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29 Jun 99 - 09:43 PM (#90868) Subject: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Joe Offer Art Thieme asked me to post this, which came from the Chicago Tribune -Joe Offer- NO EXIT CAFE IS SHOWN THE DOOR AFTER 40 YEARS
OFF-THE-BEATEN-PATH COFFEEHOUSE COMES TO THE END OF ITS BOTTOMLESS CUP.
By Marla Donato
Tribune Staff Writer
Unless a savior appears soon, a small but important chunk of Chicago's poetry, performance art and folk music history is about to be swallowed up by a decaying street hidden behind the "L" tracks in East Rogers Park. The No Exit Cafe, an off-the-beaten-path coffeehouse at 6970 N. Glenwood Ave., is due to shut its doors for good Wednesday, marking the end of a nearly 41-year run as one of the city's oldest coffeehouses and last bastions of bohemia offering hearty cheap eats and a bottomless cup of coffee. A wake last Friday, an $8 benefit to pay a mountain of bills, spilled out into the street and lasted until the early morning hours--with at least 100 people showing up to pay their last respects to the cafe, which is nearly twice as old as many of them. It was an ironic last gasp for the funky cafe, which has stubbornly survived more than four decades in three North Side locations. (Evanston's Foster Street was the original site in 1958.) But it has steadily been losing business because its street has been going downhill and its customers have been going upscale. Brian Kozin, one of the last in a line of at least five cafe owners, said the business now requires a Herculean effort to just keep going. "We just couldn't do it anymore," said Kozin, a jewelry-maker by trade who conceded that while he didn't get into the business to make a pile of cash, he can't afford to keep losing much either. "Nobody owns a coffeehouse like this to make money. You own it for the romance of it." The No Exit provided an outlet for some still obscure and other now-famous regulars, including folk singer Steve Goodman, author Saul Bellow, "Saturday Night Live" writer Michael McCarthy, and actor Tracy Letts, whose play "Killer Joe" made it to the New York stage. Even the building, which dates to the 1920s, has a colorful history. Kozin said before he moved the cafe from around the corner, the building was home to the Sherman Bridge Club, a front for an illegal card gambling club that was frequented by elderly card sharks who would wager thousands on games. He said they spit on the ground in front of the building after he transformed it into the bookish beat joint in 1984. The No Exit still kept its gaming spirit and was one of a handful of places where the obscure Asian board game of Go was played by cafe regulars who sometimes beat Asians at their own game and have the trophies in Korean to prove it. Its decor is basic burlap, and, scattered among the books, dusty Beethoven bust, plants and artwork, is a bear's head that was rescued from the alley. A wild boar, which treed a local beat cop vacationing in Arkansas, succumbed to a bullet from the cop's service revolver and currently is sporting a construction hat on its head and a stuffed South Park character in its mouth. It overlooks the cafe's small obligatory no-smoking section. The cafe, named after a play about bickering characters trapped in a small room that was penned by French intellectual Jean-Paul Sartre, has had its share of intellectuals, but Kozin said mostly it has fostered its own offbeat magic and fun. "But after 22 years, it's not fun anymore. We can't pay the bills and my wife's health is suffering," he said. So, last year, Kozin and his wife, Sue, found a buyer for the cafe and planned to chuck most of their possessions, buy an R.V. and hit the open road. But the deal fell through, and the Kozins' 19-year-old daughter, Lesley, managed to keep the cafe open for a year with help from family and friends, including boyfriend Pete Wolf, 26, who helped keep the cafe's legendary open-mike poetry nights. For about 15 years before that, the open-mike music and poetry nights were run by Michael O'Toole, who recalled some of the club's more notable performances, including the tale of the tie-dyed toga poet who encouraged everyone to get naked and go to the nearby beach, and then dropped his toga. And then there was the occasional street drunk who would wander up on stage to take part in the improv group's weekly performance. "One drunk was actually pretty good, and we were trying to work with him," said Tim Beamish of the cafe's theater group Bang Bang Spontaneous Theater. "But he just didn't know when to end the scene," O'Toole said.
