The same guy owned several of the restaurants around the Chicago Board of Trade. He owned the joint over in the Insurance Exchange. He owned the cafeteria in the basement of the CBOT. He owned the cafeterias on and just under the trading floor. He also owned a place called Broker's Inn and the one everyone knows, Ceres Cafe.
All of them carried the Famous Fish sandwich and many other delights. Ceres and Broker's Inn were known for the stiffest drinks in the Loop, but all of these places also made a fantastic chocolate shake.
The old school waitresses hated when you ordered a shake. It meant that they had to make it. They had to scoop the ice cream into the big metal mixing cup. Put all of the ingredients into the cup and place it on the big mixers for a few minutes. It was an extra chore for the waitress and they found no delight in doing it.
Most of the time when I ordered a chocolate shake it was because I drank too much the night before. Someone told me a Broker’s Inn shake was the best cure for a hangover when I first started down on the trading floor. So that became a tradition for me.
I swore by the eggs Benedict and a chocolate shake as my cure for a hangover.
Broker’s Inn closed in the mid nineties when they tore down the building that it was located in. That beautiful old building had a antiquated barbershop, a Fannie May, a Chinese joint and a junior college for court stenographers. Many traders and a couple trading companies had their offices on the higher floors.
All gone to take the place of a massive trading floor. A trading floor that was obsolete in just six or seven years. That’s a story for another Morning Chalkboard. This Chalkboard is about Chocolate Shakes.
The pissed off waitresses would bring the shake to your table in a fountain glass. You know the fancy kind with the tall fluted stem. A dollop of whipped cream and a cherry on the top.
The waitress also brought out the metal mixing cup that had the reserve shake that didn’t fit in the fountain glass. This was the bonus that put these chocolate shakes over the top. That freezing cold shiny cup that held six or seven more gulps of this delicious delight.
If I had a crazy day and didn’t get a break during the trading session, I would head down to Ceres or Broker’s and get the famous sole sandwich and a chocolate shake. Which then gave me a great base for five or six cocktails afterwards.
In later years my wife would bring the kids down and we’d sit at the table by the window in Ceres. The art deco hallway of the Board of Trade just outside. I’d proudly sit with my gorgeous wife and our crazy kids. Fountain glasses and reserve cups littered our table. Colleagues walking past tapping on the window….
“Jumbo… have a great night!”
The waitress told us the old blender broke down the last couple times the family came down. I don’t know who was more disappointed, me or the Shepkids.
God, what I would give to be sitting at Broker's Inn….. wearing my trading jacket and drinking a chocolate shake.
Today is National Chocolate Milk Shake Day. I think I'm going to drive east on Cermak after the close and get a shake at the Polar Bear.
I can sit on the bench on a beautiful September afternoon and reminisce. Sit back and think of my Chicago Board of Trade days and the occasional chocolate shake at Broker's Inn and Ceres Cafe.
