Dreamscape: Oysters on Van Buren

[maggiethecat]

You know that stretch of Van Buren under the El, which still has the western wear shop, the seedy storefronts, “Chinese” restaurants? Back in the day, the burlesque dives, and ---imagine-- the only porn delivery system: the bookstore.

Once upon a time there was a subterranean oyster bar at the corner of State and Van Buren. In the late sixties a guy shucked oysters after midnight, the décor was murky, and the lighting level made the clientèle unreadable.

Does anyone else remember this place? Chicago is not lousy with oyster bars, and it was a dreamlike place, a manga place. Dark, everything else was closed, no Hard Rock Cafes or Popeye's or McDonald's. Four dozen fresh shucked oysters, four beers, ten bucks.

Unlike the other genuine subterranean Chicago joint, the Billy Goat, it wasn’t populated with journalists and printers from the Trib and Sun Times who’d put their papers to bed. The clientèle were elevator repair men, hotel workers, newsstand operators, cab drivers, strippers, and seafood lovers who kept late hours. Some sketchy folks.

Does anyone else remember this place and put a name to it? I’d be happy just to get validation that it existed.