Slainte!

For many years I used to frequent my favorite pub in Chicago, The Red Lion for a pint of Guinness. The Red Lion was a traditional English pub located on Lincoln Avenue across from the infamous Biograph Theater (the location where gangster John Dillinger spent his last evening with the "Lady in Red" before being gunned down in the alley next door). The Pub was supposedly one of the most haunted locations in Chicago and was an extremely popular destination on Halloween. The Red Lion was usually a stop for my friends and I on St. Patrick's Day, the first of many stops in a City that loves it's Irish.

While I was attending Columbia College in Chicago finishing up my undergrad degree I would hop off the Red Line (at Fullerton, a stop on the "L") and walk to The Red Lion for a Guinness and my favorite meal, the Ploughman's Lunch. The Ploughman's Lunch consists of a large wedge or 2 of cheese, crusty slices of bread, butter, pickles (Branston) and sometimes a side of green salad, sliced apples, pickled onions and a hard boiled egg. Delicious and perfect with a beer.

A few years ago The Red Lion closed. Lincoln Avenue ceased to be a destination of mine as a result of the pub closing and the Victory Gardens Theater taking over the Biograph Theater. Ah how times have changed and not for the better. I have yet to find a pub in Chicago that serves a better Ploughman's Lunch.

What ever you are doing for St. Patrick's Day:

Walls for the wind,
And a roof for the rain,
And drinks beside the fire.
Laughter to cheer you
And those you love near you,
...And all that your heart may desire!-----Irish Blessing