“Anybody can have a bad century,” Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack Brickhouse once famously quipped, to explain the losing ways of his beloved Cubs. Even he probably didn’t believe it would actually happen, but this October it will officially be 100 years since the Cubs last won the World Series.

    Jack’s been gone for ten years now, and isn’t able to witness his hilarious quip actually coming true, but Brickhouse had the best seat in the house for 40 of those 100 years, behind the WGN microphone. From his perch behind home plate, his warm and friendly voice polished up the darkest days in Cubs history. The Cubs may be considered lovable losers, but it was the sheer force of Jack’s personality that gave them that adjective.

    The Cubs were losers. Jack’s portrayal of them was lovable.

    That’s why it’s only right that Jack has been immortalized by the Cubs and the city of Chicago. His famous home run call (“Hey Hey”) is written in gigantic letters on the foul poles inside of Wrigley Field. A statue of Jack was erected just outside the Tribune Tower, and is seen and touched by thousands of Chicagoans walking along Michigan Avenue every day.

    But Jack Brickhouse isn’t just a Hall of Fame broadcaster, or a foul pole, or a statue. He’s a pizza and a chicken.

    That is, he has pizza and chicken dishes named after him at a few Chicagoland restaurants.

    With the 100th anniversary coming up, and Jack’s “anybody can have a bad century” quip about to be realized, I decided I wanted to pay tribute to Brickhouse in some way. Since I’ve already seen the “Hey Hey” written on the ballpark foul poles countless times, and walked by the statue on Michigan Avenue even more often, that left me with only one delicious option: A Brickhouse eating tour of Chicagoland.

    I even called up the greatest Brickhouse tour guide available: his widow Pat.

    Pat Brickhouse, as it turns out, has an equally formidable personality. When Pat walks into a room, people just do what she says—no questions asked. She knows what she wants, when she wants it, how she wants it, and as soon as you hear her say it, you know that this tiny woman with a powerful voice and the confident delivery will get it. It’s really something. I wanted to bottle it up and take it with me wherever I went the rest of my life.

    It was a little dark at our first stop, Pizano’s Pizza and Pasta (in north suburban Glenview), so I was having trouble reading the menu. Pat pulled a flashlight out of her purse and shined it on the menu for me. When I told her we were going to film her for the website [see the links to the videos below], she walked around the restaurant and chose the best location. Then she timed the arrival of the menu items to coincide with the precise moment our film crew was set up and ready to go.

    It really was an amazing thing to watch. I was in awe.

    The Jack Brickhouse Pizza was as good as advertised too; a delicious deep-dish sausage and mushroom pizza. The owner of the restaurant, Rudy Malnati, brought it out and explained why he named a pizza after Jack. It was obvious that Malnati had a deep affection for the former Cubs broadcaster. The walls were sprinkled with Brickhouse photos and memorabilia, and he told us that the connection between Jack and the Malnati family went all the way back to the early days of Pizzeria Uno, the restaurant founded by Rudy’s father.

    “His favorite was the sausage and mushroom, so that’s why we named that one after Jack,” Malnati explained.

    I pointed to the menu: “I see that the thin-crust sausage and mushroom is named the Pat Brickhouse Pizza.”

    “Tell him which one sells better,” Pat said with a proud smile.

    “Pat’s,” he said, smiling back.

    “It’s because people are more health-conscious these days,” she explained.

    The following week Pat took us to the second stop of our Brickhouse Eating Tour—200 East Supper Club (in Chicago on Chestnut Street, just down the street from the John Hancock Center). A classy jazz ensemble was playing near the front of the room, and the atmosphere was enticing. Pat greeted me at the door.

    “Come here,” she said. “I want you to meet Tony.”

    Tony Navarro is the owner and executive chef of 200 East, and the creator of the Jack Brickhouse Chicken. He showed us to our table, and began to explain the recipe. It was obvious that he was passionate about his food. By the time he finished describing every last detail of the dish; my tongue was hanging out of my mouth.

    It tasted as it good as it sounded too. Everyone that orders the chicken also gets a souvenir baseball stamped with Jack’s likeness and his trademark call, “Hey Hey.” Pat held one up in the air for me. She was beaming with pride.

    “How come there isn’t a Pat Brickhouse chicken?” I asked with a smile.

    “There’s a drink named after me,” she said. “The Pat-tini.”

    When I asked if I could film Tony explaining the chicken recipe, and George the bartender describing the Pat-tini, they both agreed. Tony was about to take a seat for the filming when Pat stopped him.

    “Where’s your chef’s jacket?” she asked.

    “It’s in the kitchen,” he said.

    “We’ll wait,” she said.

    When Tony went to the kitchen to retrieve it, I asked Pat how she got everyone to do whatever she wanted like that.

    “I just ask,” she said.

    We stayed at 200 East for awhile after dinner and had a wonderful chat with Pat about her days with Jack. With the jazz ensemble playing in the background, Pat told us the story of the day they met; she talked about where they liked to hang out, and what Jack was really like at home when he could relax. And every time she told a story about him, her whole face lit up.

    Jack may have coined the phrase “Anyone can have a bad century,” but for a whole bunch of die-hard Chicago Cubs fans, and especially one feisty lady who clearly still adores him, without Jack Brickhouse, this century could have been much, much, worse.

See the videos of the Jack Brickhouse Eating Tour here:

Brickhouse Pizza Specials at Pizano’s Pizza and Pasta

200 East Supper Club “Brickhouse Chicken”

200 East Supper Club Pat Brickhouse Martini, called the “Patini”