Pie Pan Restaurant


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Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: thimmaker ()
Date: June 02, 2015 06:17PM

Anybody remember the Pie Pan restaurent at Peterson and Caldwell. Wondering what year they closed? Had a unique "Tablet" type of ordering system at the main counter which sent the info back to the kitchen and your order was delivered to your table.
Great homemade pies.

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: the_mogra ()
Date: June 02, 2015 07:04PM

Peterson AND Caldwell? Peterson IS Caldwell and vice versa. Unless you mean the intersection where they undergo name transformation, at Cicero.

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: gman ()
Date: June 02, 2015 07:44PM

the_mogra Wrote:
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> Peterson AND Caldwell? Peterson IS Caldwell and
> vice versa. Unless you mean the intersection
> where they undergo name transformation, at Cicero.


It [u]was[/u] at Peterson and Cicero, so "Peterson and Caldwell," while inelegant, is technically correct.

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: the_mogra ()
Date: June 03, 2015 11:34AM

would you also say someplace was at Kimball & Homan? I don't think so

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: gman ()
Date: June 03, 2015 04:13PM

the_mogra Wrote:
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> would you also say someplace was at Kimball &
> Homan? I don't think so


Totally different. It's not as if someone re-named Peterson, Caldwell is a different road. Peterson becomes discontinuous at that point but it continues again west of the forest. The only continuity between Peterson and Caldwell is Route 14, otherwise they really are discrete roads. A similar condition exists farther north where Caldwell merges into Waukegan.

Caldwell historically started at about Cicero and originally extended only to Gross Point.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2015 04:14PM by gman.

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: rjmachon ()
Date: June 03, 2015 05:22PM

The Pie Pan on the southwest corner of Peterson and Cicero, 5950 North Cicero had to close before 1974 because that’s when the new office building was built. I believe that Skill Power Tools own it first then became the Edens Office Plaza as of now. I remember that the Pie Pan had a white fence around the property. Best of all, you could play the jukebox using the control boxes at every booth which had their own speakers.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2015 05:24PM by rjmachon.

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: the_mogra ()
Date: June 03, 2015 05:28PM

if you asked the average joe to meet you at the intersection of peterson & caldwell, they'd either a) pause and think before saying "hey, they're the same streets aren't they", or b) think you were pulling their leg with a trick type location. for the purpose of locating a restaurant you can be no clearer than to do the usual - start by naming the crossing street which in this case is cicero, plus peterson (caldwell would be a very poor choice even with Pie Pan being on the west side of cicero). the Skil office building there replaced the old company headquarters @ 5033 n. elston (where now the K-Mart is), after the company was sold to emerson electric (bosch now owns skilsaw)

very strangely if one walks in the K-mart parking lot right alongside the Edens expressway there remains a couple parking space bumps/markers dating back to Skil

when I worked @ Skil early '70s there was a favorite old neighborhood tavern at the southwest corner of elston & cicero (gas station now there) we'd sometimes enjoy an after-work refreshment at, and I'l be damned if I can remember the name of that tavern no matter how often it came up at work then



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2015 05:38PM by the_mogra.

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: rjmachon ()
Date: June 03, 2015 05:57PM

I have been by that bar but I can't remember that name as well. I remember the gas station being built around 1972.

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: gman ()
Date: June 03, 2015 07:04PM

the_mogra Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> if you asked the average joe to meet you at the
> intersection of peterson & caldwell, they'd either
> a) pause and think before saying "hey, they're the
> same streets aren't they", or b) think you were
> pulling their leg with a trick type location. for
> the purpose of locating a restaurant you can be no
> clearer than to do the usual - start by naming the
> crossing street which in this case is cicero, plus
> peterson (caldwell would be a very poor choice
> even with Pie Pan being on the west side of
> cicero).

Like I said, it was an inelegant choice of describing the location but technically accurate.

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: the_mogra ()
Date: June 04, 2015 11:50AM

to communicate effectively, even minor locations of restaurants now gone, it requires more than mere 'technicalities'

the very last time I remember going to that old elston/cicero tavern was Xmas of 1972. it was torn down quickly in 1973 (like they were in a hurry)

in early april of 1974 there was an unexpected major chicago blizzard, starting @ 12:45pm. I watched it come down, getting worse and worse by the hour, from my 2nd flr Skil office window, and when quitting time finally came (not that they let us out early) traffic on both elston & cicero aves was solid and immobile (the Skil employees parking lot was on the southside of elston, where now there's a bank w/ drive-thru). my normal 40 min. commute home actually took 5 hours that day, and I don't recall getting stuck anywhere in the snow, but I do recall driving down streets that appeared to have traffic movement, regardless if it was the correct direction for my getting home

at that time the elston avenue bus still operated and I used that once in awhile



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2015 11:55AM by the_mogra.

