Long before corner bars stitched the social fabric of Chicago’s neighborhoods together, raucous pioneers like Mark Beaubien were fermenting over the untapped potential of the unbroken prairie. Take a determined saunter from the clamor of Chicago’s first breweries, through the hidden passages of thousands of speakeasies and then back into the current of the contemporary craft beer revival. Follow a path plastered with portraits of infamous saloonkeepers and profiles of historic bars. Author June Sawyers serves as an expert guide, stopping every so often to collect a vintage beer label, explain an original recipe or salute the heady history that sits atop the City of Big Shoulders.
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, June Skinner Sawyers is the author of more than twenty-five books, including several books on Chicago. She was a regular contributor to Chicago Tribune, where she wrote three columns at various times on local history, nightlife and travel books. She teaches at the Newberry Library in Chicago.