Wieners of the People, By the People, For the People
Chicago Doghouse is a rather unremarkable hotdog restaurant situated between CVS, and McDonald’s. Unless someone is paying attention to what they pass, they could easily mistake this quaint hotdog place as an extension of the McDonalds. It is in this small hotdog place in which I stopped to examine what makes it work as a public place.
There is little that is remarkable about this place, yet it is special in its ability to create a sense of community. The menu is not much more than a list of different hotdogs with clever Chicago-based names such as “The Daley Dog” and “The Rahm Dog”, and while these hot dogs are certainly good, they do not seem to be what creates the sense of community within this hole in the wall restaurant. Chicago Doghouse seems to revolve around its charismatic owner. A short man who looks more like a surfer than a cook; he has taken great efforts to make his small hotdog restaurant a welcoming place to customers. He makes an effort to start a conversation with each customer that walks in, and this, in turn, encourages other customers to talk to one another. It is possible to find him lounging on one of the booth seats watching one of many 80s movies he loves to put on the television mounted to the wall, and when a customer walks into the restaurant he won’t simply stand up and take your order, he will ask you about the movie and start a discussion.
In one instance there was a rather disheveled man eating at one of the booths. While I was there observing, this man demolished the largest order of fries you can get. As he was getting up to throw away his trash and leave, the owner cracked a joke at him about how he had never seen someone eat that many fries that quickly. This joke started a conversation between the two men and led to another customer joining in. It was the owner's casual nature that made him seem like another person, rather than just any hot dog cook.
Due to the restaurant’s small size, and the owner’s insistence to connect with the customer, he has exemplified Edbauer’s idea of making his space feel like it was shaped for and by the public, rather than being a space created by some other entity outside of the public. He has created an ideal public place, by making himself, and his restaurant, a part of the public.
