A Chicago institution is closing.

We read in Nations Restaurant News: Harry Heftman, who turned 100 years old last month, is about to close his Chicago restaurant, Harry’s Hot Dogs, a little diner at the corner of Randolph and Franklin streets in The Loop that has become an institution after 55 years of business. The diner helped Heftman and his late wife put three children through school, employ dozens of workers through the years and feed hundreds of customers untold amounts of Vienna hot dogs. Heftman doesn’t have any retirement plans, and chances are he would have kept Harry’s Hot Dogs going if the city wasn’t bulldozing the building out from under him to create a new building and a park.

100 years old and no plans for retirement! How cool is that?

Yesteday we talked about being motivated as if you were in the playoffs. Today, we have an example of that kind of ownership.

Let’s not forget his words of advice for people just starting out in the restaurant business?

Keep it nice and clean and you need a good cook. Give the people good food. And smile at them and do the right thing for them.

I think we can all find some lessons to run our business by in that advice.

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