The Real Story about the Famous "Elliott's Pine Log Restaurant and Lounge" in Skokie, Illinois.

Elliott's Pine Log Restaurant and Lounge were located, hidden among the trees, at 7545 Skokie Boulevard (Skokie Boulevard is Cicero Avenue in Chicago) at the intersection of Howard Street, Lincoln Avenue, and Skokie Boulevard in Skokie, Illinois.

Chris Elliott purchased the property in 1938 for $38,000. The logs were shipped from Wisconsin, and the restaurant was completed and opened in 1939 at the end of the great depression.

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The rumor of Elliott's Pine Log being a speakeasy is addressed at the end of this article.

Chris Elliott

The pine log building was nestled on three wooded acres that are beautiful in any season. No matter which of the four dining rooms you were seated in, you had a picturesque and relaxing view of the outdoors through huge picture windows.

It was hard to believe you were in Skokie as it felt more like you were in a Wisconsin country inn or a Swiss Alps Chalet. 

Natural wood paneling, different in each dining room, heavy beams on the ceilings, and wood-burning fireplaces added to the rustic look of Elliott's. Inside the large waiting room with its natural wood-burning fireplace were comfortable sofas and overstuffed chairs, where you would wait for your table to be readied. 

Adjacent was the "Keyhole Bar," with a sunken cocktail lounge and raised wood-burning hearth. On Friday and Saturday nights, a piano player would play your requests.

Chris built apartments above the restaurant for his parents to live in. Sometimes the kitchen help would use the flats to rest and then go back on shift.

Elliott's Pine Log Restaurant had the best-roasted duck I ordered every time I ate there. The photo is a visual aid.

Elliott's specialties included; Roasted Duck, Broiled Aged Steak, and Fresh Dressed Chicken, among other great dishes. They hosted many Banquets, Showers, Wedding Parties, Bar & Bat Mitzvahs, and company parties and meetings.

Elliott's survived the November 9, 1955 fire that gutted the inside and injured two firefighters, Fred Albrecht and Warren Redik, who suffered superficial burns about the hands and face when they fell through the first floor. Skokie Fire Chief estimated the damage at $100,000 and said the fire, of undetermined cause, started in the basement. 

As it turns out, the total loss was $250,000. Chris Elliott told the Skokie News, "I don't know who released the earlier estimates of damages, 'around $100,000,' but I know that whoever it was never had the pleasure of eating in my restaurant." Fireman Jerome Burke and Robert Kutz received awards for saving two firemen at the Elliot's Pine Log Restaurant fire in 1956.

Mr. Anthony' Tony' Gargano, the restaurant's manager, was a patient of my father, an Optometrist (O.D.). Tony always found the time to sit with us for a minute. 

As the neighborhood changed in the 1980s, business dropped off, and the Pine Log was closed. A public auction was held of all the restaurant's equipment, fixtures, antiques, collectibles, seating, etc., in Chicago on June 25, 1988.

Classified Ad, Chicago Tribune, June 19, 1988

To this day, I compare my fond memories of Elliott's roasted duck to every other roasted duck dish I have ordered since. Still, to this day — None Better!

Construction of two mid-rise condominium buildings on Pine Log's property began in August 1988. The Park Lincoln, as it was named, has 70 units.

Both Alex Elliott and Greg Elliott were Chefs at Elliott's Pine Log.

ALEX ELLIOTT

After the Pine Log closed in 1988, Alex Elliott, Chris Elliott's son, did some restaurant consulting, turned down a lot of offers to partner in restaurants, and continued to raise Black Angus cattle at the family home/farm in tiny Ringwood, Illinois, near Wonder Lake, until moving closer to Chicago.

Elliott's Seafood Grille & Chop House, 6690 North Northwest Highway, Chicago

But the restaurant business is like a narcotic. Alex decided to get back into that precarious racket, opening "Elliott's Seafood Grille & Chop House," 6690 North Northwest Highway, in the heart of Chicago's Edison Park neighborhood, in 2001. "I did not do this to become a millionaire," Alex says. "I wanted the place no more than 15 minutes from where I live and only wanted to make dinners. I wanted an upscale neighborhood place where I could enjoy the customers." That is what he created, a charming spot, sophisticated and laid back. The bar business is steady and lively, and the dinner crowd is a nice mix of ages and occasions. 

GREG ELLIOTT

A message from Chris Elliott-Bagley: "Hi Neil. Yes, Greg Elliott is my first cousin."

In 1991, Greg Elliott reopened Lake Side Inn as Elliott's Grand Hotel in Wauconda. He says the building was "slipping into the lake when he bought the hotel." Highland Park architect Mark Knauer was hired to recreate the interior, taking everything out except the bar and making the building structurally sound. He hasn't had that restaurant for years. 