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: WayOutWardell ()
Date: June 04, 2015 02:06PM

My childhood dentist's office was in the Skil building. I distinctly remember that one of the elevator buttons read 'SKIL' instead of the floor number.

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: rjmachon ()
Date: June 04, 2015 04:17PM

Mogra, I remember that day! It was Tuesday, April 2. I think we had around 14-16 inches of snow that day! That was my first year of doing snow removal.

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: the_mogra ()
Date: June 04, 2015 05:58PM

well if not quite 14-16 inches it certainly seemed like it (I remember 9 inches snowfall reported then), but that much that late in the season? the city of chicago didn't get 'in front of it' and plow the thoroughfares just as soon in the afternoon as anyone who could look out a window could tell what was coming, so rush hour was a lost cause. you could walk home faster in any case and I wish I had (why contribute to an hours long mess, i'll just get my feet soaked)

today my wife tells me the K-Mart there (on Elston where SkilSaw was) is officially closing soon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2015 06:00PM by the_mogra.

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: rjmachon ()
Date: June 04, 2015 08:24PM

Moga we were both wrong. The snow storm was April 2-3, 1975! You were right on the total, 9.8 inches at O'Hare. This seems like it was yesterday.


http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-04-02/news/0604020405_1_wet-snow-frank-wachowski-wgn



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2015 08:27PM by rjmachon.

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: thimmaker ()
Date: June 04, 2015 09:28PM

Hmmmmmm!! Thinking back, my 82 year old mind tells me it was Cicero, not Caldwell. Hate to have you nit-pickers think that i purposely picked Peterson and CALDWELL. Any way, i was asking about the restaurant, not the intersection, so thanks for the 1974 date.

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: the_mogra ()
Date: June 05, 2015 11:26AM

one point about peterson & caldwell I forgot till now - peterson is east-west (west as address numbered) while caldwell is north-south (north as address numbered). technically. so if you've all been posting your letters to 6235 w. caldwell for example, well now you know why they never got there

btw when I first mentioned that 1974 snowstorm I'd put it as but 'early april'



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2015 12:57PM by the_mogra.

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: Mornac ()
Date: June 06, 2015 01:24AM

the_mogra Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> one point about peterson & caldwell I forgot till
> now - peterson is east-west (west as address
> numbered) while caldwell is north-south (north as
> address numbered). technically. so if you've all
> been posting your letters to 6235 w. caldwell for
> example, well now you know why they never got
> there.

--One further oddity concerning Peterson and Caldwell: The street suddenly becomes Elmdale when it crosses east of Clark street and remains Elmdale for exactly three blocks before coming to an abrupt halt (or beginning, depending upon how you look at it) at Broadway.

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: 222psm ()
Date: June 06, 2015 09:46AM

I also remember that April snow storm we did not have school for a few days or a week.

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: the_mogra ()
Date: June 06, 2015 05:11PM

yes, Elmdale & Broadway, where I end up going to Moody's

so a driver can begin @ Elmdale and merely follow the natural course of the roadway they're on going west, and see the signage change names twice, from Elmdale to Peterson, then later from Peterson to Caldwell (finally Caldwell will merge w. Waukegan Rd). Cumberland changes names at least that frequently, while you just keep driving

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: Mornac ()
Date: June 07, 2015 02:38AM

the_mogra Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> yes, Elmdale & Broadway, where I end up going to
> Moody's

--Where a good time is usually had by all!


the_mogra Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> so a driver can begin @ Elmdale and merely follow
> the natural course of the roadway they're on going
> west, and see the signage change names twice, from
> Elmdale to Peterson, then later from Peterson to
> Caldwell

--In theory, yes. Only fly in the ointment is that Elmdale is a one way street going east.

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Re: Pie Pan Restaurant
Posted by: the_mogra ()
Date: June 08, 2015 11:39AM

right, i'd thought the short section between Ridge & Clark was named Elmdale and was bi-directional, before it continues westward as Peterson (I know Elmdale east of Clark was one-way), but now I realize that short section east of Ridge to Clark is named actually named Peterson. so for my driving story to work the overall direction must be reversed - start at the west, Caldwell, and drive east through Peterson and finish w/ Elmdale

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