NORWOOD PARK — When {an electrical} fireplace broke out at Tommy’s on Higgins in December 2022, proprietor Tommy Migon thought the sports activities bar can be again open inside six months.
That became greater than two years, however the favored Norwood Park bar is lastly reopening: Migon mentioned Tommy’s, 6954 W. Higgins Ave., handed all of its metropolis inspections and plans to reopen Monday.
“That is in all probability one of many hardest issues I’ve ever needed to do,” Migon mentioned. “I’ve invested an excessive amount of money and time into it to not reopen.”
Whereas the rebuilding course of took longer than anticipated, Migon has been preserving neighbors up to date with messages on the bar’s marquee. Final week, Migon wrote “Handed well being, gave permission to open!” Shortly after the message was posted, excited calls and texts from regulars began rolling in.
“I linked the bar telephone to my private cell, so I in all probability get 10 calls a day asking once I’m opening,” Migon mentioned.
The 2022 electrical fireplace began within the bar’s basement, nevertheless it brought about smoke harm all through the constructing, Migon mentioned.
It took a few yr to get all the town permits required to start out rebuilding. The bar was utterly gutted, and reconstruction work began in November 2023. Redoing the bar’s electrical work took six months, which was longer than anticipated and additional delayed development, Migon mentioned.
Whereas the bar’s format stays principally unchanged, every little thing contained in the 42-year-old sports activities bar is new, Migon mentioned.
“It nonetheless appears like the identical Tommy’s, however newer,” Migon mentioned.
The bar was rebuilt with reclaimed wooden from a southern Wisconsin barn and historic Chicago brick. Migon is associates with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Tribune photographer Charles Cherney, whose work shall be displayed all through Tommy’s. Cherney’s photographs depict Wrigley Discipline, Barnum & Bailey elephants arriving at a Chicago practice station and different “traditional Chicago” moments, Migon mentioned.
“I sort of constructed the bar to be like an previous speakeasy from the Twenties,” he mentioned.
Tommy’s menu will characteristic a couple of new gadgets, akin to a scorching honey and pepperoni pizza, a BLT pizza and wings with all kinds of sauces.
Migon mentioned he was in a position to rehire most of his former staff. Tommy’s will even return to its previous hours: 11 a.m.-2 a.m. Sunday-Friday and 11 a.m.-3 a.m. Saturdays.
There shall be a ribbon-cutting for Tommy’s 11 a.m. Monday.
“I need to welcome all people again,” Migon mentioned.
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