In 1996 he and his wife opened a Consignment Shop in Chicago's Lake View neighborhood and the second shop in Lincoln Park.

WAS THE PINE LOG A SPEAKEASY?

As stated on numerous websites, the rumor of Elliott's Pine Log being a speakeasy is false. Prohibition began in 1920 and ended on December 5, 1933, but Elliott's Pine Log opened in 1939, six years after the end of the prohibition.

The "Morton House" Restaurant (est.1869) at 8509 Railroad Avenue in Morton Grove, Illinois, was reported to be a speakeasy during prohibition. Click the link to find out. This building was destroyed by fire in 1954." The Morton House was rebuilt.

The Original Morton House was destroyed by fire on January 2, 1954.

The Rebuilt Morton House.

Another speakeasy rumor circulated was about the Charcoal Oven Restaurant at 4400 Golf Road in Skokie. It couldn't have been a speakeasy because it opened in 1948, 15 years after prohibition ended.

INDEX TO MY ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO FOOD & RESTAURANT ARTICLES.

Copyright © 2017  Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved.

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VISIT OUR ELLIOTT'S PINE LOG SOUVENIR SHOP

I loved the Pine Log so much that I recreated my favorite logo of Elliott's Pine Log Restaurant and Lounge. This is my personal 15oz mug. It's high-quality and heavy, and the printing doesn't wash off or fade, even after 5 years of dishwasher sterilization with high-heat drying. Many mug styles, colors, and other items are available.

A NOTE ABOUT THE ACCUSATION OF ANTI-SEMITISM

Nothing is further from the truth regarding the rumors of the Elliot brothers being anti-Semitic. About 80% of Pine Log's business IN JEWISH SKOKIE was, you guessed it, Jewish. I'm Jewish. My folks were Jewish and knew the Elliotts for a very long time. My family ate at the Pine Log once or twice a month and celebrated special occasions for over 20 years. They couldn't do enough to make our meal special, and I personally saw the wait staff treat others the same 5-STAR way. The Elliotts are a class act.

Jack Silverman wrote this comment in a Skokie, Illinois, Facebook group when I posted my article in that group:

 

A COMMENT POSTED TO SILVERMAN BY AN ELLIOTT FAMILY MEMBER:  

"If his aunt was asked to leave, it may be because of the way she was dressed. Elliott's had a dress code back then. She could have had too much to drink and was asked to leave because she was intoxicated. Perhaps she was embarrassed that she got asked to leave and played 'the Jew card.' But I can assure you that her getting booted, if true, had nothing to do with being Jewish!!!"  

Chris Elliott-Bagley, November 16, 2020. 

A North Shore Electric train rear-ends an Evanston Express at the Granville Avenue station in Chicago, on November 24, 1936. Eleven dead.

The 'L' became a source of tragedy one November early evening in 1936, when a north bound North Shore electric train smashed into the rear of a north bound Evanston Express train stopped north of Granville. Nine people died almost immediately and two died several days later. The total – 11 dead – resulted in it being the deadliest accident on the elevated system up to that time.

Here is the Chicago Tribune account printed in the newspaper on the 25th, the next day after this tragedy happened.

The wooden rear coach of the "L" train was completely telescoped by the steel North Shore car #721. Yes, that is the roof and side walls of the "L" car wrapped around the interurban car. Granville station is on the left.

The Evanston Express train was standing at a switch 50 feet north of the Granville avenue station of the elevated lines, a half block east of Broadway, in the Edgewater district.

The first steel car of the North Shore train plowed all the way through the wooden rear coach of the Evanston train, shearing off its roof and splintering it like a match box. It was the worst elevated lines accident in Chicago history.

All of the dead and all except one of the injured were in the wrecked wooden coach.

Both trains were on the east, or express track. The Evanston train, which switches over to the local tracks at this point in order to make a stop at Loyola avenue, was blocked at the switch by a northbound train on the local track.

Behind the Evanston train of eight cars came the three car North Shore Line train bound for Mundelein, which was scheduled to continue north on the express track and to pass the Evanston train after the latter switched over west to the local track.

Just north of the Granville station is a signal tower which regulates the switch.

The elevated tracks at this point are perfectly straight for a distance of a mile and a half to the south. It was pitch dark, but two red lights glimmered on the rear of the Evanston train. Its passengers, Homewood bound, noticed the train come to a halt for the switch and chafed at the delay.

Suddenly they heard a whistle scream behind them, then a terrifying crash as the North Shore Line train struck the rear coach.

