August 05, 2021
Chicago
From the Chicago Blues to the Cubby's to the question of pizza. Chicago has long been part of Americana folklore. Take a quick coffee break with us, pull up a chair in your mind at Wormhole coffee and take a stroll through Chicago.
Chicagos little Italy is a magnificent testament to a diverse culture, it’s the stuff of legend. Mario's Italian Lemonade has been serving since the 1950s and the Maxwell Street Market has been running longer than Usain Bolt. Truth is Chicago was a haven for many people back in the day, it was a beacon of hope during the ‘great migration’ an industrial town that gave hope to African American people escaping Jim Crow laws. This then led to one of Chicagos most famous exports… The Chicago Blues. The Chicago blues started off in the Maxwell Street Markets as mentioned earlier – where local musicians would gather to play to each other, as the popularity grew – it grew into a huge movement which led to the opening of Blues clubs in the city (the most prominent of which was Ruby Lee Gatewood's Tavern, known as the ‘Gates’. This movement inspired so many musicians across the world and led to the boom of many of the great rock bands in the UK and America from the late 60s onwards. Some of which almost ‘borrowed’ a little too much.
Pizza was another story altogether, when you piece these fractions of the puzzle together they make a whole. Immigrants from Naples brought Pizza over to Chicago in the early 1900s (American is home to some of the oldest Pizzerias in the world) and as Chicago became more and more industrialised and working class, the blue collar workers of the day needed something more substantial to fuel the hard working days. The tale of the crust is wilfully embellished and as time has passed on, the Pizzeria ‘Uno’ is taking more than the market share of the mythology of the humble Pizza pie, begun in the 40s the two owner brothers created deep dish in the first instance, but not however ‘the best slice’. Just like coffee though, we guess it's subjective and best just means ‘preferred’ by certain people. Tradition does go a long way though.
Despite the picture of an industrialised hard working grey immigrant working class city being built up, Chicago does still have some picturesque neighbourhoods and areas, Chicago City hall has a rooftop garden that is filled with around 20000 species of plants, strolling through Pilsen's neighbourhood will keep your eyes wide, with some gorgeous murals emblazoned across the walls and finally if you want to see how spirituality can place itself within a working city go and visit the Bah’ai House of Worship, one of only eight Bah’ai places of worship in the world, Bah’ai is a fairly new religion which calls for the viewing of all religions as ‘divine messengers of faith’ and calls for the ‘Unity of all people’.
In between crushing your face with deep dish pizza, calling for the unity of all people and listening to the blues, maybe you could go to a ball game.
#GOCUBBIES.
Chicagos little Italy is a magnificent testament to a diverse culture, it’s the stuff of legend. Mario's Italian Lemonade has been serving since the 1950s and the Maxwell Street Market has been running longer than Usain Bolt. Truth is Chicago was a haven for many people back in the day, it was a beacon of hope during the ‘great migration’ an industrial town that gave hope to African American people escaping Jim Crow laws. This then led to one of Chicagos most famous exports… The Chicago Blues. The Chicago blues started off in the Maxwell Street Markets as mentioned earlier – where local musicians would gather to play to each other, as the popularity grew – it grew into a huge movement which led to the opening of Blues clubs in the city (the most prominent of which was Ruby Lee Gatewood's Tavern, known as the ‘Gates’. This movement inspired so many musicians across the world and led to the boom of many of the great rock bands in the UK and America from the late 60s onwards. Some of which almost ‘borrowed’ a little too much.
Pizza was another story altogether, when you piece these fractions of the puzzle together they make a whole. Immigrants from Naples brought Pizza over to Chicago in the early 1900s (American is home to some of the oldest Pizzerias in the world) and as Chicago became more and more industrialised and working class, the blue collar workers of the day needed something more substantial to fuel the hard working days. The tale of the crust is wilfully embellished and as time has passed on, the Pizzeria ‘Uno’ is taking more than the market share of the mythology of the humble Pizza pie, begun in the 40s the two owner brothers created deep dish in the first instance, but not however ‘the best slice’. Just like coffee though, we guess it's subjective and best just means ‘preferred’ by certain people. Tradition does go a long way though.
Despite the picture of an industrialised hard working grey immigrant working class city being built up, Chicago does still have some picturesque neighbourhoods and areas, Chicago City hall has a rooftop garden that is filled with around 20000 species of plants, strolling through Pilsen's neighbourhood will keep your eyes wide, with some gorgeous murals emblazoned across the walls and finally if you want to see how spirituality can place itself within a working city go and visit the Bah’ai House of Worship, one of only eight Bah’ai places of worship in the world, Bah’ai is a fairly new religion which calls for the viewing of all religions as ‘divine messengers of faith’ and calls for the ‘Unity of all people’.
In between crushing your face with deep dish pizza, calling for the unity of all people and listening to the blues, maybe you could go to a ball game.
#GOCUBBIES.