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Upon awakening from this most recent fantasy, I found my eyes focused near the middle of the Reader article “House Blend: Will the eclectic Logan Beach Cafe change under new management?” (Our Town, January 16, 1998). “Yes,” I say to myself, “it’s right here! Artistic foment, originality, experimentation, and exchange of ideas are right here in Logan Square. Do I need Paris?” Upon hitting the last paragraph I’m hopeful that the cafe, which drew me to this neighborhood in the first place, might just survive after all. It might even take a new step or two.
Another such cafe, Urbus Orbis, which was larger and better known than Logan Beach, was featured recently in a front-page spread [November 21]. I read about its tale of woe and ultimate shutdown on December 31. Urbus Orbis was justly characterized as a main force in defining the Wicker Park we know today. In his regular column, the Reader’s Peter Margasak has been chronicling the bumpy roads traveled by several other such places–places like Lunar Cabaret, the Bop Shop, and HotHouse. He has invited us to celebrate the survival of such places as Myopic Books, the Empty Bottle, Unity Temple (Oak Park), the Velvet Lounge, and the freshly underway series at Xoinx. Just what is surviving at these places, which are not found in tourist magazines? What is going on in these hidden jewels?
N. Kedzie
