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Gasp! Ketchup Offered At Macy's Hot Dog Cart

CHICAGO (CBS) -- In what may be taken as another affront to Chicago tradition – the store that used to be Marshall Field's was operating a hot dog cart Friday that offered ketchup as a condiment.

The Macy's Chicago flagship store, at 111 N. State St., had a hot dog cart operating for the lunchtime crowd Friday in the Pedway just outside the entrance to the food court area.

The cart had all the fixings – Vienna beef hot dogs, poppyseed buns, sport peppers, sweet pickle relish, kosher pickle spears, chopped onions and tomatoes.

But there, sitting next to the obligatory mustard bottle, stood a red squeeze bottle of that very un-Chicagoan hot dog condiment, ketchup. And it wasn't just for special requests -- those who ordered hot dogs would find the vendor offering it with all the other fixings.

But it might have seemed like adding celery salt to the wound for some Chicagoans who remain unhappy about the decision to drop the Marshall Field's name in favor of Macy's back in 2006.

In fact, the group that led protests against the nearly 5-year-old change, Field's Fans Chicago, remains active. And the group says in a survey it conducted last month, 79 percent of respondents would rather have the Marshall Field's name back.

While preparing for the transition from Field's to Macy's in 2006, another un-Chicagoan mistake appeared – that time in the form of floor-plan maps found inside the store.

As CBS 2 reported at the time, the maps showed three of the streets bordering the store as "Washington Avenue," "Randolph Avenue," and "Wabash Street." But as any Chicagoan knows, it's actually Washington Street, Randolph Street and Wabash Avenue.

And as for hot dogs, even President Barack Obama said you shouldn't put ketchup on them.

Macy's, of course, is a New York-based company that caters to many markets across the country, including some where ketchup on hot dogs may, in fact, be the prevailing taste.

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Adam Harrington, cbschicago.com

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