This is the weekend when virtually every bar in the city turns Irish.
But it takes more than hanging an ”Erin Go Bragh” sign and paper shamrocks on the wall to make an Irish bar.
What makes a true Irish bar is hard to say, but it certainly would have to include such ingredients as Irish decorations (posters, maps or
photographs) and Irish music; have owners or staff who are either Irish or Irish-American; and cater to an Irish clientele or consciously try to project an Irish image.
Traditionally, Irish bars are named after the present or past owner. So, in Chicago we have Crowley`s, Butch McGuire`s, Casey`s, Clancy`s, Durkin`s, Harrington`s Pub, Keegan`s Pub, the Legendary Keenan O`Malley`s, Kelly`s on the Green, Kelly`s Pub, McNeil`s Public House and so on. Some are named after a place (Cork & Kerry, Innisfree Inn, River Shannon), a historical or legendary figure (Brian Boru`s, Finn McCull`s, Kitty O`Sheas) or even a movie (Quiet Man).
One trait they all share is a reputation for partying. ”Irish bars are known for having a good time,” says Butch Olejcak, bartender at the Legendary Keenan O`Malley`s.
Thus, the stereotype of the drunken Paddy is an image that is hard to dispel. Yet not everyone thinks that is necessarily bad. By promoting the idea that Irish bars are social, unpretentious places to relax, unwind and have a drink, many bar owners find it actually helps business and if it means perpetuating an age-old cliche, so be it. ”The Poles and the Italians have the restaurants and banquet halls. The Irish have the bars,” says Robert Galloway, owner of Finn McCull`s.
”I don`t know when Irish became popular,” says Eamonn Brady, manager of Kitty O`Sheas. ”Just drinking beer and singing ballads and sing-alongs-I think that`s where it all really started. People come out to an Irish place and they actually have fun.”
They not only have fun-they expect fun. For this reason, bar owners with nary an ounce of Irish blood running through their veins will adopt an Irish name. Cork & Kerry`s Chad Weiler, for example, liked the combined sound of Ireland`s two famous counties. Add stained-glass windows, dark wood, pictures of Old Chicago and a portrait of Mayor Daley and presto, you have an instant Irish-American bar.
Every Chicagoan knows of the (usually) good-natured rivalry between the North Side Irish and the South Side Irish. It has been said that North Side bars are cold and plastic, South Side bars warmer and friendlier due to their strong neighborhood roots. Or, as one South Side publican says, ”The people here are real Irish-American-first and second generation. In the North Side bars, you have a lot of yuppie Irish Americans.”
In addition to geographical differences, there are various types of Irish bars in the city: sports bars, music bars and neighborhood bars. Sports bars usually have the most tenuous of Irish connections; the sports theme tends to predominate.
Supper clubs (bars that serve dinner) like the Irish Village on Diversey Avenue and the Atlantic on Grand Avenue cater to an older crowd and present Irish music exclusively. On the other hand, both the Innisfree Inn on the South Side and the Emerald Isle on the North Side mix Irish fare with American entertainment. And at Reilly`s Daughter`s Pub in Oak Lawn you could be listening to an Irish ballad one night and doing the Irish jig to a Celtic rock band the next.
The Abbey Pub calls itself the home of traditional Irish music. With its portrait of an Irish fiddler and a large black-and-white photograph of Francis O`Neill, renowned Chicago music collector (and former police superintendent), hanging on the wall, you know where this bar`s heart lies. The Abbey is frequented by a nice mixture of young Irish-Americans and native Irish, of middle-aged mothers sipping a soft drink and elderly gentlemen wearing tweed coat and tie, sitting at the bar.
Based on appearances, one could hardly call the recently opened Augenblick on North Damen Avenue an Irish bar. The walls are a strikingly modern gray and black. A poster of rock singer Morrissey peers down over the cigarette machine. Indeed, Augenblick (which literally means ”in the blink of an eye” in German) is more 20th Century Berlin than 19th Century Dublin in decor. But owner John McLaughlin, who admits he has an affection for both Irish and German culture, has made a spot for traditional Irish music on Tuesday nights.
On the South Side is a jewel of a place called the 6511 Club-long a haven for musicians and lovers of traditional Irish music. Its walls are studded with references to Irish music and culture-from the Bothy Band to the Book of Kells. On Friday nights and Sunday afternoons when the fiddle is being played in the back room and the air is thick with Irish brogues, you would swear you had walked into a pub in rural Ireland.
