It opened in 1928. In 1948 it was purchased by the Kotlik family and has remained in that family ever since. It has won a James Beard award, and been featured in Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations”. It’s one of the only places left in Illinois that smokes their own fish on premises using nothing but wood. This is my paean to Calumet Fisheries, one of the icons of Chicago.
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It sits at the 95th Street bridge on the east side of Chicago over the Calumet River, very close to the border with Indiana. That bridge is featured in the move The Blues Brothers as the one Elwood jumps at the beginning.
They smoke their own fish in house, in a wooden smoke house just right next to the shack. The same smokehouse they’ve been using for decades. They now smoke about three times a week, but there was a time where they smoked their fish every day. There used to be a competing place across the street, as well as a bakery.
There is no indoor seating, but there are a couple of picnic tables outside. Most people eat off the hood of their car, in their car, or drive a few blocks to the Lake and eat in the park there. When it’s crowded, there’s a real community vibe that you don’t get at other places.
In 2009, they were featured in an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations”, and business, which had been slipping, picked up immediately and hasn’t really slowed that much. In 2010, they won a James Beard America’s Classics Award. A look on the list shows some world famous restaurants that this little shack shares an award with.
In 2023, they had to temporarily close because of health code issues, but shortly before the scheduled reopen, there was a fire in the back area. For six months they spent rebuilding and renovating. The smokehouse is still there, and when they opened at the end of May, they were selling out every day. Some days they wouldn’t have the smoked fish, it was selling that fast.
One of their best selling items was smoked chubs, a small-ish lake fish they would smoke whole. At their peak they would smoke between 500 and 1000 pounds a week. Now, they haven’t had them for years because of overfishing. Last year they got only 75 fish and they were sold out in an hour. Around the holiday season, they sometimes have eel, though it’s also been a while for that.
I finally went earlier in June and I’ve been hooked. Their fried stuff is so good, and the smoked fish is otherworldly. My favorite fried things are the scallops by far, followed by the frog legs and oysters. If you come for smoked fish, they usually have salmon and pepper-garlic salmon, but my favorites are trout and sturgeon. I use the smoked fish in various recipes, and I’ll take the skin and cook it up in a pan crispy like bacon. Here is a picture of a hunk of salmon (over 1 pound) and a hunk of sturgeon (also over a pound)
The ropes are there because that’s how they smoke it. They brine it overnight, then run a rope through and hang it. Everything done by hand.
So much more could be said, but I’m better talking about this than writing it down. But that’s a look at one of the Chicago landmarks. If you’re ever in Chicago, take a ride share down to the little shack by the river.
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