Remembering Jack Casto, Longtime Owner/Bartender At Ken's

CHICAGO, IL — The Beverly neighborhood lost a one-of-a-kind personality earlier this month when Jack Casto, a longtime familiar face at Ken's Restaurant, lost his battle with cancer. While Casto is physically gone, his memory never will be. Friends gathered recently to remember their late friend at Ken's, where he was a familiar face for decades.

"I felt like a daughter to him," said Tammy Kelley, a waitress who has been at Ken's for the last 20 years. "He would help me through the hard times and the good times."

Casto was involved with several restaurants on the South Side since the 1950s, when Ken's opened under the ownership of his uncle, Ken Courtright. Years later, Casto himself became the owner of Ken's and even stayed on as a bartender there after selling the restaurant at 105th and Western a few years ago.

"He always had me coming back," said Jim Joyce, a regular at Ken's.

Casto's legacy goes beyond his generosity. He kept a unique personality that was hard not to like.

"I think he thought he was still 21 sometimes," Kelley said. "He could always party like he was 21 and hang out with anybody."

"He always had a defective clock," Joyce added with a laugh. "It was hard for him to tell if it was day or night."

Friends and co-workers would remember how he always kept his money in a rubber band, would lick his fingers while counting it quickly and how he loved his Coors Light.

Nicole Podgorak, a Ken's waitress who knew Casto for four years, remembers when some of the Ken's crew dressed up as him for Halloween.

"They would call him Jack O'Lantern," Podgorak said. "You know you are someone when people dress up like you for Halloween."

Whether he knew you a lot or knew you a little, anyone who knew him felt like his friend.

"A lady just told me about how she would only come in once in awhile, but that Jack would always remember her name," Kelley said.

"Whenever someone walked in, he would say 'What's up, pal?' and slam your beer on the bar. Everyone was his pal."

Louise Krylowicz, another Ken's waitress, describes the mood at the restaurant over the past few weeks as "sad and happy all at once" since Casto's death has brought out more and more memorable stories.

Casto was remembered after his May 4 death at a funeral mass at Christ The King Church, the parish neighborhood where he grew up. From cradle to grave, Casto was a proud South Sider.

While he lived much of his adult life in Oak Lawn and "attended mass everywhere," Kelley said having the funeral at Christ The King "was like bringing him home."

The proud Mount Carmel High School alum was indeed "brought home" by many other Caravan alum in attendance at the funeral who gathered in the center aisle to sing the school's fight song with Casto in attendance one last time.

"There wasn't a sorrowful part that whole day," Joyce said of the day of the mass. "It was joyful at Christ the King, and then everyone came here (to Ken's) and it became even more joyful."

More Casto stories and his full eulogy will be shared on “The Skinny & Houli Show” from 3-4 p.m. on WCEV 1450AM on Saturday, May 26, according to The Beverly Review.

Kelley said that while smiles always come no matter who talks about him at the bar, it has felt a bit "empty" there without him.

"People miss him so much," she said. "He treated everyone like gold."

Photos provided