Chicago is a great restaurant town. Perhaps an even greater saloon town.
Before retirement almost 17 years ago I visited the Windy City three to five times a year for nearly three decades. I enjoyed many a good meal there.
Not being a big drinker I did not quench many thirsts at the numerous, friendly local bars throughout the city’s varied ethnic neighborhoods. Not even at the storied Billy Goat Tavern located behind Lebhar-Friedmnan/Chain Store Age’s offices at 444 North Michigan Avenue. A frequent hangout of my Chicago-based associates, I never got to meet Sam Sianis, Billy Goat’s effusive bartender-owner whose passing was noted on the front page of Fridays’ New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/dining/sam-sianis-dead.html?smid=em-share).
I did, however, have a memorable meal in another Chicago landmark saloon, not because the food was extraordinary, but rather because Schulien’s was known for magic performed tableside for your exclusive amazement.
Ernie Arms, the public relations chief of Sears, Roebuck and Co., took me to Schulien’s, a tavern in the Albany Park section of Chicago run by the family from the time its first drink was sold in 1881 until it closed in 1999.
Details of the meal elude my recall, but after dessert and dinner drinks were enjoyed, Charlie Schulien joined our table. The performance was about to start.
His sleight of hand card tricks were sufficient to earn my appreciation, but his final act of wizardry truly caught my breadth.
At his request I pulled a card from a deck without showing it to him, then tucked it back into the pack he was holding in his hand. I focused on the cards, consciously ignoring the spiel he was spewing intended to distract me.
After a few minutes it was time for the big reveal. He asked what card I had picked and put back into the deck.
Ten of diamonds, I said.
Charlie took a glass of water and poured some onto the white tablecloth. It became translucent, revealing … the ten of diamonds!
I was dumbstruck. Forget about getting the correct card. How could have slid the card under the tablecloth without my noticing?
Naturally, an explanation of the trick was not forthcoming. It is now more than three decades since that magical night. Schulien’s is long since closed. But I fondly recall my meal with magic.
