CHICAGO — You guys, it might hit 65 degrees tomorrow. SIXTY FIVE. Let's just get through this work week and then bust out the premature shorts.
Here's what we're reading:
Who is Danny’s Danny?: Danny’s Tavern, the nondescript Bucktown two-flat on Dickens Ave., that hides a regularly rowdy dance floor and bar behind its door used to be a bookie joint called Art’s Tap. The Chicago Reader has a great look into the history of the bar as well as it’s original owner, a former struggling rocker from the ‘80s Danny Cimaglio.
The bar, which is decorated like an apartment with the main dance floor in the living room and a scattering of candle-lit tables spread throughout, was almost called Pete & Danny's Truck Stop. Peter Nelson, a plumber and bartender, was an investor, but the owners decided to go with the shortened version.
"It was definitely risky opening the place, but we knew people would come out," Cimaglio told the Reader. "Once the word got out, there was a crowd from day one. The main thing was we weren't going to be a Lincoln Park-type place. We had a real cross-section of people."
Danny’s was also a launching point for the One Off Hospitality Group empire, as it was the first bar partners Terry Alexander and Michael Noone purchased from the original owners in 1994. That empire now includes Publican, Blackbird, Big Star, the Violet Hour and Nico Osteria.
Photo of Danny's Tavern by Allix Rogers via Flickr Creative Commons
YIKES: David Matthews is reading that Utah legislators approved death-by-firing-squad executions amid a nationwide shortage of lethal injection drugs. The Wall Street Journal reports that the proposal, which still needs the Utah governor’s approval, would authorize firing squads only if increasingly sparse and controversial lethal injection drugs can’t be obtained. Lethal injections have come under heavy scrutiny in recent years after several botched executions. Utah currently has eight prisoners on death row, and no lethal injection drugs.
Wanna Get Away?: Spring break is just around the corner and if you haven’t already booked your trip, Patty Wetli has a lead on one of the hottest destinations on the planet. The Australia Broadcasting Commission has published the first photos of a brand new island off the coast of Tonga. Brand new as in it just emerged from the ocean in January. Sure, the place is pretty much volcanic ash at this point, smells like rotten eggs and doesn’t even have a name, much less a hotel, but how do you think Hawaii got its start?
Your very own island! Not really but still. Photo by GP Orbassano.
Brian Williams Who? Lester Holt is killing it as Brian Williams’ replacement as the anchor of NBC News, the Washington Post says, noting the newscast Holt took over while Williams is suspended is still No. 1. But we here in Chicago already knew the Allure of Lester: senior editor Andrew Herrmann says the former CBS2 newsman has been on endless video loop at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse for years instructing would-be jurors on how the whole thing works. “That thing was recorded in like in 1960,” joked the 50-something Holt, though the funky mustache he’s rockin’ in the video puts it sometime in the 80s. Holt told Pete McMurray on WGN radio a couple years back that “it’s kinda hilarious.” (The video, though he might have meant the ‘stach, too.)
“I almost want to call them and say I'll do [the film over] as a freebie. We have to change this out. I won’t charge you,” Holt said, adding that “not a month goes by” that someone doesn’t see the video at the courthouse and tweet about it.
Sonny & Cher & Alice: Any karaoke fan worth their salt in Chicago knows and respects Fred Wood, the Alice’s Lounge DJ who will back up a performance with a variety of partial and/or inflatable instruments. But Alice’s regular Kyla Gardner was excited to learn from this short and wonderful Chicago Reader profile that she’s been buying drinks this whole time from THE Alice.
Breaking Bad Creator Lays Down The Law: You know the house they used for the AMC show Breaking Bad? An elderly couple lives there and has for the last 40 years, according to Gawker. But that hasn't stopped fans of the show from throwing pizza on their roof (which is an homage to the show, but still).
Creator of the show Vince Gilligan said there is "nothing funny or original or cool" about throwing pizza on their roof. But Mina Bloom thinks the scene in which Walter White throws a pizza on the roof is pretty funny and cool. Plus, he got it on the first try!
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