(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – Longtime customers who showed up Tuesday at Chicago’s Mr. Beef extended their condolences to staff and family members after word spread that restaurant founder Joseph Zucchero had died.
Zucchero, who passed away March 1 at age 69, was larger than life and a “magnificent man,” said his son, Christopher Zucchero.
“I was incredibly lucky and grateful that I spent my whole life in this restaurant,” he told WBBM Newsradio.
Zucchero says he joined his father at the iconic business when he could barely see over the counter. He wasted little time after his father’s passing to reopen Mr. Beef – a decision he thinks the elder Mr. Zucchero would have approved.
“We just kind of all agreed that this would go on like any other day,” the son said.
A lifelong Chicagoan, Joseph Zucchero was raised on the Northwest Side before he settled in Park Ridge in the late-1970s. He began his professional career in food as a butcher at Dominick’s Finer Foods and opened Mr. Beef in the River North neighborhood in 1979.
He made Mr. Beef the go-to Italian beef stand through his ability to connect with people from all walks of life over their shared love of food. More recently, Mr. Beef gained national recognition as the inspiration behind the hit show “The Bear.” The elder Zucchero was honored about the connection, his son said.
Mr. Zucchero cared for his family, but his business always came first, Christopher Zucchero said. He said his father would want the business to endure.
“Hopefully, we all make the right decisions for this place and we will stay as long as we can.”
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