LAKEVIEW — While it might not be as tasty as touring Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, finding one of Smart Bar's golden jackets probably won't give you a stomach ache from too much candy.
For its 33⅓ anniversary, Smart Bar has planted about 60 golden record jackets at record stores throughout the city. The jackets provide instructions for winners to claim two free tickets to the all-building event on Friday.
The golden jackets — inspired by the golden tickets hidden in Wonka candy bars in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" — have been discovered in some of the eight record stores already, but there are others still out there.
Reckless Records, saki, Gramaphone Records, Kstarke Records, Logan Hardware, 606 Records, Bucket O' Blood Books and Records and Laurier Records are participating in the promotion.
Smart Bar chose to celebrate 33⅓ years as a nod to the number of rotations per minute on an LP — a format first introduced in 1948.
Joe Shanahan opened Smart Bar in July 1982 on the building's top floor. Since that time, Smart Bar and Metro have grown into staples for burgeoning music artists, even launching their own record label in June. Metro and Shanahan helped spark the careers of bands like R.E.M., the Smashing Pumpkins, Depeche Mode and the Indigo Girls.
The celebration will kick off at 10 p.m. Friday in both Smart Bar and Metro, 3730 N. Clark St. Tickets are $25 in advance or $30 at the door.
Medusa's alum Mark Farina will headline the night, along with Chicago DJs Colette, DJ Heather, Justin Long and Smart Bar residents Michael Serafini and Garrett David.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here: