LAKEVIEW — L&L Tavern on Wednesday featured "White Power" posters on the walls and men with Nazi tattoos at the bar.
The local dive bar, 3207 N. Clark St., was transformed for a scene in new NBC TV show "Crisis," where L&L played the role of a watering hole in D.C. for Aryan Nation white supremacists.
A giant "Weisser Stolz" hung over the bar, and posters with skulls and declarations of "white pride" or "down with the government" peppered the walls. White men wearing studs, leather and — in one case — a swastika neck tattoo sat around the small bar as extras.
L&L Tavern's not new to the film world, owner Ken Frandsen said. It's in location scouting books as a quintessential dive, and the bar has been on Cinemax show "The Girl's Guide to Depravity" and movie "Return of Joe Rich," he said. Columbia College Chicago student filmmakers also like to use the bar, he said.
But he didn't know it would be turned into a white supremacist bar for "Crisis" until after the fact.
"I think I should have asked for more money," he said.
That said, he's not worried about people being scared off. On Tuesday night, about two dozen people visited despite the snow, including a comedy group who riffed on the decorations and "amused" regulars who came to snap photos in their "Nazi bar," Frandsen said.
In fact, one regular didn't even notice the huge white power signs, Frandsen said. The man walked in at 6 p.m. and ordered his usual — two shots and two cans of Busch. Then, when he left, he just said "see you tomorrow."
Frandsen had to remind the regular that the bar would be closed for the TV set.
"He didn't notice the giant Aryan Nation flags," Frandsen said. "It's kind of funny."
The decorations should be up until Thursday night, Frandsen said, just in case they need to reshoot any scenes.