Eli's Cheesecake celebrates 46th birthday of Taste of Chicago, centennial of Shannon Rovers
Eli's Cheesecake on Tuesday built a 1,000-pound cheesecake in honor of multiple Chicago traditions.
This year marks the 46th birthday of Eli's Cheesecake itself and of the Taste of Chicago. It also marks the 100th birthday of the Shannon Rovers pipe and drum band.
"Eli's Cheesecake is the only vendor that's been in every Taste of Chicago since July 4, 1980," said Marc Schulman, president of Eli's Cheesecake. "So as part of that celebration, we are preparing this 1,000-pound cheesecake that will be cut and served free to the public on Saturday at Buckingham Fountain."
The cake-cutting ceremony will take place at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. Before the cake cutting, the Shannon Rovers will be part of the entertainment, along with the Jesse White Tumblers, Schulman said.
The 1,000-pound cheesecake tradition dates back to 1987, Schulman said.
The first Taste of Chicago was a single-day event, held only for one day — with that day being the 4th of July. It took place on Michigan Avenue between Ohio Street and the Chicago River, and it was choked with wall-to-wall people.
A Chicago Public Library account notes that restaurateur Arnie Morton, founder of Morton's The Steakhouse, is often credited with launching the idea of the Taste of Chicago. The festival was inspired by the Taste of the Big Apple, which brought restaurant booths and entertainment to New York City's Central Park in 1976 and 1977.
Chicago was also seeing booming success in that era with another festival, ChicagoFest, which brought an array of musicians of every genre to a pre-Ferris-wheel Navy Pier from 1978 through 1982, and to Soldier Field for one more year in 1983.
The Taste of Chicago moved to Grant Park in 1981, and was held there again in 1982 — around the 4th of July both years. In 1983, the Taste had been scheduled for Labor Day weekend, but ended up being canceled, becoming what the Chicago Tribune called "a victim of too many competing events" while suffering from a lack of sponsorship.
But the Taste resumed in 1984, growing in prominence with ChicagoFest having ended. The Taste was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but otherwise has been held every year since.
Eli's Cheesecake was founded by West Side native Eli Schulman, Marc's father. Schulman had taken over Eli's Ogden Huddle diner on the West Side in 1940, and went on to open Eli's Stage Delicatessen in the Gold Coast beginning in 1962.
The senior Schulman opened Eli's The Place for Steak on the present-day site of Lurie Children's Hospital in Streeterville in 1966. Cheesecake became the signature dessert at Eli's The Place for Steak in 1978 with four recipes — original plain, chocolate chip, cinnamon raisin, and Hawaiian, according to the company.
Eli's Cheesecake debuted beyond the restaurant at the first Taste of Chicago in 1980, and Eli's Cheesecake was soon spun off to become its own company. Eli's The Place for Steak closed in 2005, but Eli's Cheesecake proudly carries on.
The Shannon Rovers Irish Pipe Band predates all of the above by many years. It was founded in 1926 by Tommie Ryan, and was originally composed predominantly of Irish immigrants. They began as a fife and drum corps, but switched to bagpipes – or warpipes – in 1932, according to the Shannon Rovers website.
The Shannon Rovers note that they appeared at the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition, played for many U.S. presidents going back to Franklin D. Roosevelt, and played for Pope John Paul II when he visited Chicago in 1979.
The Rovers have also performed at parades around the country and the world. A small group of Rovers even helped Megadeth with some bagpipe music for the 2013 track "Built for War," according to the pipe band's website.
Our CBS Chicago connection: A tip of the hat to Bob Wallace
There is also a CBS Chicago connection to these events and entities that comes down to one famous reporter who is best known for going on adventures around Chicago and beyond, always pointing out that he did it all for Channel 2 News. Bob Wallace covered the first Taste of Chicago in 1980, and said at the time, "From the looks of things, it's a sure winner that will most likely become an annual event."
As it happens, Wallace was also a Shannon Rover. That all started before the Taste of Chicago, when he marched with the pipe and drum corps in one of his many full-immersion feature stories in 1975.
Wallace soon became a full-fledged member, beating the drum for the corps for decades to come. On St. Patrick's Day in 1987, Wallace brought viewers along as he marched with the Rovers for St. Patrick's Day, and practiced along with the bagpipers who needed "leather lungs and nimble fingers" to get their craft right.
Wallace passed away in 2021 at the age of 80.
The Rovers are celebrating their 100th anniversary on Thursday at Soldier Field.
Meanwhile, this year's Taste of Chicago kicks off on Wednesday and runs through Sunday in Grant Park, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day.
