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THe North shore weekend
‘It’s the flavor and the personality’ No menu, no coffee – just patrons lining up at Charlie Beinlich’s
Owner Tom Rainey is ready to deliver a few orders at Charlie Beinlich's.
photography by joel lerner
■ by kevin beese John L. and Marjorie Hines have a good reason for driving three times a week from their home in Chicago to Charlie Beinlich's Food and Tap in Northbrook. “We can't get anyone else to take our business,” quipped John Hines during a recent lunch at the North Shore institution. The Hineses have been going to Beinlich's since 1951 — a year after the establishment opened — and their sass fits right in with the place. Then again so do the mounted fish, the wooden walls and floors, the signboard menu and the Michelob on tap. If it were not for peeks of Skokie Boulevard through the windows, Beinlich's could easily be mistaken for a fish-fry haven in upper Wisconsin. John Hines has traveled to all 50 states and eaten at supposed marquis burger joints. Nothing, he says, tops Beinlich's. “It's the flavor and the personality,” Hines said, when given a chance to provide a more serious answer for being a Beinlich's regular. “They have an excellent product and they are nice to their customers. “If you have a good product and good service, you can have success in any business. You will succeed if you are General Motors or Beinlich's.” It is hard to argue with Beinlich's recipe for success. There is often a line to get in the joint for dinner or lunch and patrons keep coming back, time after time, week after week, year after year. Their only disappointment comes when they arrive and see a “Gone Fishing” sign when the restaurant and its proprietors take a vacation. Rita Piacenza of Highwood and Sandie von Holst of Northbrook have been going to Beinlich's every Friday for three years. “It's the hamburgers and the service,” Piacenza said as the reason for the co-workers' continued allegiance. “They have fantastic service.” Beinlich's owners Tom and Linda Rainey keep with an “if it ain't broke, don't fix it” mentality and maintain Beinlich's pretty much like it was 63 years ago when Linda's grandfather, Charlie Beinlich, started the establishment. Her parents, John and Karen Barnes, ran the family business after Charlie. The business doesn't have menus, doesn't ever put tomatoes on its burgers and doesn't accept credit cards. It hasn't served a cup of coffee since 1963. Cups of Joe went when Beinlich
11/02 – 11/03/13
realized it was keeping tables from turning over. “Plus, now there's a Starbucks like every thousand feet,” Tom Rainey said. Charlie Beinlich's doesn't even have its number in the telephone book. “I think Charlie didn't want wives to be able to call their husbands when they were here drinking,” Rainey said. Booster seats for the kids? Don't even think about asking. “We have phone books and duct tape,” Rainey smiled. The Raineys don't want to mess with success and customers don't want the place to change. Rainey said he rarely rocks the boat. When he put a couple of television sets in the establishment a few years ago, regulars gave him an earful. When he added a chicken wrap to the menu because “people eat more chicken these days,” he also heard about it from patrons. “We add a sandwich about every 28 years,” Rainey joked, noting that the last addition to the menu before the chicken wrap 3 ½ years ago was a tuna salad sandwich added in the 1970s or early 1980s. The road house has earned visits from actor Chris O'Donnell, who has plugged the joint on “Oprah” and radio shows; golfer Luke Donald; current and alumni members of the Chicago Blackhawks; former Chicago Bear Jim McMahon; Chicago Bulls' general manager John Paxson; and actor/director Harold Ramis. Andy Del Real has been a bartender at the Northbrook establishment for 28 years. He stays for the burgers and because “where else am I going to be able to eat lunch for free?” Del Real mused. “I am here because of the great people,” Del Real said. “You come to work and you really enjoy yourself … when you have great clients, it is easy to be nice.” Rainey believes it is the Beinlich's consistency that brings people back. “All the cooks have been here 17 to 20 years. They do everything the same way. If you order something 'well done,' you are going to get it 'well done.' “We have fourth-generation customers coming here. You should see all the family happenings we have here, all the 100-year-old birthday parties we have.” Just don't ask for a booster seat for the grandkids. Charlie Beinlich's is located at 290 Skokie Blvd., Northbrook. It can be reached at (847) 291-0420. It is closed Sundays and Mondays. ■
‘Minute’ man’s book wastes no time getting to point ■ by jenna schubert In 2012, the average American had an attention span of eight seconds — one second less than that of a goldfish, according to statisticbrain.com. Riverwoods-based writer Mike Lubow understands this phenomenon. As a copywriter and creative director for major television and radio advertising campaigns, he honed his talent for writing concise yet powerful copy, which proved helpful when he began writing short features for the Chicago Tribune. Recently, he published his first book, “In a Chicago Minute,” which features a collection of his “Got A Minute?” columns — brief, quirky “literary tidbits” published in the Tribune from 2004 to 2008.
How did you come up with the “Got A Minute?” column? The editor that I knew at the Tribune, Ross Werland, who was in charge of the “Q” — Quality of Life section, which included a page for men — said that they had done some research and discovered that men, especially, prefer short pieces of writing to long ones. So he was looking for short, interesting pieces for the paper. I said, “That’s similar to what I do when I write television and radio commercials; they have to be 160 words, or one minute, max. Since I’m so used to doing this, I could give you little tidbits of writing about anything.” He liked the idea, and we called the column “Got A Minute?” Where did you draw inspiration for each “Got A Minute?” topic? Every “minute” is based on a true event. For example, in one of the “minutes,” there’s a funny incident where a guy accidentally spills coffee on his new boss – I did that. And another is about a father and son rolling malted milk balls down a sloped sidewalk while people walk by; I really did that with my son. Everything is based on my own experiences. How did the Tribune readers respond? The “Got a Minute?” columns ran for a couple of years, every Sunday, and they became somewhat popular. In fact, I heard from people who lived in other cities who would get them in the mail from their friends in Chicago. That was surprising and it showed — not so much the power of my writing — but the power of a minute. It coincided with how people like everything to be short and sweet.
Mike Lubow
Why did you decide to compile the “minutes” into your book? The newspaper business changed, and the Tribune stopped publishing the men’s page in the Q section. So the “minutes” stopped appearing. And that was it, life went on and I continued doing my advertising business. But about a year ago, I decided it would be fun to collect all the “Got A Minute?” columns that ran in the Tribune, and put them into a book — to have as a family record for my kids and grandkids in the future. After publishing the book through Amazon, what feedback have you heard? Surprisingly, I started to get phone calls and emails from people a few days after they received the book, and they would say, “I never read books, but I started this book you gave me, and the next thing I knew, I had read the whole thing. And now my friend’s reading it.” Because the quirky tidbits are about sports, books, movies, food, dogs, and more, there’s always something to keep you turning the pages. And on every other page, it tells you how many words you have to read. People end up really enjoying themselves while they read this, because there’s no real commitment — it’s a quick read, and it reflects the tastes of people today, in terms of their reading habits. “In a Chicago Minute” is available in bookstores and at amazon.com (in paperback or on Kindle). ■