WICKER PARK — Shuttered dive bar staple Beachwood Inn will be reborn as Mae Belle Tavern & Grocery, operated by the team behind Lottie's Pub in Bucktown.
At the corner of Beach and Wood Streets — the location inspired the inn's name — the building was purchased last June by Kyle and Timothy Glascott. The father-and-son team has invested in several other bar buildings, and often rents them to established operators, as was the case with Division Street's SmallBar, now Pub Royale.
Mark Domitrovich, owner of Mae Belle Tavern & Grocery, Inc., was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday. But a spokeswoman said that the venture will also include Brian Jupiter, executive chef of Frontier, and Frontier beverage director Sean Nielsen.
Domitrovich and partner Dan McCarthy's Pioneer Tavern Group also own Lottie's Pub, at 1925 W. Cortland St., as well as Pioneer and Pony Inn.
Though Pioneer Tavern Group has only owned Lottie's Pub since 2002, the original proprietor of that pub, Lottie Zagorski, served as a mentor to the widowed owner of Beachwood Inn in the 1960s, according to Beachwood Inn's former owners.
Leonard Stepien, who founded Beachwood Inn in 1950, was killed in an armed robbery inside the bar in November of 1963. The bar owner's sons, Jim Stepien, and Bob Stepien, were just 13 and 3, respectively, at the time.
After Leonard's death, his wife, Lorraine, ran the bar for 33 more years until she died in 1996, the Stepien sons said in an interview with DNAinfo Chicago last June, during the bar's final night in business after a 65-year run.
"My mom wanted us to do anything but this. Running a bar is not easy, but it's all I know," said Bob Stepien, who also operates a small bar in Michigan.
"She got a lot of help from Lottie Zagorski, and Marie Wuczynski. They helped her with the business side," Bob Stepien previously said, referring to the female barkeeps behind Lottie's and Marie's Rip Tide Lounge, 1745 W. Armitage Ave.
Jim Stepien, who still lives in Wicker Park, just one block away from the building and bar where he grew up, declined to comment on the new plan on Tuesday.
No recent building permits have been issued for renovations in city records, so it's possible that Mae Bell Tavern & Grocery could be several months away from opening. The spokeswoman said "there is currently no opening date or information regarding seat numbers and square footage."
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