It’s noon on Friday, and Z’s Fish & Shrimp on Lincoln near Belden is packed to the gills. Hospital workers in scrubs and kids from Lincoln Park High School wait for takeout. A lone salesman sits in the window eating fried jumbo shrimp. Next to him, Audrey Starks and her daughter Gwen eat fried chicken and split a plate of hush puppies. And in the back, 85-year-old Ples Farrow is deveining shrimp. Farrow–who will probably clean 600 shrimp today, as well as answer the phone and take orders–has worked as a fish cutter and butcher since the Great Depression. He works Fridays only, and every week his boss, Scott Zells, drives him back and forth from his south-side home.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Nobody in Z’s looks upset about being squeezed in–except for maybe his good-sport mother, Myra, who is helping out during the crunch, manning the cash register with one hand and taking call-in orders with the other. It’s a far cry from her regular job, doing special events for MK and MK North. Her son, the 35-year-old proprietor, is wearing a doo-rag and a bright blue T-shirt, smiling and trying to keep it together.
When Danny’s closed two and a half years later, Zells was determined to open his own place. Originally he’d thought of a little hot-dog-and-hamburger stand, but he knew Lincoln Park had nothing like the fish-fry places dotting the south side. He found a 640-square-foot space down the street from Children’s Hospital, painted the facade a screaming shade of blue, then commissioned “sign painter extraordinaire” Ernie of R and G Signs to decorate it with cartoon images of a smiling ear of corn, a dancing fish, and waving cheese fries. Farrow, fish cutter Grover Jefferson, and Z’s four other employees all worked at Danny’s.
Z’s Fish & Shrimp is at 2273 N. Lincoln, 773-525-6000.
