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It was hand-delivered by Maid-Rite owner Richard Beilke.
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Richard Beilke bought the Maid-Rite restaurant on La Crosse’s north side in 1990. At one time, according to Beilke, there were about 400 Maid-Rites in the country. His is one of about 80 that remain. PETER THOMSON photo |
That’s the kind of guy Beilke is, Harnisch said.
Beilke said people such as Harnisch — a restaurant regular who has become a friend — are the reason he opens Maid-Rite each day.
“The people make it worthwhile. I’ve made a lot of friends,” Beilke said. “You get to know them really well. They get to be like family.”
He introduces himself as Richard, but everyone calls him Dick in the small restaurant at 1119 Caledonia St., which is as well-known for its atmosphere as its loose-meat sandwiches.
At Maid-Rite, customers surround the horseshoe-shaped counter and cram into the four booths to talk mutual funds, presidential candidates, declining gas prices and the weather. It’s a place where the daily specials still are written on a dry-erase board in black marker.
Beilke’s father introduced him to Maid-Rite in 1938, when a sandwich and malt cost a quarter. Growing up in Illinois, Beilke knew he’d always be a fan but never an owner.
He was born in Chicago in 1932 and spent his first three years in an orphanage until Charles and Ruth Beilke adopted and raised him as an only child on their farm south of Rockford, Ill.
Beilke smiles as he remembers a runt pig his uncle gave him at 10 years old.
“He followed me like a dog,” he said. “We’d play hide-and-seek, and I’d hide and he’d find me and just squeal.”
The family left the farm in 1948 and moved to Rockford because Beilke’s father wanted the Social Security guaranteed with a position in the farm bureau. After high school, Beilke enlisted with the U.S. Army at 18 years old in March 1951.
“It was the thing to do at the time,” he said.
He was shipped off to a base in Hawaii and then Korea for nine months. He can only describe his time in the Korean War as “tough.”
Beilke was sent to several Alabama military bases until he was discharged in 1954 and took a job as an electrician with Sundstrand, a manufacturer of hydraulic pumps.
He spent 25 years as an electrician and maintenance supervisor at a Chrysler plant in Belvedere, Iowa, before retiring in 1985.
The idea of opening a Maid-Rite franchise had crossed his mind, and Beilke approached the company’s owners. They encouraged him to consider Madison, which Beilke dismissed.
“Their zoning laws are tough,” he said.
In 1989, he met with the owner and president of Maid-Rite at the La Crosse location that had closed six months earlier. He bought the business in July and began renovations on the 114-year-old building.
“The kitchen wall was painted black. It was awful,” he said.
Beilke opened the restaurant on Jan. 3, 1990 and fought to win back the clientele that was lost during its six month closure.
The walls were bare back then. Now they’re covered in local railroad memorabilia to celebrate Beilke’s childhood fascination. He fought the corporate Maid-Rite people to keep the decorations.
“I told them I’ve got people coming in to see them,” he said.
As owner, Beilke makes about 100 sandwiches daily, while juggling management duties of supervising a staff of eight and paying the bills. He’s in at 7 a.m. and leaves about 8 p.m., but takes breaks during the day.
He points to his stomach to illustrate he still eats three to four sandwiches a week, each with mustard, pickles and onions. Beilke won’t divulge the recipe, but suggested it’s a combination of quality meat and special spices.
Business is tough in a struggling economy, but Beilke said the restaurant is surviving. It’s been through tough times before.
“We’ve gone through all the business cycles you can imagine,” he said.
At 76 and with debilitating arthritis, Beilke, a father of two boys, can’t ignore the idea of moving on from Maid-Rite.
“I think about retiring all the time. When I wake up, I ache so bad,” he said. “But when would I see my friends if I’m not here?”
