LODGE LOGS 50 YEARS!

Celebrate the place "that started it all" and a varitable Chicago landmark!

Before the birth of the singles bar, the disco, or theme bars, The Lodge was catering to a wide mix of regulars and visitors coming to Chicago for both business and pleasure. The Lodge Tavern opened it's doors in February of 1957, and it hasn't changed much over the intervening decades, as the owners have made a concerted effort to maintain the original ambiance. The out of towners are always pleased to find the venue as cozy as home, with a familiar and friendly staff. The Lodge enjoys a long history of seasoned, professional servers known for giving only the best year after year. Steeped in fellowship and laughter, The Lodge is a quintessential adult's playground. With 50 years of rich character soaked into its pine walls, and the Winchester peanut shells adorning the floor, to the carved Dutch Oak bar, the working Wurlitzer juke box, The Lodge is as American as apple pie and as comfortable as your own home. So if rubbing elbows with the most eligible debutantes or bachelors and quaffing a pint of fine draft while tapping your toe to a great tune is your kind of spot, The Lodge Tavern is definitely your kind of place, in my kind of town.

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Star Crossed Regulars Wed Where Everybody Knows Their Names

In 1957 a little tavern called The Lodge first opened its doors in what would become Chicago's famous Rush and Division district of pubs and clubs. In 2003 two strangers walked into The Lodge after their respective long work days, and they have been together ever since. In 2006 (Sunday, April 2nd to be precise) those two people, once strangers now married, tied the knot right where it all began, at The Lodge. With their friends and family at their side and peanut shells beneath their feet it's all come full circle for David Benner and Kim Nolan, who are proud to be the first couple to ever be wed at the landmark tavern.

Like a Rube Goldberg invention all the pieces of this story just sort of fell into place as if by some glorious design, and it worked. David was in town from Michigan for a convention, after a long day of work he wasn't much up for going to a bar, but his friends insisted. Kim faced a similar situation on her end, tired from working all day in a restaurant near Division Street, but again fate (and party happy friends) intervened and they both went to The Lodge that night. She wasn't all dolled up, not out to impress anybody and certainly not expecting to meet the man of her dreams; just out in a sweatshirt and a baseball hat. As it turns out David thinks girls in baseball hats are cute and asked he her to dance, they hit it off immediately. At the end of the evening she gave him her business card and told him to drop by at her restaurant sometime. He did. The very next day he came in for lunch. "I saw that he had several bags from American Girl Place full of dolls for his daughters, I thought to myself: any man who can buy and walk around with all those dolls must be a keeper." Over the next few years they fell in love and got engaged, but that isn't where this story ends.

David and Kim are from different religious backgrounds, and were finding it hard to decide on a place to be wed. Many options were discussed over drinks at what has become their regular hang out, The Lodge. "I wanted to be married somewhere that was important to me." Kim reflects on the day they made their choice. "It was becoming very complicated. We were talking to Jimmy (Jim Borchers) and some guy at the bar about it. When the guy left, Jimmy asked me if I could believe that that guy was a priest! So I met the priest that performed the ceremony at The Lodge too!" Now that is fate! Kim decided right then and there she would have her wedding right were she was, where everybody knows her name, and they're always glad she came. "My mom keeps calling it the church, 'what time am I supposed to be at the church honey?' It's quite amusing."

The marriage of Kim Nolan and David Benner Sunday, April 2nd was the first wedding to take place inside the longstanding place-to-be Lodge Tavern. After fifty years of meetings and greetings over libations and cocktail peanuts frankly it's surprising that it's taken this long to happen. We couldn't be happier for our star crossed regulars. Cheers David and Kim, may the years together be happy healthy, many, and FUN!

CONTACT & HOURS:

16 W. Division Street, Chicago, IL
Email: Lodge
Phone: (312) 642-4406

Private Party Packages available for gatherings large or small. Click here for more details on planning your next party.

Hours:
Open at 2pm Mon-Thur, 12pm Fri-Sun.
Sun-Fri until 4am.
Saturday until 5am.