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We pause from our wall-to-wall coverage of Pitchfork to focus on a musical destination of a different kind: Uptown's Green Mill. Whenever people come in from town, there is a short list of places we like to take 'em. One constant is a trip to the Mill - not only for the bad-ass Manhattans and the live jazz, but for the sense of history, aged grit and old-world charm that the Mill practically bleeds.
The history of the Green Mill is epic, and has been covered by better people than us - ancient bar, gangster's hangout, Capone's booth, Machine Gun McGurn and his part-ownership, his propensity to slit throats when his talent takes off for another club, oft-repeated film location, so on and so forth. But one thing we'd never seen examined was the tunnels beneath the place. Until Rob Elder at the Tribune took a peek.
The tunnels (which are less extensive than we had hoped they would be, at least in what they showed) are basically a big pisser, at least on the side of Shake Rattle and Read. The downstairs of the Green Mill itself used to be used by Capone and other gangsters in their escapes from raiding cops.
An excellent video from the Trib is bundled in with the story - follow Ric Addy, proprietor of the aforementioned Shake Rattle and Read through the basements and downstairs - and marvel at early 20th century urinal technology! However, rumor has it that there's even more extensive tunnels below the Aragon Ballroom. We'll meet you down there.
Images courtesy of the Trib and WeirdChicago.com. Timeless inquiries and ancient requests to chicagoistremembers@gmail.com.
We now return you to all Pitchfork, all the time.
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The Chicago Tribune -- they go places so Chicagoist doesn't have to!
Come on, Guest certainly doesn't expect Chicagoist to be reporters, but this is ridiculous. I can just see the next restaurant review -- "Even though Chicagoist hasn't eaten there, Chicagoist read Phil Vettel's review, and he says it's great!"
Just curious -- when you say "images courtesy of..." does that mean that the sources have granted permission for you to use them? Guest thinks Chicagoist needs to brush up on copyright law.
I saw this in a myspace bulletin about 3 weeks ago!
Seriously, this is reaching an new low for you guys. What exactly does this story add? It isn't like it is timely as the Tribune story is 3 weeks old and it isn't like you went back after the Trib article to unearth some different angle or even get a new photo. The only thing that you have added to this story is that the tunnels are less impressive than you had hoped (based only on what they showed). Awesome insight. Thanks for that.
i was going to post a comment to rag on you guys, but thankfully a bunch of people beat me to it.
between this an those photos of the first day of pitchfork this has not been a good weekend for chicagoist's credibility.
Even though this was a new low for lazy blogging, at least it was a break from that damn Pitchfork. What the hell is it anyway??
I loved this story in the Trib.
Last month.
Wow... People are not feelin' this story at all...
Buck up, y'all.
Here is a NEW tidbit to chew on:
I used to work at Crew Bar + Grill next door, and we would find homeless people sleeping down in the tunnels. It was very creepy down there... A place you really didn't want to have to go by yourself at the end of a night...
This story was great... in the RedEye... in JUNE.
Tell me Chicagoist, how long did you contemplate whether or not to scan the basement diagram featured in that particular RedEye issue? I'm certain that you had that article tacked to a bulletin board marked "Stories to run in 30 days once everyone has forgotten about it already being published by someone else."
What's next? An expose on Chicago's screenprinting scene? Don't lose this week's Reader - it's the cover story!