Less than two weeks. That’s how long Marshall McGearty’s Tobacco lounge on Milwaukee Avenue lasted once the January 1 smoking ban went into effect. “It has nothing to do with the ban, ” assures David Howard, spokesperson for RJ Reynolds, the establishment’s now former owner. According to Howard, Reynolds American Inc., the parent company of RJ Reynolds, decided to move all operations of its Super Premium Brand Unit (under which Marshall McGearty’s is included) to another of its subsidiaries, Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company. It was a business decision, Howard contends, that was motivated entirely by the fact that Santa Fe Natural Tobacco has more in-depth marketing experience. Howard declined to speculate as to the direction in which that marketing experience may lead the brand, deferring all questions regarding the now-shuttered lounge’s fate to Mark Smith, vice president of communications at Santa Fe. “I don’t know if it will re-open,” says Howard. “I’ll let Mark handle that.” Calls to Smith were unreturned as of press time.
Foods of Our Own: Unique Deliciousness, Made in Chicago Here are two of those Chicago originals, foods—and one Chicago original drink—found many times nowhere else but here and that, for better or worse, have become something unique, a Chicago thing, foods of our own.
Hot Chicken Gets Warm Welcome in Chicago: Cluck It! Cluck It!—a ghost kitchen on south Wabash that opened last month—served us a more moderately spiced chicken. This is the kind of comfort food that many of us are craving.
Lake Whiskey: The Marvel That Was Chicago’s Chapin & Gore Just over a century ago, prohibition ended Chicago’s Chapin & Gore as a business. Today, the Chapin & Gore Building, at 63 East Adams, is part of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Symphony Center campus and a Chicago landmark.
What Would Jesus Drink? Israeli Wines in Israel and Chicago Driving through Israel’s Negev desert, amidst shrub brush and sandy mountains, along the extraordinarily saline Dead Sea, it’s hard to imagine what might grow in such an apparently hostile environment. One of the well-publicized goals of Israel, of course, has been to “make the desert bloom,” and Israel has had many successes in their efforts to cultivate crops in what…
