A Brief History

         We big banged in 1977 as a tiny sub shop selling 5 different subs, homemade fries and fountain pop.  Our name was Starship Subs.  It was cold out and the country was in a recession so we started making soup and became Starship Restaurant!  Our menu now boasted 11 cold subs, beef, sausage, chicken and over 120 homemade types of soup!   ​In 2015 we added BYOB for our restaurant diners.  Also adding a an alcohol beverage service to our catering and are now Starship Restaurant Catering & Events!  Live Long & Prosper!  ​

Our motto "Keep the Customers Interest as our Best Interest"
and  "Serve only what we like to Eat"

Throughout the years, we have grown to what we hope of a different dining experience.
Come in, or call for a quote. We aim to please!  

​​LOCAL HERO by Mary Win Connor 
Originally published in the Forest Park Post.
 
The story starts at Starship Restaurant when a guy walks in and orders a half of a Lanasa. (For the non-foodies reading this, the Lanasa is their Italian sub sandwich.)  The customer tells the owner, Paul that he has been wanting one of these for over a year; ever since he had one Fallujah, Iraq. Since Paul knows he doesn’t have a store there, he asks how the guy came upon a Lanasa in Fallujah.  It seems the customer and his fellow soldiers were on duty and had worked a very long, hot 48 hour stretch. Their commanding officer, who happened to be from Maywood, had kept them going by saying that when they were done he would treat them to a great sandwich and cold beer. Since intense desert heat can really affect the brain, the soldiers believed him.  Fortunately, their faith was justified and the reward divine when the promised meal was delivered.  Apparently the CO’s wife had gotten together with some other Angels of Mercy to buy sandwiches, shrink wrapped them and send them overnight to Iraq to be served to some very lucky soldiers. So when the job was done our hero sat down to what he termed the best meal of his life. After eating canned rations for quite a while, a Starship sub is definitely manna from heaven.
 
As if this wasn’t enough to make Paul’s day, when he asked the guy his name so they could call out to him when the sandwich was ready, his response was, “Curtis, or you can call me Sergeant Mayfield.” Paul commented that he must have been named after the singer, Curtis Mayfield.  To which the soldier replied, “Yes, he was my dad.”
 
Paul already knew he had a story to tell about a soldier coming back from Fallujah to seek out the restaurant that served the best meal he had eaten in his two tours of Iraq; but finding out that said soldier was Curtis Mayfield’s son made the story seriously newsworthy.   I was the writer fortunate enough to be chosen to interview Paul’s illustrious customer.
 
Sergeant Mayfield was born in St. Louis to a young woman who had spent several years following Curtis Mayfield as he toured the country performing his music.  At the time of his birth, Mayfield’s mother was silent as to the father of her child.  When she returned to following the band, her mother took the child in.  At the age of 3, when the young boy’s head began to sprout gray hairs, his grandmother started researching possible causes.  She discovered that early onset of gray hair can be genetic.  Further research indicated that early onset of gray hair ran in the Mayfield family.  Compelled by a desire to give young Curtis a man to call father, his grandmother contacted Curtis Mayfield’s mother who took one look at the boy and declared him a Mayfield.  His birth certificate was amended and the boy whose mother had called him Allan was now known as Curtis. 
 
Eventually Curtis’s wild child mother decided to settle down and moved herself and her son to Maywood where he attended Proviso East.  His future life path started with entry in the ROTC program along with pursuit of his musical heritage when he joined the highly acclaimed Proviso East Band.  Having already learned to play trumpet, tuba and saxophone by ear it was revealed in band class that he had a natural aptitude for reading music.  It was also during his high school years that he established a modest relationship with his father.  The goal was never to seek fame or fortune, just a genetic connection. 
 
After graduation Mayfield enlisted in the United States Army traveling Europe in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. In 2006 he began his first tour of Iraq as part of the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, known as the “Four Two.” 
 
He retired earlier this year at the end of his second tour in Iraq.  Four years of the hell that is a war zone had taken its toll on him and his first goal was locating a place where he could find the peace and serenity that his soul needed to heal.  He found it at the Philadelphia Church of God on Chicago’s West Side.  There he met Deacon Carter a fellow military veteran who is currently being treated for kidney failure at Hines VA.  Since, like many folks these days, Sergeant Mayfield has been unable to find a job, he took Deacon Carter up on the offer of a place to stay in return for some help working on Carter’s house in Oak Park.  What started as a kind gesture has turned into a deep friendship.  He works on the house and drives Carter to and from his treatments at Hines.  “It’s becoming obvious that he’s going to need a kidney donation and I haven’t told him yet, but I plan on donating mine.” revealed Mayfield, “After seeing my fellow soldiers die right in front of me for years, I want to be part of giving someone life.”
 
I walked away from my lunch with Sergeant Mayfield feeling very privileged to have been given the opportunity to spend time with this very unique person.  What started as a fun story about a soldier enjoying a sandwich halfway around the world turned into a glimpse into the life of a caring, compassionate man.  From his unusual parentage to his current circumstances, the story could have turned out very differently.  The media is full of stories about kids who fell apart because they did not have a Beaver Cleaver lifestyle.  I’ve always known there was another side to that coin and I am eternally grateful to have finally seen it in person.
 
Thank you Sergeant Mayfield for your time, your story and your service to our country.  May the rest of your life be as blessed as you have made the lives of others.
 
You can’t make this stuff up.