Bob Chinn (March 2, 1923 – April 15, 2022) was an American

restaurateur A restaurateur is a person who opens and runs restaurants professionally. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who owns a restaurant, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspec ...

. His most well-known creation is Bob Chinn's Crab House, in Wheeling,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, which opened in 1982 and was ranked by ''

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'' magazine in August 2012 as the top grossing restaurant in America with an estimated $24 million in revenue. In a ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' profile he is described as a "brassy, gregarious, outsize personality, operating with the subtlety of a punch to the solar plexus". Chinn was born in Duluth,

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, in 1923 to Chinese immigrant parents from Taishan, Guangdong. He would move with his family during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

where the family owned the New Wilson Village, an Uptown restaurant. Chinn would later serve in the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

as part of an artillery unit during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. After the war he started a number of his own restaurants. Bob Chinn's Crab House is his 14th and most successful establishment and was opened in 1982. He died in April 2022, at the age of 99.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chinn, Bob 1923 births 2022 deaths American people of Chinese descent People from Duluth, Minnesota Military personnel from Minnesota American restaurateurs United States Army personnel of World War II People from Wheeling, Illinois United States Army soldiers Military personnel from Illinois Businesspeople from Minnesota Businesspeople from Illinois 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople Date of death missing