In search of the pure food beer (Courtesy of June Sawyers.)
Scottish by birth and a Chicagoan by heart, June Sawyers has written more than 25 books.
Her prolific catalog includes “Praying With Celtic Saints, Prophets, Martyrs, and Poets,” “Dreams of Elsewhere: Selected Travel Writings of Robert Louis Stevenson” and a couple of my favorites, “Bob Dylan: New York” and “Racing in the Street: The Bruce Springsteen Reader.” She teaches at the Newberry Library in Chicago.
I’ve known Sawyers for many years.
I did not peg her as a beer person.
But she has just released “Chicago Beer (A History of [...]
Phyllis Jaskot at her bar, early 1960s (Courtesy of the Jaskot family.)
In a city known for unique taverns, Phyllis’ Musical Inn, 1800 W. Division, is the full dance card.
Phyllis and Clem Jaskot Sr. opened their Chicago bar in 1954. The club has since taken on at least three historic personalities: the cornerstone of a 1950s polka music strip known as “Polish Broadway,” a minimalist country-rock club that in the 1980s featured live sets from Souled American, Green and many others, and now, the last interesting drinking establishment on gentrified Division Street.
Beloved matriarch Phyllis Jaskot [...]
Two views of the Matchbox, with David & Jackie (upper black and white). Photo by Anthony Mata.
A good bar is a rich collection of loose change.
The patrons are a deep pocket of old and young, nickels and dimers, half dollars and occasional slugs.
The Matchbox, 770 N. Milwaukee, is my lucky penny.
I’ve been going to the Matchbox since 2000. I was breaking up with a girlfriend in Palmer Square and the Matchbox was my shrink couch on the way home to my place in the West Loop. Things change. I fell in love again at the Matchbox. Life moves on.
And the Matchbox was sold last week.
Owners [...]
Wanda at her bar working on her lotto numbers (Joe Bryl photo.)
As you get older the world moves faster.
And you look for things to hold on to.
That was the case with Wanda Kurek. She was the beloved owner-operator of Stanley’s, 43rd and Ashland on the south side of Chicago.
Stanley’s was the last tavern of the infamous Whiskey Row near the Union Stock Yards. Wanda died on Tuesday at the age of 95. She had been in declining health after suffering a fall last autumn.
During the 1920s more than 45,000 people worked on the 350-acre stockyards site. My Dad was one of them. So was blues-folk musician [...]