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30 Jun 99 - 12:15 PM (#91040) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Art Thieme The last night for the No Exit is tonight---June 30th, 1999. It is/was a throwback to the beatnik days when I started playing there back in 1960 (did gigs there for 37 yrs.) A half inch of dust on the floor---2 inches of wise & funny and angry graffiti on the uniquely aromatic men's room walls... To paraphrase John Steinbeck-----The No Exit Coffeehouse in Chicago "is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.....iron and rust---a weedy lot next door---gathered and scattered volumes of classic transporting poetry and prose---whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches. Lookin' through another peephole, you might say saints and angels and martyrs and holy men----and you would mean the same thing." I would add a few more: The "L" train at 3:00 AM going home---18 years of Thursday night gigs---young love better than it'll ever be again--music and friends forever---the espresso machine (before anyone else knew what it was) unfailingly HISSSSSING LOUDLY in the middle of your quiet songs---catching your favorite gal's eyes sparking & sparkling as you do "Stealin"-----the drunken proffit careening down the street saying of his companion one night, "I found her in the bushes in the park under a huge rock, and she's been here ever since."---the elevated tracks 40 feet away crackling and flashing from iced up tracks----but mostly ALL THE PEOPLE. They came to the coffeehouse with too much of one kind of love and not enough of another kind. At the NO EXIT, for all those shining years, they traded and swapped----and then went home incandescently enriched---and sometimes, hand-in-hand. Some day, I'd love to show you all the photos I took there---but they could never capture the wonder of the memories of all the times and traumas and exhilerations of the best of the good years--the ones before the street and the neighborhood went to hell and desperate folks with little hope made it seem too dangerous to say, "Let's go to the EXIT tonight!" It never (or rarely) was TOO dangerous. Friends, there will never, ever be a place that was more like our livingroom---a real oasis--with a real palm tree back around 1970. Or was it 1963? It's all fading to a sepia, sun-bleached, air-brushed, sundown long-shadowed memory that'll be here with me as long as I have the ability to recollect. I do wish you'd been there . Art Thieme |
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30 Jun 99 - 12:23 PM (#91042) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Art Thieme PLEASE check out MICHAEL SMITH's unbelevably accurate song called "ELIZABETH DARK" on his __TIME__ CD. It's about the NO EXIT without actually saying the name of the place. |
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30 Jun 99 - 12:30 PM (#91045) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: harpgirl ...what a nice tribute, Art!...auction mad autoharpy |
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30 Jun 99 - 01:26 PM (#91065) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Allan C. A Cafe Here In Town by Allan C. Clark
The doors are closed and locked
The smells of smoke and beer
My thoughts hold many pictures
We learned about the people -
Oh what a time we had there!
