The Green Mill Cocktail Lounge (4802 N. Broadway, “sophisticated informality”) is located in Chicago’s Uptown Neighborhood, and home to jazz and swing nights and Patricia Barber’s regular Monday night gig, as well as the world’s longest running poetry slam, hosted by Marc Kelly Smith (“so what?). Inspired by the Moulin Rouge in Paris—“the red mill”—the space itself, which has been featured in movies including High Fidelity and The Untouchables, is charming and dark, with stained glass and cozy booths, and both martinis and Schlitz.

Orginally Pop Morse’s Gardens, a place with a beer garden and a “Rhumba Room,” the Green Mill became the Green Mill in 1910, when Tom Chamales bought it from Pop Morse and installed a green windmill on the roof. Charlie Chaplin would come in for drinks sometimes. Next Chamales leased the building to the mob, at which point it became a speakeasy and favorite of Al Capone. Whenever he came in, the band would stop whatever they were playing and launch into “Rhapsody in Blue.” During this time, Billie Holiday, Tommy Dorsey, Al Jolson, Bix Beiderbecke, and Benny Goodman played here. In 1942, after Capone’s arrest, the Green Mill was purchased by the Batsis Brothers, who installed air conditioning and much of the present-day décor. In 1986, Dave Jemilo took over and reinvigorated. Three different ghosts have been identified here—a woman who likes to sit on the piano, a former employee, and a flirty former regular.