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Speaking of which, a round of bowling costs you $40 per lane per hour. The dumbwaiter that carried drinks upstairs to the women and their, um, clients is in the area where you now rent your bowling shoes. In 1922, with Prohibition in effect and the bar now a speakeasy (complete with second-floor brothel), bowling lanes were put in - "Gave it an air of legitimacy," owner Steve Soble said - and Southport Lanes was born.
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The building was one of several Schlitz tied-houses around town dating to the early 1900s, and the bar, serving only Schlitz beer, was called The Nook. Southport Lanes, which opened in 1922, is in an original Schlitz Brewery tied-house. But live jazz, that you can hear nightly. A door behind the bar leads to an underground tunnel used back then to move alcohol, and no, you can't go in. Thus, during Prohibition, the booze flowed. There was the lounge (that's the original neon sign hanging outside), an upstairs ballroom, an adjoining restaurant and the outdoor gardens, according to Dave Jemilo, Green Mill's owner since 1986. The storied jazz bar opened in 1910 as part of a larger entertainment complex called the Green Mill Gardens. Argue all you want about this, maybe over a beer.Īl Capone was a regular at the Green Mill. So, for consistency's sake, our list is based on the year a bar was founded under its current name. The owner didn't return calls for comment.
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Harbee Liquors & Tavern in Pilsen might have made the cut - the building has been around since the 1870s - but with owner Steve Frytz facing back taxes and his liquor license in limbo, the lights are off there, possibly for good.Īnother curious case: Chipp Inn, a cash-only, drinks-only bar in a brick-front frame house on a quiet corner in Noble Square that might be the oldest bar in Chicago, if you believe the stories.įramed photos and receipts in the back room indicate it has been a bar since at least the 1920s, run by the Kruzel family for decades, but bartenders there say it goes back further to 1874 - though they're not sure where exactly that year comes from or whether it was always called the Chipp Inn. Kasey's went through a few iterations and name changes, too - a sit-down restaurant called George's Busy Bee, then Chester's Lounge, then Bernie's 701 Club - until Casmir Weglarz bought it and renamed it Kasey's Tavern in 1974, current owner Bill White said. But it only became Marge's in 1955, after a woman named Marge Landeck (or Lendeck or Lednick - the newspapers at the time couldn't decide on one spelling) took it over. Sedgwick St., where Marge's is, since 1885, general manager Meg Comstock said. There's been a pub of some sort at 1758 N. You'll eat well at all three.Īnd where is Marge's Still, the Old Town watering hole, or Kasey's Tavern in the South Loop, both of which, it's been said, date to the 1880s? It's true they're very old, but they belonged in our roundup of the city's oldest restaurants. You might wonder why Schaller's Pump, the Berghoff and Green Door Tavern are missing from this list. The neon sign above Gold Star Bar in West Town still announces "Furnished Rooms," for rent by the hour during the building's seedy hotel days, owner Mary Ann Reid said.