Michael L. Reid
Provided
Michael L. Reid was the only employee at Ditka’s restaurant who could razz its most important client: Da Coach himself, Mike Ditka.
Mr. Reid, a server-turned-manager who greeted customers at the Gold Coast institution, might have pointed out a few additional gray hairs in Ditka’s famous mustache.
“You still work here?” Ditka might have countered.
They kept the shtick going for years, and there was a reason Mr. Reid could get away with it.
He was an unimpeachable mensch, said Paul Woodard, a partner in the restaurant group that owned the eatery before it closed in 2020.