October 6, 2008
Pontiac Cafe Closing
Word has it that the Pontiac Cafe -- Wicker Park mainstay and the first big patio in the area where it was possible to witness firsthand the ebbing of the artist residents and the rise of corner banking and hip chain store patrons -- will be closing its doors for the last time October 17. Let's see, all we have left now is Double Door and Subterranean to keep us coming back to the Six Corners. Get in now and drink now, because another icon is going down. What a bummer.
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another pillar falls. it's almost appropriate at this point.
maybe theyll replace it with a sleek new preppy bar with mad flat screens and way more expensive drinks. sweet bro, lemme grab my flip flops.
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As much as I hate to hear the news the place has been going downhill for a long while now...
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ugh
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They had good food there. I remember when that space was a car detailing shop.
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I agree with daleygrind. If they can't make money at that intersection they are horribly mismanaged. Some of the best real estate in wicker park.
I will miss them, let's hope the next place that opens up has karaoke!
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Huh. I would have thought you Chicagoist writers were a more literate crowd, but you won't return to the hood for Quimby's or Myopic? Not even Reckless Records?
And Violet Hour is a great bar... or does it not count because it opened years (nearly a decade) after the neighborhood went to shit?
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We'll miss it. But here will still be plenty of reason to go to this intersection and the environs.
Also, here's a question (and I have some answers in mind):
What are the places in the city that offer something similar to what the North/Damen area was 15 years ago?
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Weird. A restaurant with declining service and quality of food is going out of business despite the disposable income of residents around it going up tenfold since it opened. What a mystery.
If you are looking for North/Damen circa 1993, there are literally thousands of intersections around the city where blue collar Hispanic families are being displaced by the "hip cool" transplant crowd like 1600 N. Damen in 1993. Just look around. Logan Square, Pilsen, Heart of Chicago, etc...
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
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elr - you obviously don't read the site often, or else you would have seen this interview we just did last week with Toby Maloney of Violet Hour.
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Well, there's always Sultan's, Myoptic, Recycled, Reckless, and Quimby's! I still have a reason to go to Wicker Park.
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How about the park itself God dammit.
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Sorry, Marcus. Not meaning to trash the site as snobbish or hypocritical.
Just the glib tone of this "woe is the state of Wicker Park" piece.
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I'm taking off for Bridgeport in the new year. Chuck, any recommendations?
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also you have violet hour. you reported on it last week.
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This is so not worth the time. The Pontiac has pretty much sucked since it opened. Now if Rainbow or Gold Star closed, that would be worth mentioning.
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I think the owner (Buddy) was well "into other things" that caused him to not focus on the businesses and I didn't help much when his wife ran off with some random brotha. Yea I’m gonna miss it, it’s the end of an era
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Thank god that place is closing. Once I saw the brodudes playing bags out front I knew pontiac was on it's way out.
So what will end up in it's place? Condos,sports bar....I'm curios.
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While the food has gotten increasingly mediocre over the years, Pontiac has always been a great place to have drinks outside.
Hopefully it'll be replaced by something with a similar, booze-focused patio out front and even better food. Unfortunately though, my bets are on another Akira :P
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Once I saw the brodudes playing bags out front I knew pontiac was on it's way out.
This gave me my first laugh of the day...
As for the "declining quality of the food".. C'mon, did any one really go there for the food? Seriously? A burger maybe, but if you went their looking for high quality you were going to the wrong place anyway. It was a place to grab a quick, cheap meal and beer. Mostly beer.
As for it's replacement, I say condo with a retail first floor that contains a spa.
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My guess is the folks behind Violet Hour saw an opportunity and jumped. I'd been hearing the place was for sale for quite a while.
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I read somewhere (here?) that a "well respected restaurateur is the buyer. My guess is the folks behind Violet Hour saw an opportunity and jumped. I've known the place was on the market for some time now, and am cautiously relieved that it won't be replaced with a Banana Republic.
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I've had pretty good luck at the Pontiac over the years but, on my last visit (a couple of months back), burgers were coming out of the kitchen served on slices of bread. The customers were confused. The servers acted put out when anyone questioned it. Okay, so, you ran out of buns. Put down that cigarette and make a run to store. Situation solved.
Still it was a great place to hang out and is a great location. I hope that whatever goes into it doesn't suck (and is 'brodude' free...).
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I will miss the good old days of honky tonk bingo and a terrible rat infestation...
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Its gonna be like cortland garage.
I feel bad for the bartenders & staff that have been there for a long time. The good eggs....
Last night of LIVE MUSIC
Thursday Oct 16!!!! Come see me!!!!!!
The Artist Formally Known As Vince and the all star bitch band
with The Right Tideys
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Rumor has it the Violent Hour folks bought the lease from Buddy. I hope so since that means there's some chance the space will at least be taken over by a cool bar, but even in a best case scenario we've lost one of the few cool rock and/or roll bars in the city.
And yes, there are still some cool restaurants in Wicker Park, but the original watering holes are dying out quickly ... I still blame Cans as the harbinger of all this yuppified decay...
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Cans really does suck and did seem to have started a trend.
R.I.P. Madbar
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cans was totally the harbinger. "tavern" was the beginning of the end. god damn that place is brutal (not that ive gone inside). true antithesis of borderline.
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Well, now we know who bought the joint.
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I think the only bar I've been to in Wicker Park was Pontaic. It was both scooter and dog friendly
Well, as it’s now owned by the Blackbird people, we know where ground zero of the Viagra Triangle infestation of Wicker Park will begin.
Man BlackBird is the worst
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Seriously, I was always shocked after the gas station closed that they were allowed to put a restaurant in this space. It creeped me out to see people eating there, I can't imagine what kind of contamination is happening there..I wouldn't be surprised at all if there are underground tanks filled with, well, the kind of shit that the EPA comes out to investigate. so long pontiac..this girl won't be missing you.
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where am i supposed to park now when i'm in the neighborhood?
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you said it there...mcymccarty. how you doin btw? I have not seen you for an age. i will miss having one central locale where i can always find one of my buddies still trying to hang on to our neighborhood. See you there next weekend guys.
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Eff a Pontiac Cafe. Does anyone remember that "Dollar Food" Restaurant that used to be on Milwaukee Avenue back in the day where anything you ordered was a dollar? Now THAT closing was a travesty!
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I used to hang here years ago but recently things have gotten pretty bad. Buddy, the owner, is a rude idiot and the place was always out of something... beer, burgers, water, power! Friday night Live Band Karaoke was fun as was Rock n' Roll Jeopardy but all in all this place and it's nasty bathrooms has been a disappointment for years.
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I've known Buddy for over 10 years and have never seen him be rude to someone without reason. Maybe you caught him on a bad day.
Regardless, I'm really going to miss the joint.