Best Roadhouse This Side of Austin - Irish American News

22 IRISH AMERICAN NEWS June 2008FitzGerald’s: Destination MusicBy Cliff CarlsonTurning ideas into action. It’seasy to talk about, but not soeasy to do. Billgerald probably doesn’t thinkof himself as a man of action,but he is. “It all started on a NewYear’s Day at a friends apartment.A bunch of us were talking abouthow great it would be to owna bar that played live music. Imentioned the Deer Lodge andwondered if it would be up forsale. It was run down, but itseemed like the perfect spot tobegin,” said Bill.A few in the group wereenthusiastic. This is the pointwhere ideas usually begin to fallapart. But, Bill took the first stepand inquired about it. “I foundout the Deer Lodge was in theprocess of being sold,” saidFitzGerald. Most move on tonew ideas at this point. Not Bill.He expressed his interest to theowner of the place anyway. Thesale fell through. The owner offeredthe Deer Lodge to Bill.An idea that germinated onNew Year’s Day, 1978 became areality on March 20th – less thanthree months later – when Bill,his father, Chris, and his brother,Chris, teamed up to make thepurchase.“My brother and I were paintersby trade, and my father wasa writer and editor. Luckily, weall considered ourselves prettyhandy when it came to fixingthings,” said Bill.It’s a good thing because therewas a lot of work to do. It was amajor nine month do-it-yourselfproject. The idea was to renovate,bringing out the best in thebuilding. They scoured auctionsand sales and upgraded all of theequipment in the place.“With a little help from mybrother Chris and I, my fatherrewired the entire place, andredid all the plumbing. He dida great job. Everything is stillworking,” laughed Bill.The bar was painted red.Underneath the paint was abeautiful mahogany bar. Vinyltiles were removed exposing aperfectly fine solid maple floor.Thursday, December, 18, 1980FitzGerald’s in Berwyn opened.Friday they held their first liveJazz session. The place tookoff fairly quickly, evolving intothe eclectic mix of music theyspecialize in today, much to thechagrin of the jazz purists.“There was a point where wecould have just been a jazz club,or a Chicago Blues club, andbeen successful, but I think wemade the right decision. Theplace is more interesting,” said available. We never would haveFitzGerald.expanded without the financialOver twenty years later, after support of the city,” said Bill.a couple of abandoned attempts On September 11, 2001 theat expansion, The FitzGeralds family broke ground on themade the leap, expanding into restaurant. “With the events ofthe restaurant and catering business.“My dad was always keen we were getting ourselves in to,”that day we all wondered whaton the idea of serving food here. remembered Bill.He even took us to the Wishbone Brother Chris and his wifeRestaurant on Grand Avenue to Kathleen, ran the foodserviceshow us his example of a well for several years. It got to berun restaurant with excellent quite a chore for them. Dad’sfood,” exclaimed Bill.original idea of modeling theOver time the FitzGeralds restaurant after the Wishbonebought the building to the West operation wasn’t too far off. Theof the club. When the bakery FitzGeralds contacted Wishbone,to the East of the club became and offered them the foodservicebusiness that FitzGerald’savailable the family knew it wastime to make the move. had built. Wishbone accepted.“We almost expanded twice before,but circumstances weren’t got Wishbone!” said Bill.“We wanted Wishbone, and wequite right. The third time must Wishbone runs all the foodservicefor all the parties athave been the charm. The cityof Berwyn offered TIF money, FitzGerald’s, and man, can theyand made a low interest loan hold a party! For 28 straightFitzgerald Clan