Local chef Jeff Mauro can’t get the framed jerseys that were hanging at his long-gone sandwich shop out his head. He even dreams about them.
In one recent dream, a phantom trap door in the Wicker Park restaurant Pork & Mindy’s, which shut down in 2019, led him down to a bin where three of his four gone-but-not-forgotten jerseys were — Cubs, Blackhawks and White Sox jerseys with his last name emblazoned on the back, plus a Cubs one that read “Sandwich King.”
But try as he might, he couldn’t get the framed jerseys up the ladder back into the light of day.
The reality is those jerseys are still missing. And though the Food Network star has tried over the last five years to find them since the sandwich shops shuttered in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing, he’s more determined than ever to find them.
The jerseys have special meaning for him. He earned them after throwing the ceremonial first pitch at White Sox and Cubs games and shooting the puck during a Blackhawks game in 2015.
“These were special moments. My family was there, my son,” to whom he would like to gift the jerseys if they ever turn up, he said.
Mauro posted on Reddit last week seeking leads. While nothing has panned out quite yet, he’s hoping someone knows something that will lead to their safe return — and has offered to “shower” anyone with tips that pan out in meat and giardiniera.
“Someone’s gotta have them. They’re unique enough to stand out, either they’re in a vintage shop, or framed on someone’s walls,” Mauro said.
“I’ll pay somebody for them if they bought it at an auction or whatever,” he said. “It’s my family name, and I want to hand it down to my son, and I want it in my house.”
He last saw the jerseys in fall 2019. He was mid-flight back from a trip to Abu Dhabi entertaining U.S. troops that November when he learned that Pork & Mindy’s had gone bankrupt from a text from his wife. The impact on him was intense, he said.
“I was sad and scared that this would ruin my career and relationships in the industry,” he said.
He was so shocked that he didn’t think about going back “to grab my precious mementos. Then next thing [the building is] locked, it’s for sale, it’s vacant.”
Quoting one of his favorite movies, “The Big Lebowski,” Mauro said “it’s a complicated case.” He tried calling the listing agent that was on the for sale sign on the building, which led nowhere. Then he talked with Segal, who told him she never saw them after she set up shop, he recalled. After posting on Reddit, commenters chimed in, going so far as to post links to the original listing and the buyer and seller.
After the abrupt closure of Pork & Mindy’s, the Season 7 winner of “Next Food Network Star” has kept busy, including filming “The Kitchen,” now in its 38th season on Food Network and launching Mauro Provisions, a line of “Chicago-centric” foods such as Italian beef kits and giardiniera.
Mauro, who was born and raised in the Oak Park-River Forest area where he still lives, has a busy schedule between leading Mauro Provisions and shooting “The Kitchen,” but he is firmly planted in the Chicago area.
“I want to raise my son where I was raised, literally in the same neighborhood, going to the same schools, around the same amount of cousins and families,” he said. “I wouldn’t give it up for anything.”