Checkerboard Lounge

Still rolling on the river

2013-02-14 07:29:00

These days, Dar Lopez approaches the Riverwalk Blues and Music Festival with a degree of humility. It's rooted, perhaps, in the organizer's abiding respect for the event's late founder, Don Cohen, who inaugurated the all-day party in the parking lot of...

The creative stew that was Bronzeville

2012-02-12 00:00:00

On Nov. 22, 1981, the Rolling Stones paid tribute to black history at the Checkerboard Lounge on East 43rd Street. In town for concerts at the then-Rosemont Horizon, the famed rock group made a pilgrimage to the South Side, where their musical style and...

Playing the blues in black AND white

2011-11-26 00:00:00

On a recent Wednesday night at Blue Chicago, a long-running club downtown, you had to elbow your way forward just to get past the doorman. Men and women in business suits — collars loosened, beers in hand — packed the place, barely leaving...

Buddy Guy relocates Legends; new state-of-the-art blues club set to open

2010-05-14 04:32:41

Terry Armour: Life lived to fullest

2007-12-31 00:00:00

Chicago Tribune colleagues share their memories of Terry Armour When I met Terry Armour in December 1981, we were copy clerks in the Tribune newsroom, and I never would have dreamed this wacky guy from the South Side would turn out to be a multimedia...

Can this man heat up Hyde Park?

2005-09-08 09:47:08

Where is Chicago's next hot restaurant zone? We've already seen the Miracle on Randolph Street, West Division's dining surge, the South Loop's gradual buildup. What's next? Would you believe ... Hyde Park? Don't scoff. Or, go ahead and scoff. No one saw...

Sip and sound off

2006-01-13 14:12:39

Red Ivy "Great job on the interior; this is a very cool space. The food was quite good; the service was slow; but for a new place, I can let that slide. The music doesn't fit the bar at all. You'd expect rock/pop/hip-hop at a sports bar; you get...

Reviving a Checkered past

2005-11-22 15:36:16

The owners of the New Checkerboard Lounge for Blues 'n' Jazz in Hyde Park have an almost impossible task: keep the blues purists happy and make the new jazz crowd feel at home. To do this, they'll need to keep the focus on the music and people that made...

What's the buzz?

2005-12-28 00:00:00

So many bars. So many cocktails. So little time to test them all, you say? We hear ya. From neighborhood hangs to spacious lounges, we've rounded up the hottest themes in this year's crop of new Chicago bars and clubs. Weed Street scene Weed Street...

Grub match!

2005-11-29 00:00:00

Ask anyone who works in a restaurant, and you'll hear the same thing: This is one tough business. Even in a chow town like Chicago, where dining out is a way of life, competition for stomachs--and wallets--is fierce. Industry watchers barely bat an eye as...

Ask us!

2005-11-16 00:00:00

"What's a great bar/club to attend for a New Year's bash?" -Amy Even though we're still thinking Thanksgiving Eve, we know the hyper-organized among us are already planning NYE, so here are a few bashes worth looking into. The Ninth Annual New Year's Eve...

Something's bubbly

2005-12-29 13:11:07

Midnight in the garden of good and eve-il Forget those procrastinators who haven't finalized their NYE plans. You've been booked for months--with time to spare for preparty cheer. Break that little black dress or bowtie out of the closet one night early,...

He wasn't a native Chicagoan but may as well have been for his development of the Chicago blues sound and subsequent legendary status in the city and the blues community. His historic 1981 performance with the Rolling Stones at the Checkerboard Lounge on the South Side is available on DVD.

2013-04-22 12:29:11

Park 52, a fine-dining restaurant by Jerry Kleiner (of Red Light and Carnivale), shares space with the New Checkerboard Lounge .

2008-12-12 07:52:09

New Checkerboard Lounge for Blues 'n' Jazz, 5201 S. Harper Ct.. Owner L.C. Thurman reopened the noted South Side music room in Hyde Park 's Harper Court mall.

2008-12-12 07:48:35