Tom Tunney, the owner of Ann Sather’s says, “You can eat at home or you can eat at Ann Sather’s.” In fact, it is not uncommon to see several generations dining here together. Many of our customers have been dining with us for 50 years and longer! Ann Sather’s has earned the loyalty and longevity of our guests. We serve everything as though it was prepared just for you!
Yes, there really was an Ann Sather. Ann Sather grew up in the Scandinavian town of Osnabrock, a town known for its cooking. Ann learned how to cook from her mother whose strawberry-rhubarb pies were known for miles around. After high school, Ann moved to Chicago and worked for her uncle at Lundy’s Wholesale Meats.
For 21 years she saved her money and in 1945 bought a Swedish diner on Belmont Avenue for $4000. For over 35 years, Ann made the guests, the staff and the suppliers her family. She nurtured this ‘family’ and turned an old neighborhood coffee shop into the legendary institution it is today.
“I knew I had good cooking sense,” Ann recalled, “although I wasn’t a professional chef.” So Ann learned how to make each recipe from scratch. Eventually she came to rely on others to do the cooking, since the restaurant quickly became more popular than it ever had been under the previous owners. But Ann handled the baking duties herself, making the cinnamon rolls and the luscious desserts for which she became justly famous.
The “welcome home” hospitality and hearty Swedish fare that Ann offered her guests were the primary reasons they came back so often, but innovations like air conditioning and a hamburger grill didn’t hurt.
Ten years later, Ann outgrew her location and had the opportunity to move into a larger space just a few doors east at 925 West Belmont. She could seat 30 more people there, and even that expansion didn’t always provide enough room at suppertime. Ann was no longer learning the restaurant business from the kitchen up; she was a successful restauranteur and people from all over Chicago visited the establishment that now carried her name.
Not one to tamper with success, Ann kept the menu and the reputation for “just good food at the right prices” consistent. “If our customers liked something, I’d never change it,” she said. Even today, Ann Sather restaurants use many of the same time-honored recipes that Ann first learned in 1946.
Tom Tunney, Owner
In 1981, after searching for a successor who would meet her stringent demands for quality and devotion to her patrons, Ann sold the restaurant to Tom Tunney, a 24 year-old graduate of the Cornell University School of Hotel and Restaurant Management. Tom apprenticed with Ann for a year learning the business from top to bottom. Tom, a Southside Irish lad with French culinary training, was learning all of the best Scandinavian cooking secrets in town.
Over the past 22 years, Tom has expanded the business to include the most famous breakfast in town, several neighborhood cafes and downtown bakeries and Ann Sather Catering is renowned for its cocktail parties, wedding receptions, banquets and deliveries!
Ann Sather's has also been instrumental in serving the community with its generous support of local organizations and causes. As Tom says, “my business is a two way street. We have to take care of each other.”
Now in 2003, as we approach our 60th anniversary, Ann Sather and her restaurant are legends. Tom Tunney is the recently elected 44th Ward Alderman. Even with his busy schedule, don’t be surprised to see him greet you at the door or find him cooking all of the breakfast orders on a Sunday morning. He is still the heart of our family and Ann herself looks over us all, smiling from her portrait above the mantle.
“I am excited to be continuing the rich history and traditions set by Ann Sather and Tom Tunney. Ann Sather's is more than a meal, it is an experience. My goal is to make Ann Sather's better than ever, one cinnamon roll at a time.”
