A Little Bit Of Beer Garden Nostalgia, And A Lot Of History

Every time my sister Susan and I go to a beer garden such as the Denver Beer Company on South Downing Street here in Denver, Susan waxes nostalgic about going to a beer garden with our parents, Mary and Nelson, when she was a little girl growing up in Chicago. When everyone got up to dance, including our parents, she would go around all the tables and finish off whatever was left on them. Happy days indeed. I remember talking with my mother years ago, and she told me that beer garden was probably located in South Suburban Glenwood, Illinois. And so just for fun, I decided to do a little research, and found out that place was called Hottinger's Garden, that the building was built in 1843, and that it started out as a hotel and inn. Not only that, but it was also a stop on the Underground Railroad. The train would stop at the station across the street, and the escaped slaves would cross the street to the inn to rest before continuing their journey. The inn became Hottinger's Garden around the turn of the 20th Century and can be seen in the photograph on the left.

Over the years, the beer garden was added and can be seen in the photograph on the right from back in the day. Susan tells me she was around 5 years old when she started going there with our parents, which makes sense, since our father was drafted into the army in 1943, served as a dentist in Okinawa, and came back home to Chicago in 1947, which is when Susan was 5 years old. And with them all living with my mother's parents at the time, I imagine they really valued a night out.

The drawing on the left shows the "modern" Hottinger's Garden, which is the closest to what it was like when Susan and our parents used to go there. And in fact, I remember once going to a beer garden with my parents when I was young, too, and looking at this drawing, I think this was where we went. Sadly, over time, the exterior of that 1843 building was significantly modified. The business failed around 1970, and it became the Fireside Chalet/Amore Bistro. I found a Chicago Tribune review of this restaurant on the internet, and at first, I saw a date of 2021, thinking it was published only 5 years ago. However, when I looked further, it was "updated" in 2021, but originally published in 1994, and when I looked on the google maps site, it was a vacant lot. Evidently the building is no longer there. Doing a little more research, I found that the site was turned into an Underground Railroad Memorial back in 2023, which seems very appropriate, although it would have been nice if the original structure could have been saved. In any case, it is a tale of both nostalgia and history. And of course, beer.

Enjoying Weekday Happy Hour At The Denver Beer Company

My sister Susan and I dropped by the Denver Beer Company on South Downing Street here in Denver yesterday afternoon for a couple of happy hour pints. This brew pub is a neighborhood favorite, filled with the old, the young, and everyone in between. And lots of families with kids. In point of fact, the Denver Beer Company even provides a playground at that location for those youngsters, as seen in the photograph on the left. And I must say, they all have a lot of energy, zooming across the patio down to the playground and back again the entire time.

And best of all, the patio is dog friendly, and most days there are more dogs than you can count, sitting by their owners having a beer (the owners, not the dog), or even sitting on one of the benches with them, enjoying the ambiance. I took the photograph of the spaniel on the right sitting with its masters by the fire pit, just enjoying the day. And happily, it was willing to let me take its portrait. Which is a nice change from when I go to take a photo, and the dog immediately turns around and shows me its backside. I just hate that - not the kind of photo you want to see. Try explaining that to the dog, though. Not easy.

The June/July Issue Of Chicago Magazine

I just finished reading the June/July issue of Chicago Magazine, and there are a lot of interesting articles in this month's issue. The cover story, titled Pritzker's Moment, features an interview with Illinois governor JB Pritzker. I know Pritzker is a billionaire and comes from a wealthy family, but I did not know about his rather tragic life during his younger years. In the article, he discusses his confrontations with Trump but says he is not thinking about running for president, which probably means he is. There is also an interesting article about alleys in Chicago, which were mandated back in 1830, when the Illinois and Michigan Canal Commission hired a surveyor to map out a new town along Lake Michigan at the eastern end of the canal's route, in order to deal with horse manure. Chicago now has more alleys than any other city in the country. There is also a nice feature called Doorways of Chicago, featuring photographer Ronnie Frey's impressive photographs of Chicago doorways. There are also, of course, a number of articles about new restaurants, "The Hot List of 10 Places Everyone is Talking About," and a review of a restaurant called Ox Bar and Hearth. Of course, most if not all of those places I would never consider dining at in a million years. Big bucks being charged for very weird food.

The most controversial article to me is "The Best Suburbs to Call Home," featuring a ranking of all 205 of Chicago's suburbs with population of over 5,000, ranked from top to bottom "based purely on the numbers." Chicago Magazine Editor in Chief Terrance Noland writes that they hired analytics firm DataJoe to "collect and weight various statistical measures and crunch the figures." Which brings to mind Mark Twain's famous quote: "there are lies, damned lies, and statistics." I believe that is certainly the case here. As expected, six of the top ten suburbs are located along the upscale North Shore, while one is situated just a bit to the west of that area. The other three are in the western suburbs. The editor, Terrance Noland, in his introduction to the article, did express dismay that his hometown, Oak Park, with its pleasant downtown, tree lined residential neighborhoods, and Frank Lloyd Wright homes, was listed at a rather mediocre 57. And of course, at the bottom of the list were mostly the southern suburbs. There are too many suburbs to go into detail, but what I most want to know is why South Suburban Flossmoor, the downtown of which can be seen in the photograph on the right that I took back in 2010, is number 181 on the list, while Country Club Hills, where I spent a long 10 years while going to high school and college, is ahead of Flossmoor at number 178?

