Ownership has snaked through different owners and co-owners over the years, starting with original “penurious entrepreneur” E.J. Vangelder (his quoted title given to him by the bar’s own About Us page). Eventually, ownership stabilized with Art Klug and ex-wife Beatrice who oversaw the evolution of the space, matching the steady evolution of the neighborhood outside. Separate, unexpected deaths of both Klug’s in the same year resulted in another ownership shift to Tobin Mitchell before eventually landing with current owner Bruce Elliott.
Walking into Old Town Ale House feels a bit like walking into a portrait gallery that happens to serve alcohol (open until 4 AM no less), the symptom of Elliott’s prolific painting career that has spanned Old Town locals, Second City celebrities and other prominent, honorary bar dignitaries. Elliott’s painting talents were originally deployed in service of a vintage mural along the back wall of the space originally painted in 1971 featuring a cast of regular bar patrons. Expanding the mural led to additional framed photos of other regulars, quickly covering most of the bar’s interior walls.
But perhaps most interestingly, the art collection includes a series of nude images of political figures, a practice that started with a post-Republic Convention Sarah Palin piece that depicted her naked atop a bearskin rug, gun in hand. The collection has grown to include pieces that feature Newt Gingring, Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin (as a ballerina) and others, offering no shortage of conversation starters posted around the room. Elliott’s eccentricities extend from painting in to a multi-stage banning system for bar offenders, the first tier of which puts the patron on probation, meaning they are able to buy drinks but not shots.