Rick Kogan – Page 38 –

Cindy Marie Sandwich, 4, is surrounded by $10,000 worth of the nation's top sandwiches at Riccardo's but prefers a common peanut butter sandwich prepared by Ric Riccardo Jr., owner of the famous Chicago restaurant, on Aug. 22, 1963.

The famous seven paintings that once thrilled patrons at Riccardo’s are reunited at Madron Gallery

November 18, 2022 at 5:57 p.m.

Once upon a time, there were seven very large paintings that dominated the wall behind the palette-shaped bar at Riccardo's Restaurant and Gallery, which was as lively an oasis as...

Raymond Benson, the first American writer chosen to write James Bond books after the death of Ian Fleming, on his suburban Chicago street, Nov. 14, 2022.

Benson … Raymond Benson, is the prolific writer of James Bond books. Plus a new one about suburban murder.

November 15, 2022 at 5:00 a.m.

James Bond is alive and well and living on a street in a pleasant northwestern suburb with wide lawns and many white houses and at least one prolific novelist. Bond...

Andy Murray, a chef and brother of the actor Bill Murray, at Dublin's Bar & Grill on State Street in Chicago Nov. 3, 2022. Andy Murray has a book titled "Eat, Drink and Be Murray: A Feast of Family Fun and Favorites."

Another of the Murray brothers writes a book. Not Bill — but Andy — and it’s a cook book.

November 9, 2022 at 10:31 a.m.

Andy Murray freely admits that he does not know how to type but has nevertheless written a spectacular book. "Eat, Drink and Be Murray" masquerades as a very good cookbook...

Legendary "booth 1" with an international phone line in the Pump Room of the historic Ambassador East Hotel.

Why did the Ambassador East Hotel, up for sale again, once not give Cary Grant his favorite room?

November 8, 2022 at 7:57 a.m.

On Sunday afternoon, the Music Box played 1959's Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" and a few ardent movie fans and local history experts noticed the prominent appearance of the Ambassador...

Eli's Cheesecake Company owners Marc Schulman, left, and Maureen Schulman, right, work with Bob Faust, second from left, and Nick Cave on the assembly line making cheesecakes the artists designed on Oct. 26, 2022.

Artist Nick Cave tackles a new challenge: Making tiny, artful cheesecakes with Eli’s Cheesecake

November 2, 2022 at 5:00 a.m.

The medium may indeed be the message, as Marshall McLuhan once told us, but what to make of a recent morning watching a group of people making messages and then...

"Slippery Steps: Rolling and Tumbling Toward Sobriety" by Don McLeese.

Former newspaper writers give us ‘Beacons’ and ‘Slippery Steps,’ books about small-town newspapers and alcoholism

November 1, 2022 at 9:10 a.m.

Don McLeese and Dave Hoekstra — remember those names, all you newspaper readers out there? They were, in their time, which is not very long ago, among the most prominent,...

Jim Tully, called the "hobo novelist", left, and Gerald S. Trumbull at Hobo College, circa Nov. 17, 1925. Tully, who had been a professional boxer, tree surgeon, hobo, and writer, wrote many books including his autobiography, "Beggers of Life." Tully mostly wrote about the American underclass.

History comes alive in the West Loop — a neighborhood that has given us businesses, beauty and one bad guy

October 27, 2022 at 7:44 a.m.

There are charms and revelations to each of Chicago's neighborhoods and many of them stay hidden in the past, barely a whisper. The West Loop with its buildings (small and...

Laurin Mack, owner of Seipp Brewing Company, left, and beer historian Liz Garibay share a Seipp's Extra Pale at Old Town Ale House on Sept. 8, 2022, in Chicago.

The women behind the resurrected Seipp Brewing Company and Brewseum know their beer

October 26, 2022 at 5:00 a.m.

For a guy who doesn't drink beer, I have a surprising number of friends who drink a lot of beer, write about beer and are passionate about beer. There's my...

The Madame Ophelia Oogelpuss puppet, a creation of Burr Tillstrom, is on display at the Chicago History Museum Oct. 9, 2022.

Kukla, Fran, Ollie and You: Some Chicago puppets charmed a generation and helped ‘invent’ TV

October 13, 2022 at 5:15 a.m.

There she is, Madame Ophelia Oogelpuss, encased in glass and part of an ongoing exhibition at the Chicago History Museum. Her famous puppet friends, Kukla and Ollie, are not on...

Artist Amanda Williams in her studio Aug. 5, 2020 in Chicago.

MacArthur Foundation ‘genius’ grant winners for 2022 include 3 Chicagoans

October 12, 2022 at 11:41 a.m.

In 1981, the MacArthur Foundation began awarding annual fellowships. These have consisted of monetary awards of $800,000 (an increase this year, bumped up from a decade ago and paid out...

All Stories