All the lessons that I learned, |
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30 Jun 99 - 06:54 PM (#91159) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Art Thieme ...just to put this near the top tonight |
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30 Jun 99 - 10:44 PM (#91212) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Big Mick Bro Arthur, I am known to be a pretty good wordsmith. But in my entire life I will never write a more eloquent tribute to and description of anything as you did of the No Exit. I ache that I never got to experience it. I was in Benton Harbor a couple of hours ago. Had I realized that tonight was the last night, I would have been there. And my dear friend, I am going to hold you to that promise to show me the pix. Thanks for sharing in a way that made me feel the specialness of this place. And thanks for showing me a bit more the special being that is Mr. Art Thieme. Mick |
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01 Jul 99 - 01:30 AM (#91252) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Joe Offer Yeah, Art, you were downright poetic. You've told all sorts of great stories about folk music in Chicago, and it makes me regret that I didn't take advantage of it when I lived nearby. I went to Illinois all the time when I lived in southeast Wisconsin, but usually I ended up at Old Orchard shopping center. I think it had something to do with the fact that my folks were driving the car.... -Joe Offer- |
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01 Jul 99 - 10:26 AM (#91347) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Art Thieme Mick, Harp, Joe, Allan--thanks. Just what I felt about the grungy and grand old place. I did call last night---poetry night. They were busy & I'm glad. They had to put the phone down while Brian & Sue Kozin, the last owners, came to the phone and I got a chance to, for a final time, listen through the phone line to the espresso machine steaming while someone tried to perform. It was always smoke-filled there and I'm sure tons o' second hand smoke was ingested by me over the years. But no matter--that was life then. (We used too say: When I was young we didn't have cholesterol, but if we had, we would've fried it!) Life goes on and we live in the present. To quote Willa Cather in _Lucy Gayheart_ (a favorite book; page 1): "When we do mention the name it is with a gentle glow in the face or the voice, a confidential glance which says, 'Yes, you, too, remember?" And there's always a chance that the place will "rise again" (Stan Rogers) after 3 days---or whatever. In it's heyday, it didn't get the press or the notoriety that some of the up-town booze places got, but it persevered. For some of us, it was simply the best place to be. The John Steinbeck book I paraphrased earlier in the thread was _Cannery Row_ . Art |
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01 Jul 99 - 05:40 PM (#91468) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: LEJ Art...I was never there, but thanks to your poem I feel like I was. I was too young for the age of discovery called the beat era, but I later read all the Kerouac, Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti I could lay my hands on, and I envy you for having lived it. Anytime you feel like a stand-up poetry reading in front of the Mudcat Cafe, you go ahead on. I'll buy the java. LEJ |
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02 Jul 99 - 04:30 PM (#91789) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: MAG (inactive) Open Mike at the No Exit was one of the few places I got up the nerve to get up and sing in front of people. A magic place. Lat time I had a conference in ol' Chi-town, I checked my aural Tradition newsletter to see what was happenin' and went up to N.E. to catch Ed Trickett. I like to scribble, and you could sit there and scribble away and no one would think you were weird. or, rather, everybody is weird in a good way and it's OK. I will miss it; it's like that River Road song in another thread. -- MA |
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15 Feb 01 - 12:25 PM (#398638) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Art Thieme refresh just to get this closer to the current Great Coffeehouses thread for those interested. Art Thieme |
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15 Feb 01 - 12:29 PM (#398643) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Art Thieme The No Exit did NOT shut down after all. Michael James bought it from the Kozin family pretty much at the last minute. (see the Great Coffeehouses thread) Art |
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15 Feb 01 - 01:31 PM (#398699) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: GUEST,Melani Glad to hear I've still got a chance to see the inside of the place. My friend and I were going to audition there is 1964 or '65, but the owner never showed up and my mother made us leave. She was driving. We were too young for licenses. |
