After nearly 70 years of serving up classic Chicago street food, Duk’s Red Hots will soon be getting a makeover, new name and new management.
News that Duk’s at 636 N. Ashland Ave. — the last of its Chicago locations — will be closed by Dec. 31 and “moving forward with the times” under a new concept, quickly went viral on Sunday after a Facebook post by manager Carol Chavez.
Some Chicagoans might consider Italian beef, pizza puffs and red hots sacred. For one regular Duk’s customer who spoke to the Sun-Times during a recent visit, it’s a religious experience.
“People ask, ‘What’s your parish?’ In this case, it’s, you know, where do you get your beef or your gyros?,” said Jason Marcus Waak, a regular who’s been eating at Duk’s for more than 30 years.
The hot dog joint was opened in 1954 by owner Mervyn Dukatte and his then-business partner Donald Marsalle. Dukatte, now 88 years old, is leasing the property to new tenants.
As far as who the new tenants will be, current manager Carol Chavez said that she doesn’t know much about them, the new concept, nor what the new name will be.
In a phone conversation,Chavez said that she hasn’t had much contact with the new management but she’ll remain part of the new concept when it is expected to open in the spring.
“We have watched the neighborhood change and watched generations of families come to this location to grab a bite to eat, whether it be a quick gravy bread to get you by until dinner or one of our double bacon cheeseburgers,” wrote Chavez in her Facebook post.
Chavez said she’s been pushing the new leadership to continue selling hot dogs and burgers, and confirmed that they will still have a relationship with Chicago hot dog manufacturer Vienna Beef.
The current manager is welcoming the “face-lift,” as the restaurant hasn’t been updated since she started working there. Nothing will be torn down, but the new tenants plan to fix the ceilings, floors and patio.
Waak took the day off work Thursday and drove to Chicago from his home in Rockford just to get his usual at Duk’s: a pizza puff, double cheeseburger and cheese fries.
Waak said that he’s been coming to Duk’s and its various locations — at one point there were 16 across the city — since 1990. The one he frequented most, in addition to the Ashland site, used to be on Clark and Ridge streets on the North Side.
“My first pizza puff was at Duk’s in February of 1990,” he said. “I drove in today because I figure I’m due a couple more trips before they change or whatever happens.”
Back then he would DJ at college parties across the city with his brother into the late night, and when he was done, he and his friends would catch some late-night grub at Duk’s.
“Whichever Duk’s was the closest to our gigs was the one we’d end up at,” Waak said.
And when he had kids, he brought them to eat there, too.
Waak, who worked at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s historian’s office for 13 years, said that Duk’s is an example of the non-chain restaurants that make up the heart of the Chicago food scene.
The eatery was inducted into the Vienna Beef Hot Dog Hall of Fame in 2017.
Chavez said that she hopes to win another Hall of Fame spot with the new tenants.
Neighbor Annie Puente has been eating at Duk’s on Ashland Avenue and Erie Street since she was 14 years old. Now 60, she still frequents Duk’s at least once a week and has brought every generation of her family to the restaurant.
“When I got pregnant, it was all I would eat. It was creepy,” she said while laughing with some other customers. “I couldn’t stop eating the polish with the friggin’ relish on there.”
Puente said that residents in the area are planning a Duk’s reunion in early December to bid farewell to the neighborhood staple. They’re hoping they can get a DJ to make the unofficial event unforgettable.
Originally named Donald Duk’s, in 1957, the original owners got news that Walt Disney Productions filed a trademark lawsuit against the words “Donald” and “Duk,” so the pair decided to shorten the name to “Duk’s.”
Dukatte is an animal lover, Chavez said. For years, the restaurant has participated in events to feed unhoused people and support animal shelters.
“[Merv] doesn’t want to see no animal in the street,” she said.
And whenever a stray dog comes up to the window, Chavez makes sure to give them a hot dog.
She hopes the spirit of giving will remain with the new concept.
