Ah, the day after Thanksgiving, when thoughts turn from turkey dinners to beating the crowd to the mall. The newspapers today and this weekend will be packed with flyers advertising clothes, toys and the latest electronic gadgets. But as you flip through those catalogues, consider this: Do you really want to give your nearest-and-dearest something they could buy in a mall in Des Moines, Topeka or Omaha?
Instead, we suggest gifts made here in Chicago. Something with a story behind it and some of the personality that makes Chicago … Chicago.
There’s plenty to chose from. As one of the nation’s major manufacturing cities, we make everything from Oreos to the Oscars. The city’s Planning and Development Web site lists 170 companies that make things in the Chicago area.
Take Vienna Beef, for example. Is there anything more Chicago than a redhot in a poppy-seed bun with bright green relish, yellow mustard, tomato slices, a pickle, sport peppers and celery salt?
The company’s been making its hot dogs for 110 years, ever since its founders debuted the sandwich at the Chicago’s World Fair in 1893.
Now, Vienna Beef sells $25 million of hot dogs a year–half in the Chicago area.
The factory at North Damen Avenue has a small restaurant and store where you can pick up Vienna beef products. The company also sells posters, T-shirts, hats and aprons.
“We’re kind of part of the fabric of Chicago,” said Tom McGlade, the company’s executive vice president.
The best chocolate you’ve never heard of
You might not know their name, but you know what they smell like.
When the wind blows just right through downtown Chicago, a rich, chocolatey scent fills the air. The source is a factory at 600 W. Kinzie, where Blommer Chocolate roasts cocoa beans and turns them into chocolate and cocoa powder.
The Blommer name might not sound like a candy-store staple–that’s because Blommer is a wholesaler that sells its products directly to restaurants and candy companies that put their own name on the products. But you’ve likely tasted one of Blommer’s 20 to 30 kinds of chocolate, since the company is one of the largest chocolate and cocoa wholesalers in the country.
“If you’ve had chocolate, you’ve had our chocolate,” says Kevin Schultz, who manages the Blommer Chocolate store.
The store, which occupies a corner the factory building’s first floor, is the one place where the public can buy Blommer products.
The small space is filled with enough goodies to impress even the biggest chocolate fiend. Displayed along one wall are red paper bags filled with candies made from Blommer Chocolate–malted milk balls, chocolate covered pretzels, mints, turtles, cordials. They’ve dipped about any treat you can think of in the chocolate–raisins, cranberries, pineapple, gummy bears, brownies, even potato chips.
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The opposite wall has chocolate for baking–chips, disks and chunks. Schultz says some smaller restaurants buy their baking products at the store.
The best part of a shopping trip to the Blommer factory is the free samples throughout the store. One word of caution: too many milk balls, chocolate-covered cookie dough pieces and toffee almonds as you pick out gifts can leave you with a major stomachache. Not that we’d know, of course.
Goose Island Beer Company
For the beer aficionado in your family, Goose Island has been brewing up suds in Lincoln Park since 1988.
A case of Christmas Ale costs $24, or you can fill up a 64-ounce growler with the Goose Island beer of your choice ($9 to $10, depending on the beer you choose).
Stuff your stockings with bottle covers, pint glasses and skullcaps.
You can even reserve a private tour of Goose Island’s Clybourn brewery.
Goose Island brewpubs are located in Wrigleyville at 3535 N. Clark Street and Lincoln Park at 1800 N. Clybourn Ave.
To schedule a brewery tour, call Event Planner Tracy Miller at 773-832-9040, extension 245.
— Leo Ebersole, RedEye
Chicago by mail
You live in Chicago, you can enjoy it. Others (see, New York City and Los Angeles) aren’t so lucky. Here’s how to ship our city overnight:
Pizza: Thanks to the magic of dry ice, Lou Malnati’s ships deep-dish pizza (www.loumalnatis.com)
Ribs: Surprise a loved one with a fully cooked serving of Chicago’s Carson’s ribs (www.ribs.com/ribs.html)
Italian beef & Chicago-style hot dogs: Portillo’s 10-pack of dogs includes buns, mustard, relish, 1 fresh onion, 2 red tomatoes, 2 kosher pickles, sport peppers & seasoning. They also offer Italian beef sandwich packs (www.portillos.com)
Unique gifts: Every out-of-towner needs a pair of Studs Terkel’s red socks. Find them at the Chicago Historical Society (www.chicagotogo.org)
— By Chris Malcolm, RedEye
Groovy city
Another Chicago-made item sure to amuse is the lava lamp.
The whirly-swirly motion lamp was invented in Europe 40 years ago. Two Americans bought the rights to make it in America and started producing it in Chicago.
Now, most of Lava World’s production is done overseas, but some is still done here to meet product demand.
Four-wheel fun
Looking for something fun?
Chicago is home to Radio Flyer, maker of the red wagon you probably had as a kid.
The company’s been making the four-wheeled toys for 85 years. An Italian immigrant named Antonio Pasin started the company in 1917, first calling his wooden wagons Liberty Coasters.
Later, the wagons were made of red steel and called Radio Flyers.
Radio Flyer is run today by the third generation of Pasins, and it makes wagons, tricycles, scooters and little roadsters.
Chicago, the candy capital?
Tootsie Rolls, Blow Pops, Junior Mints, Red Hots, LemonHeads, Snickers and Mars Bars, Margie’s Turtles, Fannie May–is there any question why the Chicago region is called the Candy Capital of the United States?
The area boasts 100 candy companies that employ more than 10,000 people, said Friederika Kaider, director of The Candy Institute, an organization that offers support to the candy makers.
“Historically, it’s always been a major industry in Chicago,” Kaider said.
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Ferrara Pan, which makes LemonHeads, Red Hots and other candies out of its Forest Park factory, has made its sweet products in the Chicago region for almost 100 years.
Salvatore Ferrara, a baker from Italy, founded the company in 1908 after people began requesting the sugarcoated almonds he made to decorate cakes.
His grandson, Sal Ferrara, runs the company now. Ferrara Pan has two factories in Illinois that make about 2.5 million pounds of candy a year, he said.
Ferrara Pan also has factories in Canada and Mexico, where sugar is significantly cheaper, Ferrara said. But the Chicago region is his home.
“If I’m in the U.S., I’ll always be here,” he said.
The Forest Park factory on West Harrison Street has a store where you can buy candy in bulk and merchandise (coffee mugs, baseball hats, fleece pullovers) with the candy logos.
Our suggestion: For $9.99, you can get a bright yellow T-shirt with the LemonHead logo or a red T-shirt that says Red Ho ts or Atomic Fireball. To go with it, a jar of 200 individually wrapped LemonHeads for $15.95.
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Edited by Lara Weber ([email protected]) and Michael Morgan ([email protected])