MORGAN PARK — McNally’s, the longstanding bar at 11136 S. Western Ave. in Morgan Park, is closing for good.
An announcement on the bar’s social media pages confirmed the closure days after their outdoors signal sparked questions with the assertion: “We Are Grateful For Your Assist Over the Previous 35 Years.”
“It’s formally official,” the bar’s assertion on Instagram learn. “Final name. Closing time. Your home, my place, anyplace however this place. … McNally’s has been in our household for 35 years. Extra importantly, you, who make up this superb neighborhood have been part of our lives for 35 years. Thanking you in your assist can’t be put into phrases. Actually you made McNally’s the very best bar on Western.”
The precise date of McNally’s closure stays unknown. It was nonetheless open throughout common enterprise hours the week of its closing announcement.
Mike Cummings, a former Chicago police officer and nineteenth Ward aldermanic candidate who owns the McNally’s constructing, didn’t reply to requests for touch upon the bar’s closing.
McNally’s has been a Morgan Park neighborhood staple since 1989, anchoring the southern finish of the neighborhood because the lone bar south of 111th Road for a lot of that point. They’ve lengthy boasted their shut affiliation with St. Cajetan parish and the South Aspect Irish Parade. The parade committee issued a press release on the bar’s closing.
“Thanks McNally’s for being such an amazing supporter of the South Aspect Irish Parade,” the assertion learn. “Thanks for the superb issues you will have accomplished to assist our group, our neighbors and all of our charities and causes.”
Supporting Catholic faculties, specifically St. Cajetan, has been a recurring charitable venture for McNally’s. Its Queen of Hearts raffle that started in 2018 garnered regional consideration later that 12 months because the jackpot reached greater than $2.6 million
McNally’s can be notable the frequent messages displayed on their outside signal dealing with Western Avenue.
The signal has induced fairly a little bit of controversy over time.
The messages have usually been about baseball, each pro-White Sox and anti-Cubs. The bar brazenly rooted for Cleveland within the 2016 World Sequence when a lot of the metropolis was backing the Cubs ending a 108-year championship drought.
Two years prior, McNally’s discovered itself on the middle of a racial controversy when musician Brandon T. Bailey, a Black man who was a member of the “Reprieve Blues Band” acting at McNally’s in 2014, claimed in a weblog put up that Cummings mentioned “there are too many Black folks in right here” and ended the band’s efficiency that night time.
Controversies involving the surface signal continued into the present decade. In 2021, Beverly neighborhood resident Corinne Rose penned a letter to The Beverly Overview criticizing what she and others felt have been racial undertones to numerous the bar’s messages.
These messages included “We don’t want professional athletes, however we want law enforcement officials” within the wake of a police capturing in Wisconsin that led to mass protests by skilled athletes. One other message mentioned “Don’t be Meghan Markle. Embrace royalty. Play Queen of Hearts” that was posted within the wake of Markle’s interview with Oprah Winfrey by which she referred to racism she endured as a member of the royal household.
Rose known as McNally’s messages “a sample of divisive and racially insensitive conduct.”
Apparently in response to Rose’s letter, McNally’s signal then learn, “Spherical right here Ms. Liberal, it’s pro-police and anti-Cub.”
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