The Green Mill

The Green Mill Cocktail Lounge is a Chicago landmark for jazz, dixieland and bebop performances, played by some of the country's most legendary and new musicians.  

Opened in 1907, then known as Pop Morse's Roadhouse. Like many taverns of the day, it serviced mourners who came to bury loved ones at St. Boniface Cemetery. It became The Green Mill Gardens in 1910 and headlined stars such as Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor and Sophie Tucker.  

By the Roaring Twenties, the Mill was frequented by gangsters and survived a colorful era. Today, The Green Mill has been refurbished to its art nouveau and deco glory and it remains one of the city's great live jazz venues, patterned after Clark Monroe's Uptown House located in Harlem.  

With its plush, romantic interior, large booths and long bar, this former speakeasy still reflects its golden age, packing patrons in for not only jazz but swing and poetry, too. Yes, poetry.  

In 1986, poet Marc Smith, moved his legendary poetry readings to The Green Mill, creating the Uptown Poetry Slams in which aspiring and professional poets take to the open mike for reading competitions.  

There's no other cocktail lounge in Chicago that has the look and ambiance of The Green Mill and it is worth a visit for its history alone. Packed to standing room only on performance nights, it attracts a varied clientele. Authentic in style and decor, a night at "the Mill" whether it be for a nightcap or a performance, will be one to remember.  

- by Lori Rotenberk , Chicago Reporter for HelloMetro  (Click to leave a message)

Lori Rotenberk

Lori Rotenberk graduated from Drake University and is a Chicago-based journalist whose work has appeared in The Boston Globe, Newsweek and various magazines. She worked as a staff reporter on The Chicago Sun-Times, the suburban section of The Chicago Tribune and The Des Moines Register. In addition, she has studied fiction writing in adult education at the University of Chicago.