The Founding father of Mr. Beef, the Chicago Restaurant That Impressed The Bear, Has Died

The founding father of Mr. Beef, the legendary Italian beef stand that served River North for greater than 40 years and have become the inspiration for The Bear tv present, has died.

Joe Zucchero died on Wednesday, March 1, at Rush Medical Middle in Chicago. He was 69. Zucchero and his brother, Dominic, opened the tiny stand in 1979, and it’s remained because the neighborhood has became one of many poshest eating districts within the metropolis, going from “skid row” to the house of million-dollar residences. Mr. Beef is without doubt one of the final Chicago road meals stands across the metropolis’s downtown space, giving locals an inexpensive possibility that’s more and more tougher to search out.

When Chicagoans argue about the perfect Italian beef on the town, evaluating the bread and thin-sliced slivers of beef soaked in jus, Mr. Beef is in most conversations. The sandwich, now a sizzling commodity throughout the nation, has been round for the reason that Nineteen Thirties. Invented by Italian People who wished to stretch their {dollars} by slow-cooking less-desirable cuts of beef to feed massive teams of individuals, it’s a definitive Chicago road meals — “a really trivial and esoteric factor” within the metropolis, says Joseph Zucchero’s son, Chris Zucchero.

Chris Zucchero is shut associates with Chris Storer, who wrote The Bear; the pair have identified one another since first grade, rising up in Park Ridge. Storer didn’t seek the advice of with Zucchero earlier than he wrote the pilot however confirmed off the set earlier than filming. In July, following the discharge of the critically lauded FX present, Joseph Zucchero spoke with NPR: “My son and a younger man that he grew up with, Chris Storer, would come down right here once they had been children,” Zucchero says. “You understand, they had been children, and I allow them to grasp across the restaurant.”

Actor Joe Mantegna mourned Zucchero’s demise.

The present helped the stand, which suffered from decreased enterprise throughout the pandemic on account of a drop in guests to the downtown space. The restaurant on the TV present has a a lot bigger kitchen than the precise restaurant and is named The Authentic Beef of Chicagoland (authorized points barred the TV present from utilizing the Mr. Beef title). The TV present is filming round Chicago for its second season, visiting locations resembling Pequod’s Pizza. Officers from FX, which produces the present that streams on Hulu, had no quick remark about Joe Zucchero’s passing.

However even earlier than The Bear, Mr. Beef had a connection to Hollywood. The restaurant caught the consideration of late-night comedian Jay Leno earlier than he landed on The Tonight Present. Chris Zucchero (who seems on just a few episodes of The Bear) advised WGN radio that Leno even had a key to the restaurant. The Zuccheros have mentioned Leno put Mr. Beef on the map.

Photograph by Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/GettyImages

The restaurant is a survivor, even combating off foreclosures in 2009. In March of that yr, Zucchero traveled to the nation’s capital to testify in entrance of a Home subcommittee to debate the Troubled Asset Aid Program, or TARP, a authorities program created to determine stability after the monetary disaster of 2008. Zucchero additionally had a second restaurant, Natalino’s, in River North. The restaurant closed in 2012.

“We supply all of our meals and our merchandise from small enterprise purveyors,” Zucchero advised the subcommittee in 2009. “The financial downturn has had its impacts on my enterprise on account of lack of jobs and earnings from native residents who dwell and work close to downtown Chicago.”

Ashok Selvam/Eater Chicago

The way forward for the stand is unknown, however the consideration from the TV present and having household round are positives. Zucchero’s phrases from 2009 proceed to be related right now as small companies battle via the ripple results of the pandemic. A part of Mr. Beef’s appeal, as Zucchero mentioned again in 2009, was the relationships with small distributors, and that features bakeries. As straightforward as cooks in different cities consider it’s to repeat Italian beef sandwiches, Mr. Beef focuses on particulars. This contains the French rolls which have the proper density to sop up the meat’s jus. In Mr. Beef’s case, it’s a small bakery referred to as Liborio.

Visitation for Joseph “Joe” Zucchero is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 11, at Cooney Funeral Dwelling in Park Ridge. A service will comply with on the funeral dwelling.