WICKER PARK — For chef and Meals Community star Jeff Mauro, a years-long seek for 4 lacking customized Chicago sports activities jerseys had lengthy felt like a pie-in-the-sky quest — till now.
The jerseys got to Mauro — a co-host of the Meals Community present “The Kitchen” and founding father of Mauro Provisions — by the Cubs, White Sox and Blackhawks for throwing out first pitches in addition to “taking pictures the puck” at a hockey recreation.
For years, that they had held on a again wall of the Wicker Park Pork & Mindy’s, an area chain through which Mauro was a associate.
However when the restaurant abruptly declared chapter and shut down in fall 2019 whereas Mauro was in a foreign country, he by no means had the possibility to get well them they usually’ve been lacking since.
“The restaurant immediately closed, unbeknownst to me. In a single day they shut all the things down. And I by no means had an opportunity to return there and retrieve these,” Mauro advised Block Membership final September. “The pandemic occurred pretty near that, so it was not at prime of thoughts.”
Regardless of later makes an attempt to search out out what occurred, the jerseys nonetheless by no means turned up. Nobody Mauro talked to appeared to know the place they have been, even along with his final title and “Sandwich King” moniker on the again.
So in the future final September, Mauro made a publish on the Chicago subreddit with a last-ditch plea for assist. It obtained greater than 1,000 upvotes and 124 feedback — kickstarting a renewed search that was buoyed by a meaty reward.
“Once more, lengthy SHOT…. however I promise you this: if any tip results in the return of my jerseys, I’ll SHOWER YOU IN MEAT AND GIARDINIERA,” he wrote.
The publish yielded a sequence of concepts on the place Mauro may look or who he ought to contact. However nothing materialized till final week, when he received a name from a lawyer — who needs to remain nameless — who dealt with the Pork & Mindy’s chapter liquidation.
It seems the jerseys had been sitting in a room in his workplace all these years, forgotten till an worker discovered them and acknowledged Mauro’s title.
The lawyer referred to as Mauro to tell him and, on Friday, Mauro confirmed as much as reclaim them — with the reward in hand.
“As promised, I delivered. I showered him in Italian beef and giardinera and cookbooks, and I received my jerseys safely again house,” Mauro stated.
The jerseys at the moment are ready to be hung up at Mauro’s home within the suburbs, though he’s swapping out one that claims “Pork & Mindy’s” on the again with a brand new one from the Chicago Hearth.
Mauro stated reclaiming the jerseys was by no means about any monetary achieve. As he notes, he didn’t precisely purchase them on the “jersey retailer.” As a substitute, he plans to show them as household keepsakes for his 16-year-old son.
“Hopefully he can take a look at these on our wall and go, ‘Hey, not solely do I need these, however I need my very own, I need my very own final title by myself jerseys,” he stated. “I really feel very completed. I really feel, too, very cathartic in a approach.”
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