Second Generation Restaurant

As familiar to Chicagoans as Thompson's off-the-arm restaurants was a chain of 23 Raklios eating houses that dotted the Loop and nearby business districts in the early '30s. Almost as familiar was the legend of their bush-browed proprietor John Raklios. He had hit the Loop in 1901, fresh from Greece with $10 in his pocket, had parlayed a basket of fruit into a sidewalk fruit stand, then switched his bet to popular-priced restaurants. In 1928, his top year, his chain did a gross business of $3,600,000, and talkative John Raklios, with a classic "stromberry" accent, counted himself a millionaire, with a $65,000 mansion on Sheridan Road.

Depression took John Raklios back to shirtsleeves. Bankruptcy cut his chain to 13 restaurants, and more bad business put them on the block to be bought by Thompson's. Last year John Raklios, 58 and ailing, peddled bread at $25-30 a week for White Baking Co. Chicago newspapers reviewed his rise and fall last August when he was jailed for two days for a $2,000 debt under Illinois' antique debtors' law.

Last week, on the window of a shiny, 33-seat restaurant-lunch counter at 330 South Clark Street in the Loop, the name of Raklios appeared again. This time it was followed by two letters that marked the passing of a generation. The sign said "Raklios Jr." Proprietor of the new stand: 22-year-old Hercules John Raklios. His business adviser: old John, who eased up on his bakery rounds on opening day to shake hands with old customers, proudly pasted in his son's window the $5 bill laid down by the first customer, who bought a 5-c- cigar.

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