The blog
Tales, Taverns & Towns features the history of the building at Ravenswood and Wilson, now O'Shaughnessy's, formerly the Zephyr, formerly a currency exchange, and 100 years ago, a pharmacy. Interesting history of the area and a tie-in with the real sausage king of Chicago (sorry, Ferris, not Abe Froman) and a spectacularly grisly Chicago murder.
Read the whole article and get a free pint of Guinness as your reward. Seriously.
Wow, what a great article! Thank you UU for giving this more exposure and "lizg"? for writing it.
ReplyDeleteI had sort of been avoiding this place out of some vague "It's not Zephr" protest. The bar looked so nice I was convinced that it was one of those "fake" Irish bars that tend to crop up around downtown hotels. Just goes to show you that being judgmental (without all of the facts) can cause a person to miss out. Neighborhoods change. People come & go. Businesses come & go. Its inevitable. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't be aware of what is happening around you but it also doesn't signify that there are some fundamental changes down the pike either. In the end, the spirit of the people makes the neighborhood.
So, a lesson learned...
Maybe this will be the beginning of a good tale to share over a pint.
FYI
ReplyDeleteFood here is good, service is super friendly. The atmosphere is nice in the afternoons as their is plenty of sunshine. Not to mention, the bar is ownned by a contractor and he spared no expense in building the place. Also, its not hard to find a table on the weekend, a plus in my book.
Itza very nice renovation.
ReplyDeleteFood is good. Beer is cold.
You may hear some annoying Irish accents depending on when you are there. Including from some of their waitstaff.
Their outdoor area is nice on warm days.
Zephyr was nice. It was a neighborhood institution, but then again we got plenty o institutions in the neighborhood.
When Zephyr closed you would have thought they were building a strip mall over the site of the Gettysburg Address, if you listened to the whiners. The place was there for less than thirty years. I have laundry bags older than that.
Oh well. It's a nice addition to the overall not quite Uptown/not quite Ravenswood section of our hood.
Now the Wooden Nickle on Wilson that was historic.
For those who miss the Zephyr, Tiztal Cafe on the 4600 block of Clark is the same owner and some of the same creations.
ReplyDeleteThanks, TSN! I was about to post a question as to whether the Zephyr people "sold the recipes" for their fountain creations to the tavern owners. Sometimes owners of popular restaurants do this; the old owners of Biasetti's at Ashland/Irving gave some of their recipes to the Cordis Bros., but unfortunately it didn't work out and Cordis is now closed.
ReplyDelete