Lottie’s Pub in Wicker Park is one of the more storied bars in Chicago with a history that is both wild in it’s past and noteworthy in the present. It has character in every inch from the hanging ceiling lights glimmering over the wood floor to the loud laughter in it’s basement to it’s inviting location at the corner of Winchester and Cortland.
Originally it opened as a grocery store in the 1930’s and was ran by the 6’ foot tall and intimidating Lottie Zagorski. It was long rumored to be running a speakeasy in the basement. Zagorki’s respect in the neighborhood earned everyone’s silence on the private rathskeller she ran downstairs where it was believed many elected officials would throw back some cold ones in the company of gangsters.
In 1966, Zagorski was arrested for her connections to running a gambling ring which some believed to be located in the basement. According to Lottie’s official website, the FBI obtained “10,000 football parlay cards, racehorse bet slips, scratch sheets as well as 16-gauge shotguns” in the raid. Zagorki herself would pass away from natural causes in 1973 after testifying before a grand jury.
In the last few years, it’s become known for it’s nationally televised alter-ego ‘Molly’s’ which is the featured location on NBC’s ‘One Chicago’ dramas ‘Chicago Fire’ and ‘Chicago PD’. Until 2014, the locally filmed show would shoot in the bar itself before recreating the entire bar on the massive Cinespace sound stage down on the southside, in the Douglas Park area. This video from the Sun-Times shows off how the bar has been recreated at Cinespace.
As a comedian in Chicago, it’s long running open mic has helped craft some of the top comedy acts in town and beyond. Many stand-ups who perform at the Tuesday mic have gone on to perform on NBC, Comedy Central, and beyond.
It would be funny in few years ago to walk up to the bar on cold winter’s night with other comics with their working material scrawled down on a notebook, to find out we would not have the mic that night they were filming this show about hunky firemen. We understood we wanted to make our comedy chops to get on television, but we were happy Lottie’s got to get there first on it’s own.
They continue their unusual charm in the summer months, but it’s gets out of hand like this past summer when a goat ran away from the petting zoo.
