{{short description|Popular Chicago restaurant}} {{use mdy dates|date=September 2025|cs1-dates=ly}} {{use American English|date=September 2025}} thumb|Ed Debevic's (2007) '''Ed Debevic's''' is a popular 1950s-nostalgia-themed restaurant located at 159 East Ohio Street in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, United States.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |last=Selvam |first=Ashok |author-link= |date=2025-06-26 |orig-date=2023-07-17 |title=Every Single Restaurant Featured in All 4 Seasons of 'The Bear' |url=https://chicago.eater.com/maps/the-bear-fx-hulu-tv-chicago-guide-to-restaurants-film-locations |access-date=2025-09-21 |website=Eater Chicago |language=en-US}}</ref> The restaurant is known for its retro decor, intentionally rude waitstaff, and diner-style menu. The original Chicago location opened in 1984 in the River North neighborhood before relocating to Streeterville in 2021.<ref name=":2" />
== History ==
The original Chicago location opened in 1984 at 640 Wells in the River North neighborhood.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Kindelsperger |first=Nick |date=2021-12-15 |title=Windy City Return |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/leader-telegram-windy-city-return/181534681/ |access-date=2025-09-22 |work=Leader-Telegram |pages=B12}}</ref> That location was closed in 2015, and the building razed and replaced with an apartment building.<ref name=":2" /> The restaurant was decorated with "neon and aluminum signs, jukeboxes sitting at the tables, and glittery vinyl booths," and a sign hanging over the dining room that read "children left unattended will be towed at the owner's expense."<ref name=":4" />
Ed Debevic's was a project of Chicago restaurateurs Rich Melman and Lee Cohn.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Sietsema |first=Tom |date=1986-01-23 |title=Ed Debevic's diner specializes in heaping helpings of nostalgia |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/news-press-ed-debevics-diner-specialize/181508564/ |access-date=2025-09-21 |work=News-Press |pages=66 |agency=''Washington Post'' News Agency}}</ref> The first Ed Debevic's was opened by Cohn in Phoenix, Arizona (1983–2003), and there was later a Beverly Hills location opened circa 1987.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Potempa |first=Philip |date=2012-10-01 |title=Ed Debevic's celebrating the 1950s for 25 years |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-ed-debevics-celebrating-the-1/181534632/ |access-date=2025-09-22 |work=The Times |pages=C8}}</ref> By 1990 it was a chain with two locations in Chicago, two in California (Beverly Hills and Torrance),<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kenner |first=Laurel |date=1991-08-04 |title=Torrance Ed Debevic's to close |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-breeze-torrance-ed-debevics-t/181534857/ |access-date=2025-09-22 |work=The Daily Breeze |pages=3}}</ref> one in Osaka, Japan, the Phoenix site, and a planned opening in New York City.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |date=1990-09-19 |title=Diner |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-suffolk-edition-diner/181534802/ |access-date=2025-09-22 |work=Newsday (Suffolk Edition) |pages=161}}</ref> Bravo Restaurants bought Ed Debevic's from Lettuce in 1991.<ref name=":2" />
Melman ran a hospitality company called Lettuce Entertain You that ran restaurants that offered theatricality as well as food.<ref name=":0" /> He would write "a description of each restaurant as if it were a movie script. The "setting" for Ed Debevic's was the year was 1952, 'just before teenagers went wild and Elvis was not yet a giant.'"<ref name=":0" /> He told a reporter in 1986, "It's like directing a movie or a play...But if the waiter brings the salad too late or the silverware is dirty, the entertainment does not matter."<ref name=":0" /> Ed Debevic was a character invented by Melman.<ref name=":0" /> Melman imagined that Debevic was a "Polish Archie Bunker" type who opened a restaurant after returning to Chicago from Korean War service.<ref name=":0" /> Employees would describe Debevic as a guy with a pot belly and point to a wall of trophies he'd supposedly won.<ref name=":0" /> If guests wanted to meet him, he was unavailable because he was traveling to Buffalo that day.<ref name=":0" /> Customers often enjoyed playing along with the fiction.<ref name=":3" />
Thanks to marketing hooks like the NFL cheerleader-inspired Refrigerettes and a weekly radio show broadcast from the Chicago location, the business served an estimated 15,000 customers a week.<ref name=":1" /> In the 1980s the location on Wells Street had seats for 300 people in four rooms: Ed Debevic's, Versailles, Pavillion, and Ed's Back Room.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Seaver |first=Lynda |date=1986-09-28 |title=Ed Debevic's—feisty, albeit tasty, slice of American Pie |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-tribune-ed-debevicsfeisty-alb/181534394/ |access-date=2025-09-22 |work=Oakland Tribune |pages=36}}</ref> The dining room of the original location had a "grizzled, lived-in feeling" and was a popular location for birthday parties and school groups on field trips.<ref name=":2" /> The Obamas once hosted a kid's birthday party at Ed Debevic's.<ref name=":4" /> The food has been described as "adequate."<ref name=":2" /> A memorable menu offering is the "World's Smallest Sundae," made with Mitchell's Ice Cream.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Selvam |first=Ashok |date=2015-10-02 |title=Goodbye (For Now) Ed Debevic’s: 5 Facts About the Downtown Diner Relic |url=https://chicago.eater.com/2015/10/2/9439199/ed-debevics-shutter-5-fun-facts |access-date=2025-09-22 |website=Eater Chicago |language=en-US}}</ref>
Among the Ed Debevic's servers who went on to fame in other careers are David Schwimmer and Lamorne Morris and Mark Ruffalo.<ref name=":4" />
On the TV show ''The Bear'', a visit to Ed Debevic's inspired the main character's dad to open a restaurant.<ref name=":02" />
== References == {{reflist}}
Category:Restaurants in Chicago Category:1984 establishments in Illinois Category:Central Chicago