Old Town Ale House, Chicago

The Old Town Ale House is a saloon in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago, United States, that has been in operation since 1958.[1][2][3] It is currently located at 219 W. North Avenue.

Old Town Ale House, Chicago
2008 photo inside the bar
Seating in the bar

Bruce Elliott and his paintings

Bruce Elliott is a painter and the current owner of the bar.[4][5] Elliott inherited the bar from a previous owner on the condition that the bar not be changed.[1][6][7] The walls of the bar are filled with portraits of regular bar-goers and famous patrons (such as Stephen Colbert, Bill Murray, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd—many of whom had been working at the Second City Theatre also located on Wells and North Avenue). Other paintings include lewd political satire of well-known people such as Rod Blagojevich being strip searched,[8][9][10] Sarah Palin posing naked on a polar bear rug,[11] Vladimir Putin dancing as a ballerina[12] or Kim Jong Un and Dennis Rodman in handcuffs[12] (also painted by Elliott).

The Old Town Ale House has been called "The best bar in the world that I know about" by Roger Ebert[13][14] whose biographical film Life Itself contains several interviews within the bar, and ends with a portrait of Ebert in the bar that was painted by Elliott.

References
  1. "Drink Here Long Enough and They'll Give You the Bar | Feature | Chicago". chicagoreader.com. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
  2. "SoundCloud - Hear the world's sounds". soundcloud.com. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
  3. "Old Town Ale House: Chicago Bar Project". chibarproject.com. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
  4. Host, Anthony Bourdain. "Chicago: 'You could be nowhere else'". CNN. Retrieved 2016-05-09.
  5. Tribune, Chicago. "Old Town Ale House fixture puts his loud life on the page". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2016-05-09.
  6. "The man behind the Palin nude | Bleader | Chicago". chicagoreader.com. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
  7. "48 Hours in Chicago : The Layover". travelchannel.com. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
  8. "Old Town Ale House Gives Blago the Nude Treatment: Chicagoist". chicagoist.com. Archived from the original on 2016-05-16. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
  9. "Painting probes the idea of nude Blagojevich in prison". pqasb.pqarchiver.com. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
  10. "Naked Blagojevich Painting In Works By 'Nude Sarah Palin' Artist (VIDEO)". HuffPost. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  11. "SARAH PALIN: Sarah Palin nude portrait". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
  12. Miastkowski, Raf (2016-03-16). "No Shots Allowed: An Oral History of Chicago's Old Town Ale House". Thrillist. Retrieved 2019-05-31.
  13. Roger Ebert. "The best bar in the world that I know about". rogerebert.com. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
  14. "Roger Ebert's Top One Bar in Chicago, and the World". Chicago Magazine. February 1, 2013. Retrieved 2014-07-13.

41°54′39.3″N 87°38′7.9″W

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