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15 Feb 01 - 01:50 PM (#398712) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Jim the Bart Geez, guys, you almost scared me to death. I thought this was actually going on again. I have really enjoyed the recent threads that talk about the old times (Walt Robertson, The Great Coffeehouses), but if you do that too much you can miss what's going on here and now. The open mic at the Exit is on Mondays. I think it's time to drop by again and start working on a new batch o'memories. Cheers. Thanks, Art and everyone else here who keeps that flame burning. Bart |
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16 Feb 01 - 02:06 PM (#399565) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Scotsbard The No-Exit was one of my dad's hangouts when he was a student at Northwestern 40 years ago. My only visit there was about 10 years later, and I had the prepubescent audacity to point out a better move to some chess players. (They finished the game and then went back to try my move, mate in three!) I didn't really grasp the significance of the place, and was mostly puzzled as to why it was so dark and cluttered. Thanks for the descriptions you guys. They provide a lot more perspective. ~S~ |
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16 Feb 01 - 08:22 PM (#399804) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Art Thieme Originally the No Exit was in Evanston, Illinois---on Foster Street---2 doors west of the "L" (elevated train), This was a couple of long blocks west of the Northwestwestern University campus. JOE MOORE owned the place then---1960---when I started playing there. Joe is still a good friend and we do e-mail often. Joe moved the place to Chicago (N.E. corner of Lunt and Glenwood in East Rogers Park when Northwestern wanted the land. Peter Steinberg worked at the place then and eventually bought it from Joe Moore. Peter ran it for many years. Eventually Brian and Sue Kozin bought it from Peter Steinberg and the Kozin's moved it to the other side of the "L" tracks (but still on Glenwood--7001 N.) That's where it still is--owned by Michael James. (Joe Moore went to Wisconsin and opened THE GREEN DRAGON INN where a bunch of the songs on my 1998 CD were recorded in the '70s and '80s.-----------But that's another story.) Art Thieme |
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09 Jul 03 - 01:37 PM (#979967) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Mark Clark Feeling nostalgic. |
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10 Jul 03 - 08:31 PM (#980951) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Art Thieme Nice birthday present, Mark. Thanks! And thank you for finding this thread again. Art |
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10 Jul 03 - 11:23 PM (#981018) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Mark Clark You're welcome. Hope it was a good one. - Mark |
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26 Nov 05 - 10:16 PM (#1614416) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: GUEST,Art Thieme Refresh---for anyone interested |
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14 Oct 08 - 07:32 PM (#2465782) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Art Thieme refresh---October 2008 Michael James, who now owns The No Exit Cafe And Gallery, after purchasing it from Brian and Sue Kozin eight or so years ago, has put on some truly wonderful productions there by Jacques Brel and others. It is sure good to see the resurrection of the venerable old place. And it's nice to see this old tribute thread to the coffeehouse where I sang my songs for so many years. I'm glad we have survived this long and are still here. Long may we all wave. Art |
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14 Oct 08 - 08:07 PM (#2465818) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Lonesome EJ Long live the No Exit |
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15 Oct 08 - 12:41 AM (#2465937) Subject: Green Dragon Inn, Ft. Atkinson/Madison, Wisconsin From: Joe Offer The story of the Green Dragon Inn sounds like it's worth repeating. I found the followong article here: http://home.att.net/~dick107c/pdf/2007.04.26.pdf It comes originally from the January 1985 newsletter of the Madison (Wis) Folk Music Society. The author is Perry Baird. Farewell to the Old Green Dragon Inn! It's a story that's been heard in a hundred places in recent years: A folk music club is closing its doors, victim of slackening patronage. In its near-13 years a hundred yards from the end of the peninsula we call Blackhawk Island, the Green Dragon Inn weathered its share of spring flooding and winter ice flows, and it consistently brought to southern Wisconsin some of the most talented performers and their acoustic music. Proprietor Joe Moore, on the strength of his Chicago folk-club experience, created an atmosphere that was a delight for both performers and audiences. It was a listening room where those on the business side of the microphone could expect to perform free from the distractions of inattentive crowds, and those listening to the act could expect courtesy from neighboring audience members. The result was musical communication between those on the six-inch wood platform that was the stage and those in the unmatched wooden chairs and church pews surrounding