Wrigleyville

Wrigleyville continued...

This is a distance of, by the numbers, about four city blocks. Four. They're somewhat longer than the average city block because Clark runs on an angle, but even so . . .

The ballpark needs little introduction. It dates to 1914, the Cubs have played there since 1916, and it's one of the two surviving big-league parks (the other is Boston's Fenway) built before the Cubs' last World Series appearance (1945). It's especially beautiful once the vines kick in sometime in May, and tickets can be hard to get, especially on summer weekends.

If you can't get in for a game, the Cubs are on the road, you can't make a scheduled tour or it's December, you can look into the ballpark from a sidewalk viewing area on Sheffield Avenue behind the right-field corner. (Tours are offered frequently but irregularly in June, July and August, less frequently in other months and not at all in winter; see www.cubs.com for schedule and prices.)

Back to the bars.

Some have a baseball theme, at least in terms of name. That includes Sluggers, of course, and Merkle's (he of the boneheaded base-running play that helped give the Cubs the 1908 pennant) and Stretch. The Cubby-Bear name dates to the days when the Cubs and Bears both played home games in Wrigley.

Many claim Irish pub lineage, including Casey Moran's, Irish Oak, Mullen's and the Blarney Stone. A few are Mexican. Two -- Exedus II and Wild Hare -- are reggae clubs. Only one, in what historically was a German neighborhood, is German (Uberstein). Some bars just opened; Bernie's Tap & Grill tweaks the name every couple of years, but it's been "Bernie's" something, under the same family's ownership, since 1954.

And most have food, usually bar noshes and burgers, sometimes more.

Chen's is a serious, even elegant Asian restaurant (with a stylish small bar) surrounded by saloons. They coexist with each other, and with baseball crowds that spill out onto the street.

"Have lunch here first, then go to the game," advises manager Lisa Hsu. "Or just come after the game. Enjoy the crowds, see the scenery -- crazy Cubbie fans."

The Wrigleyville scene, truly amazing after Cub home games and on weekends most of the time -- think "Bourbon Street" in pinstripes -- isn't limited to Clark Street.

In 1980, Jim Murphy bought a divey but beloved baseball bar called Ray's Bleachers on the magical corner of Waveland and Sheffield Avenues (the confluence of left and right fields), renamed it Murphy's Bleachers, added burgers and a patio and now, before and long after games (and during, when tickets can't be found), it's a jam-packed party. The Sports Corner, on Sheffield and Addison (in a recently rebuilt home), has been a longtime staple. The Harry Caray's restaurant people took over a bar on Sheffield south of Addison within sight of Harry's statue.

And it's not just bars. Metro, on Clark Street north of the park, is a popular venue for today's music. Closer to the park is iO, a comedy club. South on Clark near Sheffield is a store called Strange Cargo that defies category. It sells clothing, custom T-shirts (some very silly), casual shoes, decals, buttons, patches and nail polish. "We have kind of a little bit of everything," says owner Sheldon Schwartz. "People walk out smiling." Some take their smiles into Bookworks, a used-book emporium next door.

Just west of the ballpark on Addison is Yesterday. Tom Boyle has been selling old baseball cards, newspapers, campaign buttons and movie posters out this century -old shack for more than 30 years. He pulls a magazine out from a pile. "Here's a 1938 Saturday Evening Post, and look who's on the back endorsing Wheaties? Gabby Hartnett!"

(Hartnett's historic homer late in the day -- "the homer in the gloaming" -- near the end of the 1938 season, right down the street, launched the Cubs to a National League pennant. The Cubs then got swept by the Yankees in the World Series, but never mind that.)

Wrigleyville's boundaries extend west to Southport Avenue. Less Cub-centric, Southport is still within walking distance of the ballpark, making its watering holes and restaurants an option for pre- and postgame gathering. Here, too, is the Music Box Theatre (1929), a gem of a movie house that features art films and revivals; lots of boutiques; and Southport Lanes, home of city's last non-automatic pinsetters.

We must mention two more places of interest, both of which have absolutely nothing to do with bowling or baseball or booze.

Alta Vista Terrace is a block-long landmark district of townhomes (1900-04) due north of left field. Walk down this hidden treasure and look, especially, at the stained glass above the doors and other ornamental details.

And finally, where Southport meets Irving Park Road is a post office that, from the outside, looks just like -- well, like a post office. But inside, above the clerks' windows, is a stunning Depression-era mural by Harry Sternberg that touches on the history of Chicago while capturing its 1937 reality: the steel mills, toolmakers, the stockyards and slaughterhouses, Fort Dearborn, the Great Chicago Fire, the skyscrapers and streamliners.

If Sternberg had waited a year, Gabby Hartnett might have been there, too. 
 

For more information about Wrigleyville, please contact the Central Lakeview Merchants Association at 773.665.2100.