He hasn't. Gold Coast Dogs, the eatery Potekin launched in 1985, has grown to a 15-store citywide chain, ringing up $8.8 million in sales last year. His perfectly charred or boiled Vienna Beef dogs are red hot in the land of da Bulls and da Bears, thanks to strict cooking rules and fresh toppings, including tomatoes, hot peppers and high-end Wisconsin cheese. Windy City scribes Roger Ebert and Ann Landers, who deems the dogs "divine," are regulars. Harrison Ford and Jon Bon Jovi have cut Potekin's mustard. And Gold Coast helped cater Hillary Clinton's 50th-birthday bash last October.
Potekin, 52, wasn't always top dog. He made millions trading gold and silver in the '70s, then lost it all—and his retired parents' savings—when the market crumbled in 1981. "I went from a 14-room house to sleeping on a friend's couch with a quarter in my pocket," he says. He decided on fast food as a new meal ticket. "Hey, I was born and raised in Chicago," he says. "A boiled dog, fries and a Coke. It's in my genes."
Potekin opened his first outlet in downtown Chicago, posting his parents, Thelma and Irv (who died in 1993), at the grill and register. When local papers rhapsodized, "we were off and running," says Potekin, who has two kids, Alan, 10, and Randi, 8, with wife Margo, a teacher. "Nobody had made upscale fast food before." A doggone shame.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