the tables. The Dragon's last evening, December 22, 1984, featured Illinois-based folk singer Art Thieme, whose performances always crossed the line between concert and theater. I'd seen his act dozens of times there and heard most of the stories, jokes, and puns. Somehow, even though you knew all the punchlines, it never ceased to amuse. Perhaps it was because you were laughing along with the first time. Art had written Rock River Valley, a folk song that was nearly an anthem to Green Dragon fans. The last verse of the song, composed on one of Art¹s visits to the club some years earlier, is likely the only musical piece ever to incorporate the phrase, "Koshkonong's green tide." It was comfortable at the Green Dragon; I've heard it described as like being in a good friend's living room. This old inn, with the Rock River at its front door and Lake Koshkonong at its back, was my introduction to folk music. I thought about all the performers I'd seen there - Larry Penn and Bill Camplin, both of whom were in the audience that final night, and about Art, Jim Craig, Jan Marra, Roxanne Neat, Mike McDougal, Dan Keding, Walter Craft, and dozens of others. The one thing you could always count on was a quality performance on any given Friday or Saturday night. In the 10 years or so that I patronized the place, I can say I was never disappointed. The venue itself was not perfection, to be sure. Old and not well-insulated, the building could be cold and drafty in winter, still and sweltering in summer, and underwater in spring. It was usually smoky, often a haven for moths and mosquitoes (especially in the fenced-in beer garden out back), and was located so far off the beaten path that I'm sure many gave up trying to find the place half-way down Blackhawk Island Road. A few unique things sufficed to overwhelm the drawbacks, however. The music, of course, was number one. This also included classical music more often than not from Joe's collection of Chicago Symphony Orchestra records. There was the intimate atmosphere; the limited-but-exceptional menu, featuring stuffed pizza and sandwiches (the delectably seasoned Dragon Burger over a pilot light you could delve into if music, eating, drinking, and simple conversation weren't diversions enough; and the "dragon's milk" specialty drinks, frothed up hot by a physically impressive, sometimes obnoxiously loud, espresso machine on the bar. Beer more suited my taste, and I could get it in a full one-liter clay stein. On a good night I could consume two of them; three usually meant a very bad night (and a worse morning after). From the beer taps in the early days poured Old Chicago light and dark, a Peter Hand brew that went extinct in the late '70s. Joe then substituted Augsberger. I lamented the demise of the salted-in-the-shell peanuts, baskets of which had been offered at each table. Patrons for years were encouraged to freely toss the shells on the floor, resulting in a distinctive crunching as people walked through the room. Unfortunately, the combination of soaring nut prices in the late '70s and carpeting installed after the record-high flooding of 1979 rendered the snack impractical. The place had a lived-in ambience. There was the dart board with accompanying holes in the wall, stage, window frames, and nearby furniture; the brown burlap curtains; the near-ceiling-height candle, constructed like a stalagmite from the wax of hundreds of smaller candles; the Latin graffiti on the rest room walls; the old gooseneck microphone stands that Art and others constantly wrestled with and joked about; the warm fire in the back-room stove on cold evenings. At 12:10 a.m. on December 23, Joe and JoAnn Moore showed up during Art's last two songs. Art had joked earlier that he had closed the place at least a couple times before Madison and as the act to close out Bill Camplin's one-year tenure running the club. Now, seven months later, he was doing it for John Widdicombe, and this time it seemed pretty final. The other times there were managers poised to keep the place going, but this time there would be no such continuity; Joe needed to sell. The doors were to close shortly after Art's performance and no one knew if they would open to the public again. Art wrapped things up nicely in his intro to "Thanksgiving Eve," the final song of his last set. On behalf of the legion of fellow Green Dragon performers, Art thanked owners Joe and JoAnn and managers Bill and Kitty and John and Vickie for the kindness, thoughtfulness, and attention shown to musicians and music over the years. And he thanked the patrons for the support shown for so long. The final line of Art¹s last song, "So love "til you¹ve loved it away" appropriately brought the curtain down. It was the end of 13 years of ballads and bluegrass, dirges and ditties, blues and ragtime of music we lump into a broad category called "folk." The customers bid friendly good-byes and drifted out; Joe, JoAnn, Art, Larry Penn, and Larry's wife sipped cups of coffee at one of the tables and talked. It seemed like friends commiserating at the wake of a beloved, elderly relative life. From my bar stool I could see Art wiping his eyes. I couldn't tell