Anyone seen the King lately? You know, King Gambrinus? The man we need to thank for beer?
Back in 2016, I captured the above video. It used to be a daily event, each 6.p.m., at the recreated anachronistic facade at 16 West Randolph in Chicago.
It was originally Old Heidelberg, opened in 1934 - at a time when one in five Chicagoans were of German descent - after the immigrant from Stuttgart Eitel Brothers had built the massive block housing the Bismarck Hotel (now Hotel Allegro), Palace Theater, and Metropolitan Office Building tower, and after they had run a massive, and massively successful cafe at Chicago's 1933-34 Century of Progress exposition. Seating up to 3,500, it was built on the site of the short-lived Randolph Theatre and designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White with an interior emulating a traditional Bavarian beer cellar.
