Culver's Opens As New Kind Of Landmark Welcoming Folks To Pullman

PULLMAN — If you've never lived in a neglected part of Chicago, you might not understand what's so exciting about the grand opening of a Wisconsin-based, fast-casual burger joint.

But down here in Pullman, we know.

My neighborhood seemed a bit more inviting Monday after an inaugural drive-thru visit on Culver's opening day — where a double Butter Burger, cheese curds and a pop set me back 14 bucks.

To many of us, Culver's grand opening isn't just a celebration of the first freestanding sit-down restaurant to open on the Far South Side in more than 30 years.

The restaurant's neon signs and bright-blue awnings at 11150 S. Doty Road, also are welcome eye candy for drivers exiting the Bishop Ford Freeway west toward Pullman.

Culver's replaced a litter-strewn empty corner that always hinted at what to expect from my historic neighborhood's amenities. Nothing much.

It's true that over the last 15 years, a Walmart-anchored strip mall, a soap factory, a rooftop greenhouse, an Amazon distribution warehouse, a suburb-worthy community center and a strip mall — with an easy-to-miss Potbelly's and an acclaimed vegan restaurant — has slowly revived a former food desert once devoid of jobs and hope.

In September, the Pullman clock tower ruins were revived as a National Monument visitor center.

But, to me, as long as the corner of 111th and Doty remained unwanted by restaurateurs, directions to my place in Pullman included references to embarrassing neighborhood landmarks.

Whatever you do, don't stop at the price-gouging, dilapidated gas station, I'd tell visitors. Once you pass the police district with the rusted sign, pocked by missing letters that nobody at police headquarters cares enough to fix up, and go over the railroad tracks, you're almost there.

On Monday, the familiar national restaurant — wrapped in Pullman-style brick and accented in Pullman green — became an unofficial "Welcome to Pullman" sign overshadowed the lingering eyesores across the street.

Hungry folks were greeted by smiling faces in Culver's-blue uniforms assembling made-to-order burgers and hand-delivering paper sacks packed with fried joy through car windows for the first time.

I've never seen so many people excited over a fast-food joint.

Pullmanites Meghan McNeil and her son Maddox were among them.

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McNeil told reporters of how wonderful it was to watch Culver's rise from the vacant lot over the last several months.

"I legitimately can't tell you how excited we have been as we have driven back-and-forth going home, and as they would add the sign or the parking blocks," McNeil said. "Maddox came home one day and said, "The menu is up. … We are so excited ... for those nights when I don't feel like cooking dinner."

I shared Maddox's palpable joy as he rattled off his favorite Culver's meal: "A double Butter Burger with ketchup, mustard and lettuce. With fries. A Sprite. Then custard, chocolate with sprinkles."

If you've never lived in a neglected part of town, you might not understand why it's a big deal.

But guys who have endured living in a neighborhood without sprinkles, like Maddox and me, we know.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docuseries on CNN and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary "16 Shots."

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