Maurie and Flaurie are back. The iconic 12-foot-tall couple was taken down from the rooftop of the historic Superdawg Drive-In on the Northwest Side of Chicago for refurbishment just after Labor Day. They returned to their perch on Wednesday morning, “all refurbished and rested,” said Don Drucker.
He co-owns the business with his wife, Lisa Drucker, and her brother, Scott Berman. The siblings are the children of late co-founders and figure namesakes, Maurie Berman and Florence Berman . The newlywed Bermans opened what was supposed to be a seasonal stand at Milwaukee, Devon and Nagle avenues in the Norwood Park neighborhood in May 1948, and a second location followed in the suburb of Wheeling in January 2010.
The signature Superdawg is an all-beef sausage on a poppy seed bun, dressed with golden mustard, tangy piccalilli, chopped Spanish onions, kosher dill pickle, spicy sport peppers and a unique pickled green tomato. It’s similar to a classic Chicago-style hot dog, but different. The same Superdawg figures went up on the roof on April 28, 1948, 10 days before the original opening.
They’ve come down every 25 years or so for refurbishment. The first time was in the the mid-‘70s and the second time in the late ‘90s. This time, for the first time, Orlandi Statuary in Logan Square restored Maurie and Flaurie, while Anthony Cilia and Ralph Cilia, who work with North Shore Sign and have been the Superdawg couple’s caretakers for 50 years or so, rewired them with LED l.
