The Big Bop is closing, and you know, I’ve never been in it. For me it has just been an ugly purple building with lots of music fans lined up out front. I’m trying to remember what was there before, but that bit of information is locked somewhere in the memory banks. I understand it’s going to be a furniture store, removing one more obstacle to the gentrification on that whole strip. I recall when The Sanctuary closed a number of years ago, becoming a 5-Bucks, starting that ball rolling.
Curiously, I do remember what was in the Sanctuary space before that slice of Goth heaven opened. It was the Claremont Tavern. Towards the end it was what is sometimes called an “old man’s bar”, but in my parents day, it was a place to go dancing. Those were the days when Czehoski, at Queen and Euclid, wasn’t a swanky restaurant, but instead a place where my parents lined up before Christmas and Easter to get the best kielbassa in town. They wouldn’t dream of buying it anywhere else because the Czehoski brothers had “the recipe”.
I also remember The Pine Tree, which was located at Queen and Palmerston on the NE corner. In the 80s it was a nice little bar. I remember going there a number of times to see Joanne Mackell and her band at the time, The Yahoos. Further east, we’d go to the Cameron and see the late great Handsome Ned, who checked out in 1987 at just 30 years old.
I was living in an old hardware store on Ossington Ave. I had converted it into a live-in studio – two studios actually, with a shared kitchen. I loved that crazy space. It still had the hardware store peg-board walls, and I loaded up on peg-board hooks and hung art everywhere. Later, when we were given the boot, it became a Vietnamese coffee house.
Memories.
27th Street 
Hey I know Darling Hobie too!
But Four Dinners is right we preferred the drunk old men.
I remember well all the early bars as Claremont, The Pine Tree (saw Lefty Frizell there once) and the Holiday Tavern. I also loved all the clubs that moved into those spaces. The Sanctuary Club where I became a high priestess of the Terminator 2 game…then in the old Pine Tree was a great place to go dancing called the Boom Boom. It had a great decor with a balcony catwalk surrounding the dancefloor. I spent many many happy hours at the Big Bop. Several friends worked there including Hobie and Karl. I loved all the little rooms and dance areas. In one of my old photo albums I have pics of people dancing and lounging there.
I guess it’s nice to know that someone believes peopel can afford to buy furniture. Around here in Chicago furniture stores are closing, bars are closing…you can feel the depressed economy.
oh
My
God
Candy, you saw Lefty Frizzell??? I am so so jealous!!!
My inlaws’ house in London became a grow-op, which was discovered only when there was a fire. Funny how things change.
Drunk old men are safer than drunk kids. Trust me I’ve been both…well…still am one of ’em..
Your old home turned into a Vietnamese Resaurant?? Good grief. The bedsitter I had when I first came south fell down a couple of years back. Killed a few including the chap in my old room. Nowt I did to it honest!!!
It was the Holiday Tavern before. I lived kitty corner to it in a 3000 sq ft loft when I was a puppy. The Bop moved in and the area got filled with drunk kids as opposed to drunk old men. (my roommate worked there, but I only went in once)