Greetings!

The other night I went to Skippers “Hamtown” to check it out and after talking to Skipper about the bars in my neighborhood I was inspired to take some pics and post them here.

My neighborhood is what some of you consider “old” Westside. I have lived near Michigan Ave. and Central for nearly 20 years. What I love about my neighborhood is the diversity. It is an old Polish neighborhood with a few Polish businesses still around. We have a great mix of Latino, white, black, Arabic and eastern Europeans. The Latino population has invested greatly in the neighborhood and has basically saved the area in my opinion. Unfortunately the latest recession has hurt a bit around here as I have seen more vacant/burnt houses.

In its heyday there were businesses on almost every residential corner. Many are long gone/bricked up and converted to flats and some remain. In the early 90’s I lived on 51st. just south of Michigan Ave and from my flat there were literally 6 bars within 2 blocks of my house.[[Southwest Lounge, Red’s Drive-in Bar, The Alaska, Hard Body, R&R, and the Freer Bar) The house I lived in I suspect was a blind pig back in the day. There was an old tunnel going from the basement to the garage. [[pic of the house below) The front of that house at the time was a beauty parlor run by an older polish lady. Now I live off Central north of McGraw.

I am looking forward to possibly hearing some stories about these places, let me know if I am missing any and I will try to get a pic.

I’ll start with the Michigan avenue Bars. Here is Brent’s place at the corner of Michigan and Addison;
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The Celebrity Bar and Grill just east of Lonyo;
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One of my favorites, the Cas Bar at Casper[[this place is open at 7am!!)
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Here is the Alaskan bar just east of Central;
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A few blocks down there is the freer Bar;
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