A very kind list member sent me this piece of information. While St Louis slept this transpired.----Jim --------------------------------------------------------------------- Everyone agrees that the old parlor at 814 Pine Street was the major site in O.T. Hodge history, a renown chili haven dating to 1904. Until 1970, there was no need for a lock on the door because the parlor was never closed, said John Eirten, who operates three former O.T. Hodge parlors under the name Big Ed's Chili Mac's. It became one of the most famous walk-in, sit-down, no-matter-what-time-it-is places in the city. It was torn down in 1985. A newspaper account 20 years ago described the Pine Street parlor as an eatery drawing a cross-cultural crowd unlike any other restaurant in St. Louis. "Its white-tiled floors and fluorescent lighting lend to it a cinema noir ambiance that adds a little visual spice to the restaurant's fare and seems to draw a diverse group of diners; they may come from the corporate heavens as well as the unemployment office." And they came late at night or in the early morning hours, sometimes in a bit of a partying fog. Retired Deputy Police Chief James Hackett recalled incidents there that led to brawls, with "hash slingers" calling for help. "It could really be something," he said. "But the chili was really good." Politicians tended to be regulars at Hodge's Chile Parlors, including former St. Louis Circuit Attorney George Peach and one-time Mayor Vincent C. Schoemehl Jr. Peach could be seen almost every morning at the Hodge's parlor in Union Station, which was the first retail facility in the renovated railroad station. Eirten and Brunsen sold the Union Station parlor in 1988, and in September 2001, it closed. Eirten still keeps a letter he received from Mayor Schoemehl in October 1989 thanking him for making his 43rd birthday one of the best: "Having just returned from Europe, a bowl of O.T. Hodge Chile was most welcomed," Schoemehl said. In the peak period of the O.T. Hodge Chile empire there were 16 parlors - here and in East St. Louis and Kansas City. Besides local politicians and muckety-mucks, Hodge's occasionally fed a who's who list of celebrities, including such famed band leaders and musicians as Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Buddy Hackett, Rosemary Clooney and St. Louis' own, Chuck Berry. President Ronald Reagan almost made it to 814 Pine Street in 1982, when he was here to speak to a Jaycees Convention. Reagan sent a note to Eirten saying he was sorry he couldn't make it, after Eirten had previously written to the president about the chili parlor, a place "where real people live," he said. Regardless of the name, real people still live there.