CHICAGO — Superdawg, a fixture in Chicago’s food scene, is turning 75-years-old on Tuesday May 9. There will be a city ceremony that will dedicate an honorary street named for the founders of the beloved fast food joint.  

Since it opened at 6363 N. Milwaukee Ave. in 1948, it’s been one of the city’s favorite hot dog stands. It is still a functioning 1950s-era a throwback drive-in restaurant, complete with service from “car hops.”  

The iconic building is decorated with the 12-foot-tall papier mâché  “Superdawg statues” known as Maurie and Flaurie, named for the restaurant’s founders, Maurie and Flaurie Berman.

“So Maurie and Flaurie became the Superdawg characters on the roof, papier mâché bending as hot dogs do toward each other,” said Scott Berman, the oldest son of Maurie and Falurie, and a co-owner of Superdawg. “He is standing in a strongman pose and she is standing in a demure pose, looking lovingly at him.”

The Bermans met at Von Steuben High School and opened Superdawg as a way to make money to pay for college during the summer.

But its success led them to run it full time.

Now, Superdawg is run by a second generation, and serves hundreds of thousands of “Superdawgs” a year.

“You get this whole package,” said Lisa Drucker, the daughter of Maurie and Flaurie Berman, and a co-owner of Superdawg. “You’re not unwrapping like a piece of rolled up wax paper and just eating any old hot dog. You know that when you get that box, you’re eating a Superdawg.”

Superdawg is open 100 hours a week, from 11 a.m.  until 1 a.m. the next morning. The operation closes for only three days a year:  Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.

Customers told WGN News that the quality of the food, and the high level of personal service is what keeps them coming back year after year.

“Once they get here, you can be a cute building, you can be open late, you can be there a long time. But if the food isn’t good, they’re not going to come back,” said Don Drucker, a co-owner of Superdawg.