Used to be coal yards were like taverns—practically every neighborhood in the city had them. But today Paul Schoening is the last person in Chicago who retails the fuel, and he only has two customers: D’Amato’s Bakery and Coalfire Pizza.
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Schoening runs the 115-year-old Gruene Coal Company, smack in the middle of Englewood, with the help of his older brother, Ed, and a friendly, doddering rottweiler named Niko. An abandoned rail spur looms over 14 concrete walled stalls where cars once dumped some 14 different types of coal. Now most of the stalls are used to store rusting junk or are rented out for storage at 50 bucks a month.
“Now here’s the worst part,” says Schoening. “You take D’Amato’s and you take Coalfire. I gotta buy 25 tons of this—he decides tomorrow he’s going out of business, what do you do with this?”
The symbiosis among coal hauler, baker, and pizza maker may not be as delicate as Schoening thinks. Spillane, who buys about three tons of coal every quarter, says he’s not going anywhere. Part of the reason he chose his location was because of its proximity to D’Amato’s—he wanted to be sure Schoening would deliver to him too.
