It's Curious City, where we take your questions about Chicago and the region, and investigate, report, explore, from WBEZ.

Hi, I'm Curious City reporter Monica Eng, and I'm here at 103rd and Western on the southwest side in Beverly at a restaurant called

Nikki's Grill and Yogurt Oasis.

I'm here with question asker Connor McNamara.

First, tell me a little bit about this place.

So I grew up just a few blocks from here.

We've been coming here for as long as I can remember.

After I learned how to ride a bike,

we came here for Blue Moon ice cream. The cheese fries are great, pizza puffs, hot dogs, you name it.

As I grew up, I started noticing that there were more Nickies around the south side,

started driving around. It's like, hey, there's Nickies everywhere. And that made me wonder why

there were so many Nickies

and they'll seem to have the same menu, but not necessarily the same decor.

It turns out Conner's on to something.

There are a lot of fast food joints called Nickies all over the South Side,

south suburbs, and even into Northwest Indiana.

But are all of these Nickies part of the same business? No. South Side, South suburbs, and even into Northwest Indiana.

But are all of these Nickies part of the same business?

After several calls, I did find out they're not one big chain.

They seem to have different owners and slightly different names like Nicky's Hiiros,

Nikki's Hot Dogs, and Nicky's Carriots.

But they do have one important thing in common.

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