This old wooden car had no chance. Crushed between the plowing steel coach behind and the steel coach just ahead of it in the Evanston train, the light wooden frame crumpled into sudden wreckage. Sides, seats and floor splintered into a myriad pieces.

The steel car from behind drove through and stopped only a few feet from the steel car ahead. The old wooden coach was shattered – part of its roof rested on the top of the car which struck it. The steel cars, except for broken windows, were almost undamaged.

The scene was instantly one of terror and confusion. Darkness cast a blanket over the shapeless mass of steel and wood splinters, twisted seats, shattered glass and, more shocking than all this, the 75 passengers thrown into huddles of screaming, moaning and desolately silent victims of a thousand hurts.

Residents of the neighborhood heard the whistle of the North Shore train, then the crash. They saw the passengers flung from the telescoped coach, saw them falling into the alley that runs along the east side of the tracks.

Edward Price, who lives in an apartment overlooking the elevated embankment at 6150 Winthrop avenue, was one of those first to reach the scene.

“The North Shore whistle sounded three of four times,” he said. “The train was moving at a lively clip and I could see it was going to crash into the Evanston train. I heard the screech of the brakes.”

“The North Shore train swayed back and forth as it slowed down. The lights went out. Just before the crash they came on again, then they went out. There were flames in the wreckage. I ran to the telephone and called the fire department. Then I ran downstairs as fast as I could. I found people lying in the alley. I helped to pull them to an adjoining automobile driveway.”

A curious footnote to human reactions in the presence of tragedy was added by Joseph Laculla, 17 years old, 1429 Thome Avenue, who sells newspapers under the elevated at Granville avenue. When he heard the crash he took out his watch. “It was exactly four minutes when the first fire apparatus got here,” he said. “The first police ambulance arrived nine minutes after the crash.”

With the arrival of police and firemen a great throng gathered at the scene. Private automobiles and trucks were commandeered to take the injured to the Edgewater, Swedish Covenant, Ravenswood, Rogers-Fost, Evanston and St. Francis hospitals.

Firemen raised ladders along the elevated embankment and carried injured passengers down. Others were carried along the tracks to the Granville station and down the steps there. When stretchers ran out the rescuers used seats from the wrecked car to carry the victims.

Police Commissioner Altman, notified of the tragedy, ordered all available police from north and northwest side stations to help in the rescue work and keep back the crowds.

There were more than 500 police at the scene, two companies of firemen, twenty police ambulances, and three fire department ambulances.

After all the injured had been removed to hospitals, police details were stationed at each of these to control the crowds which swarmed at the doors.

Among the first to reach the scene were three Catholic priests. They administered the last rites of the church to injured persons who appeared to be dying. The clergymen were the Very Reverend J.G. Kieley and the Rev. Thomas Doherty, of St. Gertrude’s church, and the Rev. Howard Ahern, a member of the faculty at De Paul university.

A story of the first rescue work came from William Biesel of Libertyville, who was riding in the first coach of the North Shore train, sitting with Champ Carry, vice-president of the Pullman company, who lives in Mundelein.

“We hardly felt the crash,” Biesel said, “but there was a tremendous noise. We climbed down onto the track, and saw a woman lying close to the third rail. Her skirt was beginning to burn. We pulled her away, beat out the flames and got her over to the station platform. Next we picked up two men. Both had been thrown all the way across the adjoining tracks.”

William Helm … an investment broker … said he was not surprised the accident had occurred.

“I have been taking the train almost regularly for a number of years,” he said. “Each evening a few moments after the express switches onto the local track the North Shore roars by on the express track. I have often thought that the timing of the two trains was too close for safety.”

NOTES
The North Shore Line, formally named the Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee Electric Railway, operated over the elevated into the loop from August 6, 1919, until January 21, 1963, when it abandoned operations. It operated a branch line west to Mundelein, but its main line was along the Skokie Valley line to Milwaukee. Its original line in Illinois, later called the “Shore Line,” went through the North Shore suburbs and generally paralleled the Chicago and North Western.

After the introduction of the Skokie Valley bypass in 1926, the original line was devoted to local service. It was abandoned first, in 1955. North Shore Line trains never stopped in Edgewater. However, Edgewater residents could board trains at either the Wilson or Howard ‘L’ station. Service was very frequent and express trains made the trip from downtown Chicago to downtown Milwaukee in two hours. Given the limited speed it could attain on the elevated south of Wilson and in running on the streets of Milwaukee, this was an impressive performance. There is still Evanston express service [the purple line], but now it is express all the way to Howard along the express tracks and does not stop at Loyola and Morse. 

By the Edgewater Historical Society.
Edited by Neil Gale, Ph.D.