Practicalmadness

The Sun-Times tells us that Harold’s Chicken Shack is opening a location in Wicker Park later this month, and I predict that yuppies, hipsters, trixies and other assorted white folks from throughout the Near North Side will be flocking to the new store to try out Harolds’ legendary fried chicken.

Specifically, they’ll be going to this one store out of the 50+ Harold’s Chicken Shacks throughout Chicago. Why? Because it’s the only one on the North Side. People not familiar with Chicago’s racial geography may be wondering why, with so many Harold’s stores strewn throughout the city, it’s such a big deal that they’re opening up for business anywhere north of Roosevelt Road, let alone in a hot hipster neighborhood like Wicker Park.

Let us begin our examination with a brief quotation from the Wikipedia entry for Harold’s:

The character of Harold’s developed primarily out of necessity. Harold Pierce, a black Chicago entrepreneur, founded the restaurant in the 1950s because the newly spreading larger fast food chains avoided African-American neighborhoods. In turn, Chicago’s legal and social obstacles to black-owned businesses prevented Harold’s from expanding into downtown or the North Side. Harold’s became one of the few examples of a thriving fast food chain that was owned by and primarily served the black community.

Harold’s is a black thing, but more importantly, it’s a South Side thing. On the North Side of Chicago, having few choices for cheap eats means only having a McDonald’s, a Dunkin’ Donuts and usually a Starbucks. In Wicker Park near Milwaukee Avenue, where the new Harold’s is opening up, there are dozens of sandwich shops, taco stands and coffeehouses.

When I worked at Starbucks one of our nerdy white managers from the North Side was hanging around with one of our black baristas from the South Side, and this guy was asking this girl to take him to Harold’s some time. That’s because for this kid to go into a Harold’s on the South Side and order some chicken just seemed a little inappropriate and awkward. There’s an invisible boundary between the white and black neighborhoods, between the North Side and South Side, that is simply not crossed for something as petty as chicken.

And yet for some people on the North Side, Harold’s Chicken is like something out of myth: on the South Side they have these places that make the best fried chicken on the planet, and they’re everywhere. And it’s also something that’s distinctly Chicagoan, but not a Chicago cliché like deep dish pizza you have to eat with a knife and fork, or hot dogs with a whole garden salad on them.

And of course, it’s a way for me to demonstrate my own lack of assimilation into the whole Chicago thing. You see, even after seven years in this town, I still order my hot dogs ‘ketchup only’ and I still appreciate a good thin crust pizza. Harold’s Chicken is meant to be eaten slathered in hot sauce, but you can be sure that I’ll be the jerk in line who wants the sauce on the side or not at all.

Update: Gapers Block reports that the April 2 opening date originally cited in this post was a flight of fancy on the part of the Chicago Sun-Times.