stop living in the past
that place was nasty anyways
The Rainbow Restaurant had a nice atmosphere. To be honest with you, the place needed a heavy clean up.
Probably the Health Department Closed it down. That place was as nasty as the Food resturant at O'hare. That place is a dump. The health needs to wake up and down there job and close that resturant at O'hare now.
You aint gonna get a 5 star restaurant for cab drivers specially down town. Rainbow was a cool place where drivers from every where got together. What you got now? Every body goes to there own places and people dont get together.
When I had my offices at Wacker and LaSalle, I used to amble over to Mike's Rainbow for a steak sandwich at least once every couple of weeks when the weather was tolerable. The place was a veritable United Nations: at least a dozen languages were being spoken there, and everyone got along.
The place was filthy. I hate to imagine the size of the roaches in Alex' kitchen, but the food was downright tasty. I got a lot of business done there. And as nasty as it was, I still wish it were around. Those bandits who ran the joint are probably sitting on the sands of Kauai now - would that it were me.
Today's cabdriver haunts are much better in my opinion. It's probably inappropriate to advertise for any of them. But there are a couple within spitting distance of the old Rainbow that serve up a great plate of food for a reasonable price. And they're a good bit the cleaner.
The following story appeared in the August, 2004 issue of the Chicago Dispatcher when the Rainbow closed.
They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot
The End of the Rainbow
The Rainbow Restaurant began its life in 1929, not long after the days when motorized taxicabs first started roaming the streets of Chicago. But after a long, glorious life, its owners decided to close up shop a few months ago. The property on the northwest corner of Clark and Huron was sold to condo developers.
The plan was to continue serving cabbies and other patrons until about September when the property was to change hands. However, the city pulled the plug on the Rainbow a couple of months early when it closed the restaurant for alleged health code violations. The wrecking ball began swinging not long after that, leaving a vacant lot.
The closing of the Rainbow marked the end of its long-standing title as the quintessential cabbie hangout. At any given time, you might hear a dozen different languages being spoken at the Rainbow. Veteran taxi driver Johnny O. Holmes, who ate breakfast and dinner at the Rainbow every day for 12 years, described it as “a great United Nations pit stop.”
The Rainbow offered the rarest of services at a downtown location – good food, cheap prices and free parking. But those weren’t the only elements that kept its parking lot full of taxicabs for decades. The Rainbow’s owners, Jimmy Siaperas and Alex Klementzos, knew and respected their customers.
Their menu offered foods that catered to people from all over the globe. Said Jimmy, "I don't think there's any other restaurant in the city of Chicago that served all the nationalities like we did, from North to South to East to West. You can't find another menu like this in the whole city."
But it wasn’t the prices or variety of foods that made it so special. While other downtown businesses shunned cabbies, the Rainbow welcomed them. While other businesses would yell at taxi drivers for trying to commit the crime of using their restroom, the Rainbow’s owners didn’t have a problem with a driver running in to relieve himself. He’d be back. Things like that.
While other businesses were having cabs towed for double and triple parking, it was not only expected but accepted as standard protocol at the Rainbow. You didn’t get mad when your cab was blocked in. You figured it would be. You’d just go back in and call out the number of the cab blocking you and the guy would move his cab or he might just toss you his keys. And if you were a little shy about barking out cab numbers, you could tell Jimmy or Alex and they’d get on their barely audible public address system and do it for you.
At other restaurants when you sit down at a table with friends and order a meal, it’s usually presumed that the meals come on one bill. Not at the Rainbow. Everybody got his own check. The owners knew that cabbies would come and go. Four drivers might sit for a meal and when one would leave, another would walk in, take his seat and join in on the usual conversations about how hard it was to make a buck or how the current commissioner or mayor of the day was doing a lousy job. Another driver would get up and leave and another would take his place. A table might not go unoccupied for several hours, though no single patron would stay for more than 45 minutes.
The Rainbow sold guidebooks for taxi drivers. They sold stamps drivers needed to pick up fares at the airports. They sold phone cards to every continent so the foreign drivers could call home, especially when things got a little too tough. Long before the days of cellular phones, drivers would leave messages for each other at the Rainbow about where to meet up later and at what time. Lease drivers would leave hundreds in cash in unmarked envelopes with Jimmy and Alex for the cab owners to pick up later.
But the best part of the Rainbow Restaurant was an intangible quality that words just can’t sufficiently explain. It was the way it made you feel. It was the comfort it gave you and the camaraderie you felt with the folks sitting around you.
The feeling cabbies had there was analogous to a seaport tavern where sailors would dock for a while during a long journey at sea. You were such a long way from home, but that was the same thing you had in common with everyone else there—which, ironically, made you feel at home.
The news that the Rainbow was set to close came as a disappointment to many taxi drivers. Said former driver Bernie Cahane, “Once I heard the Rainbow was closing, I wanted to get there as much as possible. I wanted to see the people I’d seen there for more than three decades. It was like visiting a terminally ill friend.”
Though the Rainbow Restaurant had been around for years, it especially took off when Jimmy and Alex took it over in the 1960s and moved it in 1976 from is former location down the street at Huron and Dearborn to its last location at 708 N. Clark. They closed the old location on a Friday night and opened at the new one the following morning. George Kasp, a cab driver for more than 30 years, recalls that Jimmy and Alex were proud of the new location. “They showed around the place to all the regulars, even the basement,” said Kasp.
At the new location, other types of patrons came and went over the years, but cabbies were always consistently drawn to the Rainbow. Bob Siegel, a taxi driver since 1949 recalls that in addition to taxicab drivers, the Rainbow used to cater to, “Newspaper delivery drivers and the coppers from the 18th district, you know, they used to call it the East Chicago Avenue District.”
It had as loyal a following as any business you’ll ever find. Bob Rose, a cabbie of more than 40 years, was introduced to the Rainbow Restaurant more than 30 years ago by other Chicago cabbies. From that time until the day it closed, he’d eaten there twice a day, six days a week and once on Sundays. Said Rose, “The cabdrivers took it over. It was the place where drivers could get in touch with each other. It was the place where younger drivers would get their schooling from older drivers. The fellas were very loyal to the Rainbow. They stayed put. Anybody who could have a ten-year run like they did would be jumping up and down. They did it for 30 years, if not longer.”
Arnie Kast, cabdriver of 23 years and a loyal Rainbow Restaurant customer, recalls fondly that, “It was very comfortable. It was ideal. You felt like family. Where else could you get a full course meal and parking for under $10? The location was ideal. It was right there. You’d get done eating and you’re right downtown.”
Word has it that Jimmy and Alex might be looking for a new location to continue the Rainbow tradition. Many drivers are hopeful but skeptical that it will ever happen with the premium on land in downtown Chicago. Said Kast, “Now that it’s gone, everybody’s saying, ‘Boy-oh-boy, I really miss that place.’ There will never be another Rainbow. Never.”
- G. Lutfallah
