Chicago Bars and Restaurants With Bizarre Backstories

Like an honest-to-goodness Brunswick mahogany bar or the Schlitz globe adorning the former tied houses dotting Milwaukee and Southport Aves , trace of Chicago ’s history resonate in its architecture . Fittingly , there are a crowd of shoes where you’re able to eat and drink with figurative – and in one case , literal – metropolis ghosts . From speakeasies to erstwhile banks , a mobster societal cabaret , a ghost performance hall , a bagnio , an ice skater warming house , and one household built in 48 hours , here are the strange history of 10 Chicago restaurant and bar locations .

The Bedfordwas a bank (and you can still drink in the vault)

Wicker ParkLiterally anchoring this sprawling lower - layer eating house and cake is the clearest indicator of its origin : a massive coin bank vault where drinkers can sip cocktails amid the walls lined with lockbox . Built in the 1920s , this historic turning point design by Karl M. Vitzthum originally domiciliate the Home Bank & Trust . The name is revolutionize by the outside , build up from limestone mined in Bedford , Indiana . you’re able to also find original panorama of the building ’s design in a few other unexpected spot , such as wooden good - bank deposit corner consider room in the convenience and narrator window used as accent spark in the ceiling of the private dining room .

Sepiaused to have a booby-trapped store room

West LoopThis aptly named Michelin - star restaurant was built in the nineties as a mark workshop . The quad had several other business after the mark shop close – a messenger service up front and an avant - garde theatre in back – but the mark shop class left the most lasting effect on the current owner . During renovation before Sepia opened in 2007 , the possessor unveil a brick room with a safe - same alloy doorway that they determined had probably stored printing plates . What they did n’t know was that the room ’s curved roof also held several long ton of moxie . “ Once demolition of the room start , the Baroness Dudevant filled the way cursorily and the demo had to hold back , ” says owner Emmanuel Nony . “ We suspect that the Baroness Dudevant was put in the ceiling to protect the printing process dental plate from being slip from the unit above . ”

Hideoutwas a 48-hour house turned “bar”

Noble SquareA diminutive two - floor wooden structure palisade on all sides by monumental fabrication adeptness , the Hideout search like – as local stand - up comic Cameron Esposito ring it – the real - biography variation of the firm fromUp . This balloon - frame house was built in the nineties most potential by Irish immigrant , as part of a North Branch planned manufacturing territory . It ’s also call a 48 - hour house – refer how long it took to progress , say owner Tim Tuten . “ On Friday , the workers laid these recollective two - by - four out on ground , breeze through them together and propped up the four sides . On Saturday , they put in siding , on Sunday they put in level and a roof , and on Monday , they went back to oeuvre . And hoped the city inspector did n’t show up . ”

The home begin control as a public house sometime before 1919 , but went wholly off the function at the start of prohibition era . A twelvemonth after intoxicant was decriminalise in 1933 , it was licence as the Hideout Inn and has been operating unceasingly ever since . Now a low-toned - key neck of the woods haunt known for lively music , dance party , Oscar Wilde reading , and offbeat historical reenactments .

Twisted Spokewas where mobsters came to socialize… and enforce

West TownIn 1994 , when Mitch and Cliff Einhorn sign the lease for what would become stouthearted biker stripe the Twisted Spoke , they hear that the owner of the worn - out building withFlintstones - esque stone façade was retired , reputed midlevel mob hatchet man Frank Covello . work up most likely as a garage in the early 1900s , the building was a throttle station and mart before becoming a nigh West Side social club . “ It was a place where city workers could go for a beer while they were allegedly still time in , ” say Mitch . The Einhorn ’s suspiciousness about the building ’s gangster past only grew when they begin destruction .

“ When we opened the trading floor to install new drain lines , we found an 18 in concrete slab underneath , which would commonly be about 4 in , ” he says . “ It took us days to intermit up that concrete . We think somebody might be buried there . Why else would you require an 18 in slab ? ”

Trenchermenwas a working-class bathhouse

Wicker ParkOpened in the 1920s as the Luxor Russian Baths , 2039 W North Ave was a respite for heavily - working immigrants to issue forth for a steam , a nip of vodka and a bowl of borshch after a foresighted workday ( since the old theodolite station – now the Bloomingdale Trail – was just a few blocks aside ) . The construction stay a bagnio until the sixties when the vicinity fell on hard times and it ambled from transeunt hotel to brothel . By the ‘ 90s the city of Chicago pushed in the courts to destroy the then - boarded - up edifice , but it was purchased and converted into apartments on the upper floors and Shawn McClain ’s lauded Spring eating house downstairs . trencherman spread in 2012 , maintaining the original white tile and other pieces of the building ’s past within the space . Though the bath have long intercept running , the drinks still flow like … borscht .

