a tenant doesn't just lease an apartment.  a tenant leases a neighborhood.  so here at domu we try our best to educate our chicago tenants about the neighborhoods in which they live.  that's why we created the chicago history map.  pound for pound, we think the chicago history map is the most original and addicting presentation of chicago history in all of cyberspace. (full disclosure: we think everything about domu is great.)

so, anyway, in observance of chicago restaurant week 2012, we've decided to unveil a new history map category honoring the city’s “vintage restaurants.” a vintage restaurant, as we loosely define it, is any restaurant that’s been open for more than half a century. we figure if you can keep it going for 50 years you must be doing something right, even if, as in the case of jimmy’s red hots (founded 1954), the entire menu consists of a polish sausage, a hot dog, a tamale, french fries, and soda.

so have a look. there are 58 vintage restaurants on the map, including nine pizzerias, eight diners, and seven hot dog joints. a list of these classic eateries, in age order, appears below. trivia buffs will be glad to learn that the five oldest restaurants in chicago are schaller’s pump (1881), daley’s restaurant (1892), the berghoff (1898), the walnut room (1907), and cafe brauer (1908). these are the only restaurants in town where someone could have celebrated the final out of a chicago cubs world series championship. the oldest italian restaurant in the city is italian village (1927). the oldest chinese restaurant is orange garden (1924), which is actually on irving park road and not in chinatown. the oldest restaurant in chinatown is won kow (1927), which was a favorite dining spot for the notorious al capone.

in cooking up our list, we might have decided that a restaurant inherently requires table service, but that would have eliminated the swedish bakery, which has been selling assorted scandanavian treats from the same andersonville location since at least 1929 (and perhaps earlier). it would also have 86’d the legendary calumet fisheries, which has been producing delicious oak-smoked seafood since 1948 and was recently recognized as an american classic by the james beard foundation.

we might also have decided that a restaurant necessarily serves something other than flavored sugar water, but that would have eliminated mario’s italian lemonade, the exclusive source of drinkable italian ice on taylor street every summer since 1954.

we also imposed no requirement that a vintage restaurant still be operating from the same location in which it first opened, probably because we didn’t have the heart to omit such jewels as lou mitchell’s, which opened in 1923, but moved across the street in 1949, or manny’s, which opened in 1942, but moved a few times before settling into its current digs in 1964. we also waived any requirement that the restaurant be open for at least 50 consecutive years, mainly because we couldn’t imagine the map being complete without cafe brauer, which opened in lincoln park in 1908, closed in 1941, then reopened again in 1990.

is our list exhaustive? we doubt it. it’s probably safe to assume that there have been some unintentional omissions. so, if you know of one, please bring it to our attention. we’ll add it to the history map, lickety-split. until then, bon appetit!