Table Of Content
- Bob Chinn's Crab House
- How Bob Chinn's Crab House Became The Highest-Grossing Restaurant In The U.S.
- More from CBS News
- How Bob Chinn's Crab House Became The Highest-Grossing Restaurant In The U.S.
- More from CBS News
- How Bob Chinn's Crab House Became The Highest-Grossing Restaurant In The U.S.
- More from CBS News
He later opened the House of Chan in Wilmette and later the Kahala Terrace – and finally Bob Chinn's Crab House in Wheeling just before Christmas 1982, according to Chinn's bio. In the 1970s, when he was running a Chinese restaurant with his wife’s brother, a customer came in and asked them to cater a party for 100 people. Chinn had never done catering, but he immediately agreed and put together a luau complete with grass mats and a roasted pig.
Bob Chinn's Crab House
He’s also helping two of his eight grandchildren start a business selling his Mai Tais in supermarkets using special packaging to keep the fruit juices fresh. His family is planning a public celebration of life, with details to be posted on the restaurant’s Facebook page. “The quality of the food, how people were treated, that they had fun and that everybody was like old friends when they came in,” Marilyn Chinn LeTourneau said.
How Bob Chinn's Crab House Became The Highest-Grossing Restaurant In The U.S.
'Today we lost a legend': Bob Chinn, creator of the famous restaurant in Wheeling, dies at 99 - Daily Herald
'Today we lost a legend': Bob Chinn, creator of the famous restaurant in Wheeling, dies at 99.
Posted: Fri, 15 Apr 2022 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Chinn has 3,000 pounds of fresh seafood flown in every day. Guests can check out the cargo bills while they wait for tables. The restaurant earns a 24 (out of 30) for food from Zagat and loyalists crow about the swordfish, of course the crabs and even the steak. What started out as a 250-seat restaurant has grown to 700 seats serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Diners are shuffled through several wait stations but rarely loose their cool.
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A fresh seafood restaurant in the middle of the country? Mr. Chinn opened it in Wheeling in 1982 with his daughter Marilyn Chinn LeTourneau. Bob Chinn, whose Bob Chinn’s Crab House on Milwaukee Avenue in Wheeling brought droves of customers to the northwest suburbs and became one of the nation’s highest-grossing restaurants, died Friday at 99. In 1978 Bob Chinn and his daughter, Marilyn, began to travel around the country doing research for the Midwestern seafood restaurant Bob had envisioned for some time.
How Bob Chinn's Crab House Became The Highest-Grossing Restaurant In The U.S.
In Honolulu he has a company that scours the fish market every morning and overnights the best picks to Bob Chinn’s. The Wheeling restaurant took in $24 million a year in food sales alone and was named by Forbes magazine as the highest-grossing restaurant in the nation in 2012. Mr. Chinn started delivering Chinese food on foot at 14 and dropped out of high school to join the Army during World War II, serving for three years outside Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Bob Chinn's Crab House
According to a biography from the restaurant, Chinn was born March 2, 1923 as the third of seven children in Duluth, Minnesota. His parents, Wai and Yung Shee Ong Chinn, were immigrants from Toishan, China. "Everyone who has walked through the doors of his eponymous restaurant has been a part of this incredible journey and we'd like to thank you all."
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Milwaukee Ave. in Wheeling, announced Chinn's death on Facebook on Friday evening. So he decided to branch out on his own with Bob Chinn’s Crab House. To ensure that things don’t go downhill at the restaurant Chinn, now 89, has decided he can’t retire (though he does spend six months out of each year in Hawaii).
How Bob Chinn's Crab House Became The Highest-Grossing Restaurant In The U.S.
“He lived life to the fullest in every situation,” said Carly LeTourneau, Mr. Chinn’s granddaughter. By the age of 14, Chinn was delivering Chinese food himself. He went on to serving three years in the Army during World War II, according to the restaurant. CHICAGO (CBS) -- Bob Chinn, the namesake of the iconic crab house in Wheeling, has died.
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Bob Chinn was 59 years old when he started the business that would come to define him. His restaurant tops our list of the nation's highest-grossing restaurants with an estimated $24 million in annual revenue. Numbers were provided by CHD Expert and do not include alcohol sales. It had 700 seats and served 2,500 meals a day, flying in 3,000 pounds of fresh seafood daily. Nothing was off the table — a Chinese takeout spot in Wilmette that also served pizza?
After years of planning and development, the father/daughter team negotiated the purchase of a shuttered building on Milwaukee Avenue in Wheeling. The 175-seat “Bob Chinn’s Crab House” Restaurant opened two days before Christmas in 1982 and was an instant success. In the late 80’s, Bob Chinn’s opened additional seating on the porch and eventually became a 650-seat restaurant. After a fire damaged his parents' restaurant, Chinn salvaged the kitchen equipment and started a carryout business called the Golden Pagoda in Evanston, according to the crab house.
The catering business took off, but three years later Chinn decided to move on leaving the business to his brother-in-law. Chinn, whose parents immigrated from China, dropped out of high school to join the Army in World War II and has been working ever since. His first business was supplying patterned plates to Chinese restaurants. From there he moved on to selling equipment, remodeling and eventually helping his family members open restaurants. Jean Chinn, Mr. Chinn’s wife of 62 years, died in 2016.
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