• Michael Gebert
  • Larry Tucker and his wife Ruby

There’s a tiny “aquarium” smoker, the smallest model I’ve ever seen, in the window of month-old Crazy Bird Chicken in the East Garfield Park neighborhood. But Larry Tucker, a man once celebrated for barbecue back when it hardly existed on the north side, seems ambivalent about using it. “That was here, it wasn’t part of my original concept. But it seems like I’m going to have to incorporate it because the neighborhood people come alive when they smell that smell.” It doesn’t have the capacity for a busy ribs operation, but he thinks he might use it for rib tips and jerk chicken.

A lot of time has passed since then, but he’s held onto fans—when the landlord brought in a couple of experienced restaurant industry contractors to fix up the space, they both turned out to be old N.N. customers. And I’ve been lured here by Bob Reid, a Lakeview pastor who has used Larry’s catering services for years and plainly hopes to see him make a go of this latest place. Today Larry is making us a feast on what he jokingly calls his chef’s table, in back of the bulletproof glass and next to the freezer. And as the name suggests, the main attraction isn’t ribs but fried chicken.

  • Michael Gebert
  • Greens

The chicken lives up to his claims of juiciness throughout, while the collards are missing nothing by not using a pork-based pot likker—and they’re even locally grown, they come from the garden of a friendly neighbor nearby. Which brings us to the neighborhood, on the edge of Douglas Park. Driving west on Roosevelt the area looked burnt-out, post-industrial, but getting closer to California it becomes an obvious bright spot for this section of town, with new social services and medical buildings and schools, and well-kept housing stock. “It’s a great little area,” he says. “This is a safe-zone area, we’re three blocks away from the new FBI building, there’s parking at night and on weekends. It’s a nice little neighborhood that’s on the upswing, and the neighbors on this block are friendly. They’ve really been supportive, and they’re good people.”