How about Roma’s (corner of Webster & Sheffield)? Counter and booths. Great burgers and fountain. Don’t know when it closed, but in the 1960’s it was a real favorite in the neighborhood, especially with the DePaul Academy students.
And just south of Romas on the west side if Sheffield was an Italian bakery, name escapes me. Oh, the warm bread! Anyone recall its name? I think it was open into the late 1970’s.
I think we all have to accept reality and begin the grieving process; I’d bet a lot of money that The Red Lion is gone for good.
The plan was to demolish the building for condos, with a “new” Red Lion at street level in the building. The closing coincided neatly with the crash in housing prices, and since they haven’t even begun demolition on the existing structure, my guess is that the project fell through.
Personally, I’d love it if somebody with more money than sense would buy the place, do whatever was necessary to make the building usable, and re-open it with Colin behind the bar again, but I just don’t see this happening. Sometime soon they’ll create a TIF district to get rid of the “blight” that is the Red Lion and a developer will get a nice sweet deal from the city to put up some generic condos with an Applebee’s at street level.
I remember Oddo’s of course - our neighborhood pizza joint.
Peter Pan Burgers on Lincoln Avenue.
The Black Angus on Western Avenue
Prince Castle Ice Cream
Peacock’s Dairy Bars in Evanston and Skokie
Pie Pan Restaurant at Peterson and Cicero
Hillman Foods on Devon
Jacques in the Garden off Michigan Avenue
Maison Michelle - great cheap French food and BYOB in Newtown.
Plaza Del Lago off Sheridan Road.
Gus Good Food on Ohio - I still dream about their red sauce.
Club El Bianco on the South Side.
Jimmy Wong’s on Lincoln Avenue
The Wishing Well - I think on Elston Avenue- great duck.
The Kungsholm restaurant - also the home of puppet opera.
Stuart Brent’s Bookstore on Michigan.
I know this is a zombie, but let me chime in to mourn the loss of the Jazz Showcase. When I lived in Chicago in the late 80s-early 90s, the Blackstone Hotel toward the south end of Grant Park hosted world-class jazz gigs in a tiny room off the lobby. You couldn’t pick your nose without, say, bumping into McCoy Tyner’s elbows. Gorgeous old room with giant old photos of Coltrane and Bird on the walls.
Sometime in the 90s, the series was moved to some less atmospheric venue in Near North. Not sure if the series exists at all anymore.