Bars

Sic Transit Drunkia, Marie’s Riptide Lounge

We could try describing Marie’s Riptide Lounge in Bucktown, but we think this Yelper had already captured it with majestic precision:

It was like time had stopped. Marie’s is still the same ole dive you go to when the other bars are closed. Everyone’s WASTED, you’re going to hear “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before” at least twice, you will probably run into some other drunken friend you weren’t meant to see, and you’ll probably do a shot or two.

You could spend an afternoon reading them, and we may, but the point is, Marie herself passed into history in 2011 and now the 51-year-old bar, famous for its jukebox of 45s and old Chicago drunkenness and an appearance on Conan O’Brien’s show, seems likely to join her— it owes a six-figure probate bill, apparently, and one report says it will close after tomorrow. Though according to Redeye, that was news to actual owner Tina Congenie, and may have come from an employee trying to rally support from customers on Twitter. (Chicagoist has more on the complicated and confusing legal issues, which make it pretty clear that Marie’s goose is cooked.) Somehow it’s appropriate that the save-Marie’s message is kind of incoherent, but anyway, if you want one last visit to the this piece of a vanishing Chicago, tonight and tomorrow night appear to be it.

Sic Transit Drunkia, Marie’s Riptide Lounge