- Chandler's ( closed)
- The Stadium Club(closed)
- End Zone ( for sale)*
- McNally's Pub (for sale)
- T.R.'s Pub ( closing)
- Beverly Woods Lounge (Closed)
Ubi Sunt?
The old watering holes of yore are going the way the way of the buffalo, two-tone wing tips, wing tips and 8-tracks. Every time I read the news another hoary saloon with deep roots in my neighborthood's history is either closed, closing, or up for sale.
A micro-brewery opened and Jack Kelly's cardioversion of the fabled Dubliner Pub are oddities among the closings and sales of saloons, pubs and taverns in the 19th Ward.
The passing of the other joints into history's mist is sad, but not mysterious. The bar business is tough in the best of times, but in an age that scorns the morning cocktail and salon as deplorable uses of time and money it is not surprising.
Working men and retirees often would gather in the mornings and early afternoons for a cold one and to catch up on community chatter. This phenomenon has died out, due in no small part to the dangers of driving to a watering and hole and making one's way home. Also, the stigma of meeting up for a pint before the sun's shadow went past yard arm brands a tippler as pathological boozer. As such, bars open later and close earlier than did in days gone bye. Tough to build a decent night deposit on that.
Anyway, saloons are closing all over the Ward.
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