Grateful Dead Fans are happy when Garcia gets an opening date

Let us clear that out of the way: It was a long, strange journey for Peter Shapiro and his efforts to open a venue in Chicago. The concert promoter has been a special affection for Chicago since its completion at Northwestern University in the suburb of Evanston, and local fans of the Grateful Dead have felt this love.

“I love Chicago. I wanted to do the Dead 50 things here because I knew how people would react, ”says Shapiro during an interview, while I am in a green velvet cabin in Garcia's, his West Loop Music event location and ode at the lead guitarists and the singer of The Dead, Jerry Garcia. “It was so fulfilling – and I really wanted to do that here.”

Garcia's, which was first announced in 2019, finally has an opening date – Friday, March 21st, on 1001 W. Washington Boulevard. The complete opening of the opening concert will be announced on Thursday, March 6th.

“Jerry and the dead are larger than ever,” says Shapiro. “And people live this life, do you know? I think people will come and we're not finished yet. “

Part of the restaurant, divisible and part of the music venue is a collaboration with Garcia's family -owned and Shapiros concert promotion company Dayglo present. Shapiro also has Brooklyn Bowl locations in New York and Las Vegas as well as in the Capitol Theater and in Bearsville Theater. Shapiro previously hoped to open a outpost in Chicago in his music and bowling chain Brooklyn Bowl in the West loop, but efforts were made in 2016. In 2019 he paid attention to a package on the corner of Washington Boulevard and Morgan Street.

The Garcia family played a role in the room. The chef Ivy Carthen, who worked for the Last Call Tavern Group, says that family members shared some of the most popular foods in Jerry Garcia and also influences of San Francisco and Spain, two places full of dead fans. For example, a mixed roast coffee – half dark and half bright – is sent from the Bay Area, where Garcia was born and grew up. Finally, Garcia's – not to be confused with the Lincoln Square restaurant of the same name – plans to add the Brunch service (possibly a buffet style) with live music on the weekends.

Garcia's is inspired by a jazz club when it comes to the layout of space and stage.

Shapiro wants the Chicagoers to know that the event location will book a diverse group of bands and is based on the legacy of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival -an event with jazz, jam bands, Bluegrass and World Music -in which many dead heads take part every year.

The pandemic put the restaurant and the live music industry in danger and together with Garcia's future. Shapiro says he remembers a trip to a milk queen in New Haven, Michigan. He had a due rent and at that time he had to decide whether he would pull the connector in the Chicago Club. Shapiro's love for Chicago and the property convinced him to stick to the room. He calls the property a “unicorn building”. It was the former home of the Wishbone Restaurant and has a connected parking lot, which means that the room has no pillars that hinder the view of the stage. As a result of pandemic, the public accepts the QR codes and cashless payments more and facilitates a place of music.

Chef Koch Carthen has grew up a chicago born in Irving, Texas, and has experience with music sites, which two decades to his time until his time as executive boss and general manager at Eddy Clearwater's Reservation Blues, a Wicker Park Club, who was closed in 2005 and now houses the Revel area.

“It was a long time ago,” says Carthen. “It's great to return to the scene of the music organizers and see something like that.”

On the menu, which was developed by Carthen and Lowder-Tascarella Hospitality-one advice that has worked with luxury hotels and restaurants via buttermilk frame chicken and cod. Carthen says he doesn't want the starters to be too heavy, so the customers still want to get up and dance (Shapiro points out that “groove” gives plenty of space – he just wants to make sure that his employees are on board to dance in the corridors). Milk shakes will be a large part of the menu, says Carthen. Karthen know Garcia's love for travel and says that he will come into phases in global flavors like a Jama -Hühnchen -Lider from Jamaica.

The room was designed by Tristam Steinberg and, for example, was reinvented with ada-compliant lifts. Also as a gag there is a life -size skeleton that is dressed like a dead fan that is filled into a ceiling beam. The skeleton will have disappeared on the opening day, but the fans should look for subtle Garcia references throughout the room.

Garcia played his last show with the Grateful Dead on July 6, 1995 in the Field Soldier. Shapiro, who is busy writing an SMS or talking to managers in the weeks before the opening, stopped and reflected on the trip.

“You know, things happen for a certain reason,” says Shapiro.

Garcias1001 W. Washington Boulevard, opened Friday, March 21st.