Time stands still in so many ways for the venerable business celebrating its 75th anniversary on the northwest corner of Lincoln and Devon avenues in Lincolnwood, abutting the Chicago city line.
If you didn’t look closely, the layout of Lincolnwood Novelty Golf and its adjacent hot dog stand Bunny Hutch – by which the miniature golf courses are also known – could pass for 1954 or 1974 or 1994. Concessions to modernity of course are found, be it Summer Olympics-themed structures on the golf course or a wider menu than just wieners (no ketchup, please!) at Bunny Hutch compared to mid-20th century.
But tradition of three generations of Klatzco family ownership and throwbacks to postwar life hang heavy right by the busy intersection at which hordes of Baby Boomers through Generation Z have long stopped to putt a golf ball through creative layouts and sate their appetites before or afterward.
“Not many families are running their own business for 75 years,” Craig Klatzco, present overseer of Novelty Golf and Bunny Hutch, said of his throwback maintenance of family-owned businesses that were so much more common a half-century or more in the past.
To mark his business’ endurance, Novelty Golf will host its Diamond Jubilee on Saturday, July 20, and Sunday, July 21.
Guests can enjoy live music from Chicago’s Under the Radar Band on Saturday and Strictly Jugnuts on Sunday with nostalgic throwbacks to the early days of Novelty Golf. The kids’ area will feature face painting and entertainers. Discounted mini-golf at $7.50 per person – compared to the normal admission of $14 — will be offered all weekend with giveaways and a chance to win mini-golf for a year and other prizes.
Klatzco’s business remains one of the few privately-owned miniature golf courses in the immediate area. The likes of Par-King on Dempster Street in Morton Grove are long gone, yielding to luxury apartment complexes. Park districts in Skokie and Niles run their own miniature golf courses.
“There is nothing like us in the area,” Klatzco said, confident of Novelty Golf’s reputation passed down through the generations.
Making short shots through obstacles and replicas of popular culture structures is unchanged at the pair of 18-hole golf courses while Klatzco updates the surroundings. A small Eiffel Tower and Olympic symbols are homage to the Summer Games in Paris. Other mock structures are a Statue of Liberty, a Tardis from “Dr. Who,” a 10-foot-tall Les Paul guitar and a giant figure on the 14th hole approximating the invisible rabbit in the classic movie “Harvey.”
Klatzco also has to keep his ear to the ground for cultural changes affecting his customers.
“Kids today are different,” he said. “This used to be a great date place. Now kids date differently. It’s turned into a great family place. One woman who came here all her life now brings her great grandkids.”
Klatzco also does a steady business from would-be Cody Bellingers at batting cages installed next to the golf courses in 1984. Pitching machines serve up baseballs from both Little League and major-league regulation (60 feet, six inches) distances. A softball machine also is in operation.
While another entrepreneur started Novelty Golf in 1949, Klatzco’s grandmother Rose Klatzco began the notable Hollywood Kiddieland three blocks east at Devon and McCormick the same year. The amusement park was famed for its miniature red fire engines transporting children to birthday parties at the park. The family also owned a small miniature golf course, driving range and batting cages next door on the property later developed into the Lincoln Village Shopping Center.
The Klatzcos sold Kiddieland in 1955, but kept the other entertainment venues. By the 1960s – Craig Klatzco has lost the exact date to history – the family acquired Novelty Golf and the Bunny Hutch building, formerly a dairy and barbecue restaurant.
For while, the 69-year-old Klatzco – who now has son Eric Klatzco and nephew Richie Klatzco working for him – also helped ladle the grill at the Bunny Hutch. But minding a hot dog stand was a full-time job in itself, so a decade ago he leased Bunny Hutch to brothers Tony Zaya of Lincolnwood and Bill Zaya of Park Ridge.The siblings once ran T’s Paisan’s Pizza in the South Side Canaryville neighborhood.
The golf courses and hot dog stand are intertwined, cementing the courses’ identity as “Bunny Hutch Golf” or thereabouts. Tony Zaya estimated 80% of his business is from golf course and batting-cage patrons. Bunny Hutch itself used to close in the fall and winter, but now has the challenge of drumming up hungry customers in the cold weather operating year-round.
The perfect draw is a day “where it’s 65 to 75 and sunshine – everyone comes out,” said Tony Zaya.
“People like a good quality hot dog,” said Bill Zaya, proud of Bunny Hutch being inducted into the Vienna Beef Hall of Fame a few years ago. But more sophisticated palates of 2024 are not just sated by cased meats housed in traditional poppyseed buns. True to their South Side diner roots, the Zayas now offer home-baked thin-crust pizza along with Philly cheese steaks, chicken sandwiches, meatballs, jumbo shrimp and spaghetti.
The menu expands like some waistlines, but the name stays the same. “We could never change the name,” Klatzco said of Bunny Hutch – and also the message of his continuing old-fashioned pastime he will celebrate this month.
