Sad news in the Sun-Times: the last regular neighborhood watering hole in Wrigleyville is closing today. The Nisei Lounge, on the ground floor of Links Hall, is being sold, and will probably be turned into something very special, like the world’s only upside-down sake shooters bar catering to ISU grads.
When I lived at Grace and Sheffield many years ago, before Wrigley Field became a mecca for every drunken frat boy in the country, we used to stop into the Nisei for a drink after games. I remember the Peanut Shell, too, which was a couple doors north, where we were the only non-Spanish speakers. (My roommate and I didn’t own a tv, so we used to rate bars by their willingness to put the Three Stooges on the bar tv at 11 pm. The most compliant taverns would rate a “3 Woob” rating, vocalized with a clear “Woob-woob-woob.” As I remember, the Peanut Shell did it once or twice, the Nisei never did, but we were never very serious in the first place.) These were places of calm where a guy could get a Pabst without feeling like a trendy Wicker Park turd, where people with real stories hung out. There are fewer and fewer honest bars in town, and you can add the Nisei to the list.
For some fascinating history about the place, read Dave Hoekstra’s column in today Sun-Times.
Wow. My past is being paved over, bit by bit.
End of an era.
(Is now where I start reading the obits obsessively for news of friends’ deaths?)