"The Medici," then a coffee house and gallery, was purchased in 1962 by a recent University of Chicago business school graduate named Hans Morsbach for the low, low price of $1,700.00.  Morsbach was born near Munich, Germany in 1932, but emigrated to the United States with his family in 1951.  Morsbach gradually transformed the coffee shop into a restaurant, serving an eclectic mix of breakfast, lunch, and dinner fare, including cinnamon rolls, pastries, soups, sandwiches, salads, burgers, fries, pizza, and shakes.  Over the ensuing decades it became a local institution, highly popular with the students in the neighborhood, as well as soon-to-be-President Barack Obama.  The many students who have dined there have left their mark on the tables (literally), which are covered in graffiti.  The Medici moved to its current location in 1989, although the university reportedly fought hard to prevent it.  Hans Morsbach passed away in 2011 at the age of 78.