Country Clubs Hills, when I lived there, had no country club, only one hill, and not a single tree in sight. And all of the homes looked the same. When I went back to Chicago to visit back in 2010, it was still as ugly as when I lived there. On the other hand, when I checked out Flossmoor, it was as beautiful as ever - lots of nice homes, a pleasant downtown area directly across from the IC stop (Metra now, of course), and, best of all, the train station had been turned into a brew pub, as seen in the photograph on the left. And Country Club Hills got a higher rating? Has Flossmoor really gone that far downhill since I last visited? I am willing to bet it has not. Homewood, also a very nice suburb and the location of the original Aurelio's Pizza, was listed at number 140 on the list, rated worse than Evergreen Park (number 135), which to me will never win any beauty contests. I could go on and on, but I recommend everyone get their own copy of this month's Chicago Magazine and make up your own mind about that "best" Chicago suburbs list.

The Highlands Street Fair

The annual Highlands Street Fair took place this past Saturday in that historic Denver neighborhood. I love attending this festival. It is always well-attended, especially with people from the neighborhood, and seems more like a social gathering than a street fair. As with other festivals, there are booths from local businesses and artisans, food vendors, and music. The Highlands was founded around the same time as Denver, filled with Victorian-era homes, and located west of the Platte River, overlooking downtown. When I first moved to Denver, it was being marketed by real estate agents as the "affordable alternative to Washington Park," one of Denver's most popular neighborhoods. Since that time, the Highlands has become quite trendy, not to mention unaffordable, but it is still a fun place to visit. And by the way, the booth in the photograph above was offering accommodations in Breckenridge, a really popular and quaint Colorado mountain town, starting at $49 and has a presence at most Denver area festivals. Years ago, I entered a raffle at this booth for a free weekend in "Breck." I didn't win the raffle, but I did wind up getting phone calls about "special vacation offers" for the next five years. Since then, I have avoided raffles for free vacations like the plague. You should too.

Happy Father's Day!

Today is Father's Day, and in honor of this special holiday I am featuring a photograph of my sister Susan and my late father, Nelson, which I took back in the late 1970s in Key West, Florida, most likely somewhere near Mallory Square around sunset. Susan and I had flown down from Chicago to visit our parents, who had recently moved to a condo in Stuart, Florida, and the four of us decided to take a road trip to Key West. My father was a dentist and hated it. When he was finally able to retire, he and our mother Mary moved from Chicago to Stuart, where our Uncle Bill (my mother's brother) and Aunt Elsie had retired to from Cleveland 4 years earlier. Dad and my Uncle Bill used to play golf together when our families would vacation up in Canada every year, and now they finally had the chance to play whenever they wanted. Dad had 7 years of retirement down in Stuart before he passed away, and happily, enjoyed every minute of it. I hope everyone who is able will have a wonderful day with their father and family, and value their time together. Happy Father's Day!

The Summer Solstice - Tomorrow At 2:24 A.M. Denver Time!

Tomorrow is the Summer Solstice. In England, the grounds at Stonehenge are open to the public on both the Summer and Winter Solstices. Tonight the gates to Stonehenge will be opened at 7:00 P.M., sunset will occur at 9:26, and sunrise will occur on Sunday at 4:52 A.M. During that time, Modern Day Druids will have the run of the place, performing their various rituals and chants. Here in Denver, Druids keep a pretty low profile, although I believe they conduct their ceremonies in front of Monkey Island in Denver's Washington Park, as seen in the photograph above. Monkey Island is where the hippies used to gather during the 1960s, and according to an article in the now defunct Washington Park Profile, the ghost of a young girl who disappeared from there back then still roams the island at night. In any case, it is important to remember that the original Druids used to practice human sacrifice, usually by drowning, hanging, or burning. And do modern day Druids follow the same religious rituals as their forebearers? I don't know, but what I do know is that the Summer Solstice here in Denver will take place at 2:24 A.M. tomorrow, and I strongly suggest that everyone get the hell out of Washington Park by midnight at the latest. Better safe than sorry, after all.

World Cup Fever!

My friend Mark and I got together at his house yesterday morning to watch Czechia play South Africa in a World Cup match that took place at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. The game was pretty boring, I'm afraid, with little action, and ended in a 1-1 tie. I checked on the internet, and prices for the game were fairly reasonable for a World Cup match, going for a median price of $460, meaning that a fan going to the game in person only had to shell out approximately $500 to watch a bad soccer game. World Cup Fever is hitting North America pretty hard, especially here in the U.S. But the main cause of this malady is not the mad desire to attend these soccer matches, but the high price of tickets to World Cup games people actually want to watch. Tickets to today's game between the United States and Australia, being played in Seattle, are currently going for $2,000 and up in the nosebleed sections and $3,000, $4,000, and even $5,000 each closer to the ground. Which is crazy. This is all due to the invention of "dynamic pricing," in which higher prices are charged depending on the demand for tickets. This wonderful system is why you have to pay $100 for an Opening Day ticket to watch the Colorado Rockies at Denver's Coors Field that will cost $30 the next day. No wonder fans are coming down with fever. And yes, the photograph above is of Mark in front of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, teleported there through the magic of Photoshop. Which is far more interesting than being teleported to a Waffle House, as a high-ranking Trump Administration official claims happened to him. Nothing but the best and brightest for that regime.