Max and Benny's

History & Trivia / Max and Benny's

When Max and Benny's founder Lester Schlan opened the doors at his suburban deli in December, 1985, he had already spent a lifetime in the food business. After graduating from the University of Illinois, he opened a coffee house and Deli in Champaign, IL, before moving on to open a wildly successful record store in Urbana, IL.xx

Obviously an entrepreneur at heart, he ended up coming back to Chicago with a vision. "I was in Northbrook and realized that there was no Deli around that had lox and corned beef, so I figured I'd start one." He ended up buying the old Bagel Nosh space, where he and his staff made everything from scratch, including their none-better bagels. Upon discovering that the name he planned to give his new enterprise was already taken, he looked no further than his two young sons. "Max and Benny were five, and two year-olds. I had my wife hold them and take a picture, gave it to an artist, and ended up with our logo." Max and Benny's (the restaurant) was born!

After eight years in that initial location, the operation outgrew the space, so Schlan started looking for a new location. "I found this strip mall right in the middle of the North Shore, and people made fun of me for moving there, but we've been packed ever since the move in 1994," Schlan states.

He credits his success in a difficult industry to several key factors. Firstly, a passion for food; Schlan recalls, "My grandmother cooked for the family, and made mostly Jewish food, and my father always liked deli food, so visiting delis on Devon Avenue was a big part of my life as I grew up. I appreciated, early on what quality meant." Secondly, "My wife, Rhea and my boys have been a great support to me, no matter the ups and downs, and Rhea has put up with me working seven days a week for all these years."

Some interesting Max and Benny's trivia:

• We serve over 30 Metric Tons of Corned Beef every year
• We use enough Mustard to cover 8 football fields each year
• We purchase over 300,000 pounds of Flour every year
• Since the first day that Lester Schlan opened the doors, Max and Benny’s has made enough Chicken Soup to fill 2 Olympic sized swimming pools (Not even counting the Matzo Balls!)
• We make 1 kilometer’s length of Kishke each year
• We make enough Bagels every year to provide the population of Northbrook (2005 Census) with one dozen bagels per person
• We serve over fourteen thousand pounds of Lox every year (That's enough Salmon to inhabit one of the large tanks at the Shedd Aquarium).