By: Jordan Mann
Brendan O’Connor, a fan of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, was trying to think of something he could do to promote the campaign in addition to canvassing. He decided to re-brand his restaurant, Big Guys Charbroiled Sausages, at 7021 Roosevelt Road in Berwyn, Illinois, by changing the name to Bernie’s, at least during the Illinois democratic primary.
In addition to the name change O’Connor added menu items: “The Bern” a homemade corned beef on marble rye for $10.95, “The Trump”, a cocktail wiener for $19.99 and “The Hillary Sausage”, changes every hour on the hour, auctioned to the highest bidder.
O’Connor said he has been interested in politics for as long as he can remember. His mother was a teacher from a union family and liberal, his father a CPA for Northrop Grumman was conservative. O’Connor obviously took after his mother. He pointed out, “In my family if you have to pick a side you better know what the heck you are talking about” so he studied up on politics.
Big Guy’s sausage stand is named after Bill Davis, a Vietnam War veteran, union leader and anti-war activist. Davis was also the father of a close friend of O’Connor’s, they used to go to Bears games together, tailgate and “eat sausage with other union guys.”
This was not O’Connor’s first attempt at making a political statement with his restaurant. Last year he read about an Indiana pizza parlor that used a Go Fund Me page to raise money after losing business when they stated they would not cater gay weddings following the passage of Indiana’s religious freedom bill. As a joke, O’Connor started a Go Fund Me page to raise funds for a “non-bigoted restaurant.” The page raised over $2000.00, which was used to throw a fundraiser for a charity helping LGBT youth. O’Connor wants everyone to know, Big Guy’s will be happy to cater any big gay wedding.
On a side note, The Bern is just about the best corned beef sandwich I have ever tasted, and I have eaten a lot of corned beef.
