The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Drink it in Its bars and breweries tell of Chicago’s history, especially with a History on Tap walking tour
Visiting Chicago taverns with Liz Garibay is a painless way to discover aspects of Chicago’s history and to meet ghosts of those from the past who hung out in its bars — from Frank Sinatra to Anthony Bourdain.
Garibay’s and Bourdain’s favorite among Chicago’s many bars was the Old Town Ale House, one of the taverns included in her History on Tap walking tour. It was, in fact, the day after Bourdain’s June 8 death when our group headed that way. But news crews and crowds who knew of Bourdain’s long friendship for bar owner Bruce Elliott crowded into the bar at 219 W. North Ave. that Roger Ebert called “the best dive bar in the world.” It’s near Second City.
Bourdain devoted two segments on two of his “Parts Unknown” TV shows to the iconic dive. “It’s really what’s missing in my life,” he said on one of the segments. “I need an oldman bar.”
Others apparently agree because everyone flocks to the Old Town Ale House day and night and religiously log into bar owner Bruce Elliott’s blog, at brucecameronellitt.blogspot.com.
Our walking tour — which had become a driving tour because of rain showers — had to pass on the Old Town Ale House that day because of the crowds there raising glasses to Bourdain. But that leaves all of us with a good reason to return to Chicago and sign up for another of Garibay’s History on Tap tours,
Ours was a daytime tour — admittedly not the best time of day to visit an assortment of dive bars, most of which look much grungier and less atmospheric by daylight.
Drinks are not included on the three-hour tours, which cost $25 and include visits to as many as five bars and breweries. The number of bars often depends upon how many drinks are ordered by participants — at
their own expense. All the taverns are packed with elements of history from Chicago’s past and give insight into its future.
We began at the Twin Anchors Tavern, at 1655 N Sedgwick St. in Chicago’s Old Town — begun in 1881 and believed to be the oldest bar in town.
It’s in a leafy, old-timey neighborhood that back in the day was at the edge of Chicago. It, too, is not far from Second City and has, over the years, been a hangout for many of the crew and cast members. But it’s still got the feel of a neighborhood bar.
“People, especially immigrants, congregated in bars back then to meet each other and drink together,” Liz told us. “This place in the 1880s was also a grocery store and butcher shop.”
She showed us the secret door where patrons escaped from raids during Prohibition in the ‘20s and ‘30s.
That’s when it first became popular as a restaurant.
In 1923, ownership of the old bar passed into the hands of a pair of harbormasters, who gave it the name Twin Anchors.
“The owners lived upstairs, and on Sundays, which were considered family days, their wives made meatloaf and other dishes for Sunday dinner,” she said.
The place became known for its ribs in the 1940s, and that was the period in which Frank Sinatra came
to hang out.
“He had a phone both installed in the first booth on the left in the dining room so he could stay in touch with other members of the Rat Pack,” she said. “He locked it when he left.
Photos on the bar’s walls show earlier visitors, including actors Valerie Harper, Chris Farley and Jason Alexander.
The Twin Anchors still is known for its rib dinners and for being one of the places where drinkers can take what’s called the “Chicago Handshake.” It’s basically a shot and a beer, but the shot is of Jeppson’s Malort, a liquor invented in the last century by a Swede in Chicago and made of wormwood, called malort in Swedish. Wormwood is also the root of absinthe,
The Twin Anchors still is known for its rib dinners and for being one of the places where drinkers can take what’s called the “Chicago Handshake.”
which was outlawed for many years because of its reputation for causing hallucinations.
The Chicago Handshake is a shot of Jeppson’s chased with a slug of Old Style beer, and it’s still a mainstay of
Twin Anchors drinkers. I abstained.
Garibay’s popular tours result from her belief that taverns, beer history and drinking cultures are useful and familiar tools to teach diverse audiences about a city’s past. She’s an anthropologist who has held positions at the Field Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University and the Chicago History Museum.
Abraham Lincoln, who often visited Chicago, was nominated for president at the Republican National Convention, which was hosted there in 1860. The convention took place in a building called the Wigwam, which was previously the location of one of Chicago’s oldest bars.
“Lincoln didn’t drink,” Garibay told us. “But he never spoke out against it and always had alcohol at his dinner parties because others wanted to partake.”
For nearly two decades, she’s been researching records, collecting oral histories and collaborating with experts to provide factual historic information to anyone wanting to learn about history in a fun and social way.
She founded History on Tap in 2002 and has since curated and written the exhibit “Beer Chicago” for the Elmhurst History Museum. She’s founder of the proposed Chicago Brewseum, which, when it’s built, will have a rooftop bar.
“There is something magical about sharing a beverage while sharing conversation about history,” she said.
Conversation among those on her forays into Chicago’s bar history strike up many interesting subjects during the History on Tap tour, including conjectures on how the many craft beers got their names and stories turned legends about famous patrons of the past.