Herm’s Palace: Memories of softball games and families

I grew up in the 1960s in Skokie, Illinois. Our Little League baseball teams were sponsored by local businesses. The ones I can remember include Mr. Rickey’s, a legendary delicatessen, Fergus Ford, a car dealership that had a car lifted high up in the air and Big Herm’s, a hot dog restaurant.

Fast forward to the late 1990s-early 2000s. I'm again living in Skokie. I’m now coaching my youngest daughter’s softball teams. There are still local sponsors for the teams. I remember walking into my optometrist’s office and seeing one of my team’s photos on the wall. It was surreal.

By then, Herm’s had already been sold. The little shack was now a regular restaurant with the name Herm’s Palace. While still sponsoring youth baseball and softball teams, they were better known as a place teams and their families could go to after a game. A little post-game bonding while sharing some food is almost better than the game itself.

Yesterday, I found myself back in Skokie. As part of the Hot Dog Month review, I thought I’d make Herm’s Palace the third of four stops on the tour. My lunch was the same as the others—a hot dog with french fries.

It’s pretty tough to mess up a hot dog when you order it with only tomatoes. It was a good sign when I saw four slices of tomato on my dog. When I took my first bite of the hot dog, I heard the cracking sound—another good sign. Next came the french fries. They were fine—nothing special except that they just came out of the fryer. You would think that would be normal, but surprisingly there are plenty of restaurants that serve fries on the medium to cool side.

Overall, the meal was fine. You received what you thought you were going to get—not a bad thing. It did bring back some memories of youth sports from the 1960s and the 1990s. Hmmm, maybe I’ll go back again after one of my grandchildren’s sports events.

Three down—one to go. Can you ever get tired of hot dogs? NOOOOOO!!