Just short of a century, long-time So. Chgo ice cream parlor meets its maker

I know many of you are capable of telling me where the best ice cream can be found. It’s probably some place where you can find assorted flavors and toppings and where you can watch as they hand-make your sundae or whatever other treat you desire.

The old Gayety theater (and neighboring ice cream parlor) died in 1982, and its suburban descendants ceased to exist this week

You’re probably prepared to fight to the death in insisting that your place is the absolute best, and I haven’t truly lived until I’ve tried it.

WELL, I’M HERE to tell you that you don’t know beans! No matter what perks your place has, the truly best ice cream parlor is one that is no more.

I’m referring to Gayety’s Chocolates & Ice Cream – a shop dating back to 1920 along Commercial Avenue in the South Chicago neighborhood and that existed at that location until the early 1980s; when a fire destroyed the building.

The family of the man who originally founded the business rebuilt – although they used the destruction as an opportunity to move from the old neighborhood to a suburban base where many of their customers had moved to.

Hence, there were generations of people making a trip to suburban Lansing to get their ice cream fix. In recent years, the Gayety’s “empire” extended to another location in northwest Indiana (Schererville, to be exact).

29 cents for a quart of ice cream

BUT ALL THAT is now history! The shops haven’t been open for a couple of weeks, and vaguely-worded signs alluded to the idea of the shops being closed for remodeling.

Then on Tuesday, the store did what many other people of the 21^st Century do when they want to spread the word – they turned to Facebook to say, “after 98 great years, we have officially closed.”

Perhaps it’s just evidence that nothing lasts forever. Every business entity will eventually come to an end. Even the place that did the best banana-flavored ice cream (a personal favorite of mine) ever made.

Which also was a favorite of my mother’s. For what it’s worth, I made the trip back to Gayety’s just before her death and was able to pick her up a half-gallon, which I recall was a treat she particularly enjoyed.

Keep your Frango mints, I'll take Gayety's candies. Photos by Gregory Tejeda

GAYETY’S WAS A neighborhood thing. Facebook is filling up with comments (more than 1,400 statements and 2,800 shares as of Wednesday morning) from people with old ties to South Chicago reminiscing how much they enjoyed the made-in-the-shop ice cream.

And the chocolates. Because for some people, the boxes of Gayety’s candy was an even-bigger deal than the ice cream. Those of us with a South Chicago connection (my parents were raised there and I was born there) think those people who rave about Marshall Fields and Frango mints don’t know what they’ve truly missed.

I know my father and uncles grew up on Gayety’s. Even I had my exposure to those old South Chicago days in that a childhood trip to grandma’s house could usually include a trip to the Gayety’s parlor on Commercial. I hate to say my brother and I only wanted to visit grandma for the ice cream, but you know kids can be so superficial.

Now for some, Gayety’s has been dead for decades. A 1982 fire destroyed the building and its neighboring movie theater, and the remains were torn down to clear the way for yet another McDonald’s franchise. Which I personally think looks so ridiculously out-of-place at the site whenever I have reason to travel through South Chicago.

AS FAR AS the suburban locations, they didn’t quite have the character of the old place. But then again, nothing remains the same as our childhoods. And the ice cream quality still was better than anything you’d find elsewhere.

I actually pity the child who grows up thinking a Dairy Queen is something special, or anybody willing to pay for the highly-priced candied concoctions of a Coldstone (my nephew briefly worked in one of those places last summer). A trip to Gayety’s was a chance to reminisce about what once was.

But now, I can’t even go to Lansing for an occasional taste of my childhood past. The thought does feel like a loss, and having to settle for consuming Ben & Jerry’s “Chunky Monkey” just won’t be the same.

At least we still have Hienie's

That, and also settle for boasting about the best chicken in Chicago coming from Hienie’s, a one-time South Chicago place now located in the South Deering neighborhood (with a second location in suburban Orland Park). Just one taste with a jolt of “hot” sauce and you’ll realize just how inferior a poultry product Kentucky Fried truly produces.

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Our retail habits continuously evolve – will old Carson’s become Amazon.com

It always amuses me whenever I think about retail practices (not that I think about them that often) to realize that one of the grand old spots of shopping in Chicago is now just another Target store.

The old nameplates remain ...

Which has me wondering with the news reports that Target may be purchased sometime this year by that behemoth of Internet shopping. As in Amazon.com.

DOES THAT MEAN the one-time Carson Pirie Scott flagship store on State Street will essentially become a visible sign of just how much Amazon.com has taken over the world of retail?

The idea behind the purchase, according to the Bloomberg Business News service, is that Amazon.com and Target already share a common demographic in terms of people who rely on them to purchase the goods they wish to have in life. Combining could create a sizable retail combine – albeit one not quite as big as Wal-mart.

But then again, the so-called retail experts consider that to be a separate demographic of shoppers. It’s a matter of everybody will claim they control their segment of society, and don’t really care about other groups amongst us.

But to me, the idea that the grand old department store (which had operated at various sites in Chicago since 1854 and at its current State/Madison street location since 1904) continues to stand in its architectural grandeur (designed by famed architect Louis Sullivan) but without its old retail elegance is amusing.

EVERY TIME I find myself inside the old Carson’s these days, I find myself trying to find traces of the old style – only to find that I’m in a Target barely distinguishable from the Target stores one can find anywhere else in Chicago or at various suburban locations.

If this deal does go through, will that one-time Carson’s location wind up taking on the smiling Amazon.com logo? Will it become a place people go to if they happen to be downtown, check out the goods, then return home to place the order?

... even though the classic retail businesses are long gone from State Street

I’ve seen that kind of behavior in many a Barnes & Noble bookstore, and it is one that I personally find strange. You’d think that since they’ve already made the trip to the store, they’d just buy the item right there and then!

But this is a new age now that we’re well into the 21^st Century and we now have people coming of age who weren’t even alive back on that date when the 1900s receded into the past and we moved into this era of the 2000s (is that 2-thousand or 20-hundred?).

REGARDLESS, I STILL find the old Carson’s building, along with the one-time Marshall Field’s just a couple of blocks north on State Street, to be significant landmarks.

They are points that help me personally anchor my location whenever I happen to be walking about. Yes, thinking of something as being “just a couple of blocks” from Carson’s is the way I think – even if there probably are some deluded individuals who will see the Target bullseye logo and think I’ve gone goofy.

It’s just a matter of how we think. Besides, I’m sure there will be a certain subgroup of people who have become so accustomed to the Target label on that structure that they will forever think of it that way – and will have an even younger generation think they’ve gone goofy.

“What Target? That’s Amazon.com!,” they’ll say.

OF COURSE, IF you want to live in the past and still shop at the Carson’s brand, you can always hit any of the many suburban locations that have kept that name – even though the flagship store did not.

A place to reminisce about Chicago of old. Photographs by Gregory Tejeda

Just as you can still walk into what is now the downtown Chicago store of Macy’s and try to pretend it is still Marshall Field’s. Particularly if you go down to the basement level and spend all your time by the Frango mints stand. That brand has managed to outlive the company that originally created it.

Although the Amazon.com move (which previously took over the Whole Foods brand name) toward Target does have me wondering who eventually will wind up taking over the one-time Field’s.

And if we’re ultimately moving in the direction of all types of stores becoming tied together and merged into one massive entity to be known as “The Store.”

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