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Atkinson is a 55-year-old StreetWise vendor who hawks his papers in front of the Walgreens at Diversey and Halsted. He grew up Lawndale, the only child of a mother who would feed housefuls of friends and relatives who’d made the journey to from Arkansas to Chicago in the 50s and 60s. He idolized Goldie, and loved her food, but when she took sick he took over the kitchen.
“The thing with being a bouncer is keeping the peace,” he says. “You’ll fight if you have to but I think as a bouncer I’ve only had like maybe six fights. Usually the only ones that really try to fight are the little short guys.
Atkinson’s hoping to launch a full time catering operation on the north side, where he says there’s no competition. He sells $10 advance tickets to his StreetWise customers, which is how he gets an idea of how much to shop for, though anyone can walk in and pay. Shortly after six pm on Thursday the first of 14 people he sold tickets to began to drift in, and by 7:15, all the food on the steam pans had been demolished, but for another round of chicken and fish still in the fryers. His catfish was particularly good, cornmeal dusted, crispy and greaseless.
