Something reeks, and it's not the saerkraut.

The closing of the Berghoff restaurant after 107 years of operation in downtown Chicago garnered a lot of media attention, along with a lot of wistful reminiscing about demise of the culinary landmark. “Oh, no…first Marshall Fields and now this?” mourned many of the city’s self-appointed historians.

I learned the other day, however, that the Berghoff didn’t really close at all. Rather, it’s now reopened, albeit with some remodeling, as the Berghoff Café. The owners passed it on to their daughter, who is using it as the headquarters of her catering business. You can still go to the cafe for Berghoff beer and wiener schnitzel...if you really want to. But the food might leave a bad taste in your mouth. Apparently a main impetus for the restaurant's closing, re-opening, and name change was that the Berghoff was thus able to lay off its entire union staff, many of whom had worked at the restaurant for decades. Some were re-hired as non-union busboys. Former employees have since sued the restaurant for non-payment of pension contributions.