Post date: Feb 4, 2010 5:08:28 PM
I worked there as a delivery boy evenings and weekends 1963-65 after getting my license.
Everyone in the neighborhood seemed to go there at times, partly because of the location of the JCC next door and the Rodfei Sholom temple across the street. I made a lot in tips as I delivered all the way from 71st up to Merrionette Manor, and people were quite generous. Occasionally, there were no-shows at the given addresses and I got to eat the still-warm fries, ribs or chicken. (Later, classmates Barry Lakin and Robert Lazar became deliverers, too.)
Because of Rib Hill, I became popular with the Bowen kids who walked westward throught the viaduct and along 90th St. Toughs from Chicago Vocational School used to hassle us as they walked east (once setting fire to Harlan Dellsy's coat with a cigarette lighter). Two of the bigger guys, twins Bernie and Bob Carlson, were cooks at Rib Hill and became my friends. Anyone who walked from Bowen became untouchable if they were with me. I became a magnet. It wasn't true friendship, but I took it.
The original owners of Rib Hill when I worked there, Mr. Meyers and Mr. Vicks (one was charming and one was financial), had high quality food for a long time. When business slowed down, they started buying lesser food quality. Rib Hill's fortunes then deteriorated and Mel Markon took over the restaurant in 1966. His family had run Seaway's Restaurant on 87th St near Stony Island Ave from in the early 60s and previously Shoreland Restaurant
and Deli in the 1950s.
Joel Rubenstein, Class of '65