Notes |
- New York Times, June 23, 1908
Christian Burcky Dead
Chicago Pioneer Restaurant Keeper "Made His Pile and Quit."
Chicago, June 22.-Christian Burcky, one of the pioneer restaurant proprietors of Chicago, died yesterday at his residence. He attained something more than local fame as "the man who quit when his pile was made."
Previous to the big fire of 1871 he and Ed Milan opened a "lunch room" in an old box car on Madison Street.
"We won't quit until we get a million," was their motto. Within a couple of years they accumulated sufficient money to furnish a basement in Madison Street, near Clark. After the fire they moved to 154 and 156 Clark Street, and opened what is said to have been “the original first-class restaurant in Chicago.”
During the latter part of 1888 they began taking stock and counting cash. They discovered their joint riches totaled more than $1,000,000, and the next day the place was offered for sale. Burcky never again entered any business.
(Received above from Bryant Holly Riley ([email protected], 13 May 2013)}
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