restaurant’s kitchen.
Dinah Shore at Eli’s.
Bears Coach Jim Dooley and Jack Benny dining at Eli’s.
There were always so many celebs at Eli’s that this columnist called the restaurant a “swingin’ pad.”
In his book Unforgettable, Scott Simon recalled, “Eli’s The Place For Steak was a ‘watering hole’ for athletes, celebs and pols who liked to see their names in bold letters in tabloid columns the next day. The era of Eli’s was the time of Irv Kupcinet (aka Kup), the legendary columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times who wrote for almost 60 years.”
Kori enjoys a Shirley Temple at the bar.
For me, The Place For Steak was truly home. I met my wife, Maureen, when she was a customer at Table 10. I lived above the store, so to speak, while I was in law school at Northwestern. My dad loved it—he would call me every night to come down and meet someone interesting who had come in for dinner. We even stopped at Eli’s The Place For Steak before bringing each of our newborn daughters home from the hospital. My family and I celebrated every holiday and special occasion at the restaurant, from the time I was eleven years old until it closed in 2005 to make way for the construction of the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. When our now-not-so-little girl Kori was two years old, we’d often ask her on warm, sunny days whether she’d like to play in the park or visit with my dad in the bar. She’d always pick the bar.
I was fortunate that my dad’s greatest creation was his signature cheesecake, because unfortunately, liver just doesn’t have the same universal appeal. Yet I regularly get approached by former customers of Eli’s The Place For Steak who ask, “When will you reopen?” They miss the dishes that Eli’s was famous for, and that’s the inspiration for this chapter of the cookbook. Put on your favorite Sinatra song, have a martini, and enjoy these great dishes at home.
Eli’s The Place For Steak menu cover, circa 1978, features Eli’s mantra: “Good food always…”