Arguably, the most authentic Irish bar in the city is Kitty O`Sheas, located in the Chicago Hilton & Towers. A stunning collage of carved mahogany, imported marble and etched glass, the pub`s artwork, fixtures and artifacts were all shipped from Ireland. Kitty`s even has its own version of an Irish
”snug” or private room. ”The snug,” explains manager Brady, a native of Kilkenny, ”was a drinking place for women when they weren`t allowed into the pubs.”
The authentic look is no accident. In 1985, a Hilton design team traveled to Ireland and toured more than 40 Irish pubs. Members of the largely Irish staff are graduates of Ireland`s CERT program (Council for Education, Recruitment and Training) and were brought to the U.S. on a hotel exchange program. ”It`s nice to have Irish people in an Irish bar. It adds a touch,” says Brady.
When it comes to having a good time, though, authenticity takes a back seat. Chicago is such a hodgepodge of cultures that joining in the fun is more important than maintaining ethnic purity. ”I know some bars-I`m from Boston- where you wouldn`t go in there if you were anything but Irish,” says Mike Harvey, co-owner of the Hidden Shamrock. ”In Chicago, I don`t see that as much. I think there`s little more of a mixture of everything.”
A good example of the willy-nilly mix of cultures is the Innisfree Inn on West Archer Avenue. The owner is of Polish descent; the clientele consists of Irish-born, Irish-American and non-Irish customers; and it attracts both the suit-and-tie set and the blue jeans-and-leather jacket crowd. The music too is, uh, eclectic. On a recent Saturday night, Dennis Cahill sang everything from the ”Fields of Athenry” and ”Wild Colonial Boy” to ”Forever in Blue Jeans” and, amazingly, Bruce Springsteen`s ”Pink Cadillac.” Cahill was accompanied by a chap with the not-very-Irish-sounding name of Erwin Yasukawa. In reality, most Irish bars are comfortable, down-to-earth neighborhood hangouts; in other words, typical Chicago bars-but with an Irish brogue. Consider the Harp & Shamrock Club at the intersection of Fullerton and Ashland Avenues. Located in an up-and-coming, pre-yuppie neighborhood, it`s run by a
”narrowback” (American-born Irish) and former South Sider, Jerry Walsh, who migrated north to attend college and decided to stay. His uncle, he says, owned the original Harp & Shamrock in Canaryville near the Back of the Yards. Open only a year, the new Harp has become a favorite of Irish cops, bartenders, bagpipers and locals.
Walsh, with his silver-rimmed glasses, wispy gray beard and fetid cigar, exemplifies the old-fashioned Chicago Irish saloonkeeper. He tries to steer clear of the hokey Irish-American saloon nonsense. Sure he sells drinks like
”Killarney water” (white wine and a dash of Green River soda), but nobody orders it except perhaps an occasional snoopy reporter. Any place where the bartenders wear green T-shirts that say ”1641 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago, County of Cook, USA” is a true Chicago Irish tavern.
Another neighborhood bar, and a relatively recent entry in the Irish sweepstakes, is Harrington`s Pub, owned by Michael Harrington, a former chef, who is carrying on a family tradition (his great-great-grandfathe r ran a small pub in Cork in the 1840s). The younger Harrington`s place is decorated with the usual Irish posters and maps, but a large selection of family photos give it a genuinely personal touch. There are also a few pleasant surprises-the claddagh (an Irish symbol) knocker on the washroom doors, the small bust of John F. Kennedy behind the bar.
There`s a whole strip of Irish bars on the South Side especially along Western Avenue in the Beverly area-Cork & Kerry, the Dubliner, Keegan`s Pub, Mr. C`s Shamrock Express (formerly Emmett`s Pub), Quiet Man. All are worth a visit.
Some places, ostensibly Irish, have added non-Irish entertainment to survive. ”There aren`t that many Irish bands around,” says Brendan McNeill of the Emerald Isle. At the request of his youthful, mostly Irish-American clientele, he began booking blues artists twice a week and saw business jump considerably. ”I have to mix it up,” he says. ”There`s a big demand for blues. It`s been very, very successful.”
The quintessential Chicago Irish pub must be O`Rourke`s Public House in Old Town. It has earned its reputation as a literary bar-Norman Mailer, Jimmy Breslin, Studs Terkel and David Mamet, among others, reportedly spent some time here-but it has a strong Irish feel, a palpable Irish presence about it. Huge posters of Irish writers-yellowed with age-line the wall. It`s a dark and smoky old place, full of character, with wooden booths for indulging in private conversations or contemplating the ways of the world through a shot glass. Quaffing a Guinness under the wise and weary eyes of Brendan Behan, Sean O`Casey, James Joyce, W.B. Yeats and Oscar Wilde makes for good drinking company, indeed.
