(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A popular hot dog stand in University Village won’t be catering to extreme night owls any more.
Beginning early Friday, it will cease to be a 24-hour establishment for the first time since the 1950s.
The original Jim of Jim’s Original Maxwell Street Polish Sausage Stand decided to stay open 24 hours a day about 65 years ago. That’s because when he closed, people would break in.
Like once, burglars stole 120 cases of pop.
That was in the 1950s.
Last week, the founder’s grandson, Jim Christopoulos, who’s in charge of the place now, says his landlord — UIC — told him for neighborhood safety reasons he’d have to close between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m.
“Our concern right now with closing is that we haven’t been closed. Ever. I’m 52 years old. I’ve never seen the store closed. We don’t even have locks on the windows,” Christopoulos told WBBM Newsradio’s Steve Miller on Thursday.
Christopoulos sees the irony: that he has to close overnight because of crime and decades ago, his grandfather felt like he had to stay open all night because of crime.
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