We Sing with Sinatra and Hide with Capone at the Green Mill

As mentioned in the previous post, we had a busy weekend.  Fortunately part of that business was getting to see our good friends, Meghan and Grant, both of whom are completing residency programs right now.  They had a week off and decided to spend it vacationing in our fair (that week, at least) city of Chicago.  We caught up with them the last weekend, capping off their visit with a night of jazz and drinks at the legendary Green Mill.

The Green Mill opened as Pop Morse's Roadhouse in 1907.  A few years later it was rechristened the Green Mill Gardens after the Moulin Rouge in Paris.  (Moulin Rouge translates to "red mill".)  It was a popular hangout for actors and filmmakers working at the nearby Essenay Studios (The Hollywood of the Midwest), including Charlie Chaplin.  During Prohibition, on of Al Capone's men, Jack McGurn, became part-owner, making the club a popular speakeasy for Capone and his associates.  Capone's favorite booth still exists, affording Capone and patrons a clear view of both the front and back entrances.  A network of tunnels underneath the club and easily accessible from Capone's booth allowed him to escape the authorities.  Capone's favorite singer, Joe E. Lewis, sang at the Green Mill until he took a higher paying job down the street.  McGurn threatened him and ultimately attacked him violently, though Lewis survived, an incident immortalized in the film, The Joker is Wild (1957), starring Frank Sinatra.  Though he himself never performed, he spent time at the Green Mill researching the role.  Other jazz luminaries, like Billie Holiday, Tommy Dorsey, Al Jolson, and Benny Goodman, did play the Green Mill.

After a period of struggle in the 1960's and '70's, the jazz club was revived in the 1980's and now hosts jazz artists from a wide variety of styles every night, much like it did in its early days.  It is patterned after Clark Monroe's Uptown House, a popular 1940's club in Harlem, and also is known for its Sunday jazz brunch and the Uptown Poetry Slam, a Sunday night mainstay since 1986.

Obviously we were excited to go to the Green Mill for its history and (for Michel) its connection to Sinatra.  Since Meghan and Grant were already planning on going, we took them up on their invitation to tag along.  We arrived half an hour before the combo started playing, payed the cover fee, and snagged a booth on the side across from the bar.  (On further investigation, I believe we were only one booth off from Capone's preferred spot.)  We ordered cocktails and chatted until Meghan and Grant arrived just in time to order before the show.  It was a really great quintet, and they were scheduled to play from 8:00 p.m. to midnight.  And by the way, you will totally get shushed by the bartender or bouncer if you talk above a whisper while the bands are playing.  We stayed for the first set, but as we were getting up for Easter church the next morning, we left after that.  It was a really great time, and, as Michel said, it's probably the coolest place we've ever been.

 For my birthday, Michel made me little laminated recipe cards for my favorite cocktail, the Mexican Martini (from Trudy's in Austin.)  The bartender made one for me, though the waitress did not hesitate to show her irritation at my out of the ordinary request.

 Reminiscent of our pictures from the Josh Groban concert!

Good friends!