River Roasthoused a wholesale grocer and humidor

River NorthThis riverfront temple to all affair roast sits inside the historical , straggle Reid Murdoch Building . commission by George Simmons , it was built in 1914 for Reid Murdoch & Co. , one of the land ’s largest wholesale grocers . It put up bodied post and warehouse quad , with several floors dedicated to manufacturing and processing cheeses , coffee , tomato ketchup , bread , fish , shekels , and pickles , plus a humidor where tobacco was roll for cigar .

The riverfront location enable ship through a supply chain that connected steamers on the south side to railroad spurs on the north side . Beneath LaSalle St , the building ’s shipping platform was used to lade trucks that delivered to merchant all over the city . It also link with the urban center ’s Downtown freight rate burrow system . The City acquired the building in the 1950s , where it house the traffic court of justice , the State ’s Attorney ’s office and other municipal offices until Friedman Properties buy it in 1998 .

Thalia Hallwas a Bohemian public hall, and some inhabitants never left

PilsenThis striking locus beneath Dusek ’s was commissioned as a public Charles Francis Hall in 1892 by John Dusek with the hopes of bringing artistry and amusement to the smother Bohemian biotic community . sit after the Prague State Opera House , the Charles Francis Hall was made into a watershed in the 1980s , but sat vacant from the sixties till owner Bruce Finkelman and Craig Golden took it over in 2013 . The paranormal activity started as soon as the refurbishment , Finkelman sound out . “ There were these vast , implausibly dense alloy shutters from the original building . We ’d walk in and hear them clanging around , but as soon as you ’d walk into the theatre of operations it ’d blockade . ”

Once Thalia Hall spread out , there were a few spiritual sightings and several composition of frequenter and stave feel a cold bit in the middle of the level . When worker removed the floorboards under that spot for repairs , they expose a pile of bones . Despite all the eerie activity , the ghosts of Thalia Hall are supposedly content , Finkelman says . “ We fetch in a gal who does tarot card and psychic readings to tell us if the presence in here was speculative or good . Her vibe was that there had been some substantial upheaval in this berth , but the spectre seem pretty felicitous with what ’s going on now . ”

Green Door Tavern: one of the last post-Great Fire wooden commercial buildings

River NorthThe year after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 , James McCole establish this two - story balloon - frame wooden structure with a detached bungalow in back just before the city passed a fire codification ordinance prohibiting construction of wooden commercial-grade building in the Central Business District . It begin as a grocery store with the rear cottage acting as life quarter . Vito Giacomo open up a restaurant on the first floor in 1921 ( and many of the original fixtures are still intact ) . Over the years , the restaurant was sold and ultimately rename the Green Door Tavern in a nod to its past tense : a eating house with a green door during Prohibition let patrons know there was a speakeasy inside .

North Pondwas an ice skater warming house

Lincoln ParkBuilt in 1912 , the niggling structure perched at the edge of North Pond in Lincoln Park initially serve as a warming house for ice skaters . Over the yr , it spend sentence as a storage shed , a homeless tax shelter , a natural food for thought store , and a red-hot hot dog stand before disregard took over to the stop where a tree actually make root through the kettle , sometime in the ‘ 90s . Architect Nancy Warren convince restaurateur Richard Mott to negociate with the Chicago Park District for a long - full term lease to apologize the investment required to renovate the edifice , which lead off when he took possession of the derelict space in 1998 . The refurbished pattern that now houses the Michelin - starred eatery and its James Beard accolade - winning chef was modeled after prairie - influenced arts and trade .

Emmit’s Irish Pubhoused a mobster bank and hiding place

River WestThough Emmit ’s open in 1996 , the building at Grand , Milwaukee , and Halsted has formally house a tap house since 1934 , the yr after Prohibition ended . build during the 1890s , the website formerly housed a savings and combine catering to Chicago ’s mafia , during which meter tunnels were purportedly dug from the building to other edifice in the vicinity to serve as hideout or escape routes .

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