if it was from emotion or some foreign object. I imagine it could have been emotion; there was enough of it in the room just then. Postscript: Joe¹s Green Dragon venture in Madison on the Hamilton Street establishment there, but in so doing had overextended his finances to the point where he eventually had to sell off both Madison and Fort Atkinson properties. The structure on Blackhawk Island re-opened briefly as a bar and then became a residence. The building that housed the Madison Green Dragon was torn down a few years ago to accommodate the new Dane County Court House. Within a year of the Fort Green Dragon¹s closing, former managers Bill Camplin and Kitty Welch, who had moved back to Madison in early 1984, returned to Fort and set up the Café Carpe in the old building on South Water Street where Clark¹s tavern had been. They picked up providing a venue for acoustic music where the Green Dragon had left off. Last July 29, the Café Carpe held a "Green Dragon Reunion," bringing back many performers from the Blackhawk Island days. I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to go to the Green Dragon, but it opened just after the Army got me and took me away from Wisconsin. I'm surprised that a folk club could survive for 13 years in a town as small as Fort Atkinson. Wish I could have been there for your final performance at the club, Art. -Joe- |
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15 Oct 08 - 11:05 AM (#2466298) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Big Mick Joe, that is a priceless post. I have read it three times just to make sure I didn't miss anything. Thanks for posting it. Art...... what can I say? You are a treasure.... a pearl of great worth. It is always a source of pride when I tell folks that I "know" Art Thieme. All the best, Mick |
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15 Oct 08 - 11:19 AM (#2466317) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: wysiwyg I'm sure I've posted this elsewhere, but I used to walk past the No Exit on the corner on my way home from work, during a few months when I lived in that neighborhood with my older sister. Poor, with a low-paying job-- all of that "young" stuff. I was so shy back then-- much shyer than I even am, now. The pictures on the walls and the music, the sound of the espresso machine, the whole atmosphere-- what can I say; one night it sucked me in to see what it was all about and I was brave enough to ask what a cappuccino was. And that was when I met folk music. In the succeeding weeks, Art was there with his saw. Vivian and Jim Craig; John Benischek; I have no idea now who else. I'm still looking for the painting I shouldda bought. I can see it now as if I DID buy it. I bet Art will remember it-- the tense-eyed kid holding a rooster at the edge of a cockfight. And from that beginning I made friends, got brave enough to travel to the Barbarossa and make more friends, learned to play backgammon (I still have that board), and-- I got a life! :~) ~Susan |
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15 Oct 08 - 01:55 PM (#2466480) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: frogprince Hey, Susan, when did you live there? I was in a slummy apartment a couple of blocks south of the No Exit, 1980-1983. Dean |
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15 Oct 08 - 04:02 PM (#2466587) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Phil Cooper I ran into Sue Kozin at the most recent Fox Valley Folk Festival. She and Brian are living in an RV and doing the travelling thing right now. She said now that they weren't tied to the No Exit, they could see other events. |
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15 Oct 08 - 04:17 PM (#2466606) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: wysiwyg Dean, it would have been the .... [strokebrain]..... uh..... [weedbrain].... sometime in the 70's. Rogers PARK! I could NOT get ahold of the neighborhood name earlier today. ~S~ |
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29 Oct 09 - 12:46 AM (#2754605) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors From: Art Thieme ...and Joe Moore passed away yesterday after a long decline--Tuesday, October 27, 2009. Joe made the No Exit coffeehouse happen---and also the Green Dragon Inn. The last gig I was able to play was at Bill Camplin and Kitty Welch's CAFE CARPE in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin -- June 6th, 1997 Art |
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31 Oct 09 - 04:09 PM (#2756893) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors (1999) From: BK Lick Here's a link to what's happening at Michael James's current incarnation of the No Exit, referred to by Art on 14 Oct 08. Theo Ubique Theatre Company |
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12 May 10 - 05:01 PM (#2905562) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors (1999) From: GUEST,Doris Beamish Bang Bang -No Exit Cafe - Tim Beamish - memories long ago. Miss you, Tim.Mom |
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12 May 10 - 11:07 PM (#2905747) Subject: RE: Chicago's No Exit Cafe closing its doors (1999) From: Mark Clark |