I wonder why we all seem to get so excited when we hear the name of the city in which we live mentioned on a TV show, outside of the news or weather?
I enjoyed the Netflix series “Ozark” so much I thought I was going there on vacation until I read it was filmed in Georgia while I was in Missouri. Despite the great acting and gripping storylines, my most memorable moment came when it was revealed the Byrd family came from Naperville.
Now there’s a new reference. I don’t even subscribe to Hulu, but I know the city made the spotlight again when we were mentioned in the latest season of “The Bear.” For those who don’t know, the show is about a brilliant young chef who returns home to run his family’s sandwich shop in Chicago after his brother dies.
Apparently in episode two of the second season, the chef’s sister tells him the fancy door pulls and Danish teak he wants to buy for the business are going to cost too much so he’ll have to make do with the Naperville nickel. This has caused a flurry of confusion within our community because no one seems to know what she’s talking about, myself included.
What I do know is we do have a reputation in some quarters as being a city filled with wealthy snobs. So perhaps what the writer meant was that while the chef couldn’t afford handles made out of Italian bronze because they’d cost thousands of dollars, even the nickel in Naperville is better than anywhere else.
Lifelong Naperville resident Annette Wehrli thinks it’s just a way for others to take a shot at our city.
“I feel it was a crack (at the city) that $2,000 is valued in Naperville as five cents,” she said. “They think everyone that lives here is loaded with money.”
Personally, I think if it is a jibe against our city, I don’t see what “they” are complaining about. Is it a problem to live in a place which isn’t riddled with crime but filled with caring individuals who use their wealth to provide us with a better place to live?
Or are we just being too sensitive? I can’t imagine Hulu has had a barrage of emails asking what the writer was talking about from viewers around the world.
I heard rumors that some people thought it was a reference to the nickel coin, which may have been made out of wood years ago. Unable to find any truth to this, I asked researchers at Naper Settlement if they could shed any light on the puzzle.
Chief Curator Christine McNulty reports: “The reference to the ‘Naperville nickel’ is part of a conversation around door handles and restaurant renovation. There is nothing in our records to indicate that there were any finishes branded ‘Naperville Nickel.’ Based on the context of the dialogue, it does not seem to be a direct reference to anything other than that Naperville and nickel start with the same letter.”
While that’s an interesting point, I still wonder why they used Naperville and not say, Nantucket, if that was the case. Or how about the village of Naplate in LaSalle County if they wanted to keep to Illinois?
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Anyhow, Settlement investigations did not stop there. It does appear Naperville did produce wooden nickels at one time.
“While the clip is referencing a nickel finish, rather than currency, it may be of interest that wooden nickels were common advertising tools in the 19th and 20th centuries that could be redeemed at stores or banks for specific items or used as souvenirs as in the Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair,” McNulty said.
“Some businesses in Naperville produced wooden nickels as advertising tokens such as these, but they were likely not known as Naperville nickels as the practice was so widespread.”
I must admit I’d never really thought of nickel as a product I would use in my house until we moved to Naperville. When we bought our first home, we worked with a builder who recommended brushed nickel for not only door handles like in “The Bear,” but for faucets and hinges as well. Could the reference be because this particular look is more popular with our residents than anywhere else?
So for now the Naperville nickel remains a mystery. It could well have been a phrase the writer threw out without even thinking about the consternation it might cause around here. Or maybe he was trying to be controversial. Either way it’s got us talking about his show, even those of us who have never even seen it.
Hilary Decent is a freelance journalist who moved to Naperville from England in 2007.