The past year-and-a-half has been stressful for a whole slew of reasons, and the worst part? We haven’t been able to blow off our political anxiety with a solid live-band karaoke session. Thankfully, after its abrupt closure in September 2016, Carol’s Pub is poised to reopen in the coming months, the Tribune reports. Time to dust off your cowboy boots, Chicago.
Ed Warm, the operator of Joe’s on Weed, is positioned to take over the lease and liquor licenses for Carol’s Pub. Nothing major is expected to change about the bar—it’ll still be open until 4am, and 5am on Saturdays. According to 46th Ward Ald. James Cappleman’s office, the bar will take additional security measures and will push back its weekday opening time to 4pm (with some exceptions for Cubs day games and holidays).
Carol’s Pub is particularly known for its live-band karaoke, accompanied by in-house band Diamondback. They’re still playing shows around town, and according to their Facebook page, are enthusiastic about returning to the Uptown dive.
The iconic Uptown honky-tonk is a relic of an oft-forgotten era of Chicago history. After World War II, Lakeview and Uptown became the new home to droves of Southern and Appalachian migrants. The bar now known as Carol’s was opened in 1973 as an homage to the neighborhood’s roots. That community disseminated over the decades, but the country & western bar at Clark Street and Leland Avenue remained, becoming a hotspot for northsiders in search of cheap beer and twangy tunes.
For more information on the bar’s re-opening, Ald. Cappleman will host an open meeting at Truman College, Lecture Hall C, on March 1 at 6:30pm.