CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Closing down 3 hours early Saturday night, Miller’s Pub on Wabash Avenue was among the businesses in the Loop impacted by Saturday night’s unruly crowd.
“My manager was scared,” said Miller’s Pub co-owner Andy Gallios. “They locked the door, closed our kitchen early, so obviously we lost business.”
Miller’s Pub has been family owned for nearly 90 years. In that time, Gallios told WBBM that only recently have they needed to come up with a protocol to protect the business and its customers when things take a wild turn.
“We got two doors; we lock them, and we don’t let anybody in,” he said. “If we have people in here, security guards will escort them back to the hotels. That’s kind of a sad reality.”
But, Gallios added, that’s the way it is.
“We have all the customers in here that are probably from out of town,” he said. “They’re looking out the window, horrified, like: ‘What are all these kids roaming the streets for.’”
Security guards are now in place at Miller’s Pub on the weekends, a step Gallios’ team took nearly three years ago. He said the pub’s success has long been tied to visitors staying at downtown hotels — something he fears could be impacted when Chicago is perceived as dangerous by potential travelers.
“I would say there’s definitely a trickle [effect],” Gallios said. “There’s people in the suburbs who are saying, ‘I don’t want to come downtown,’ which is even worse. People that live around here don’t even want to come down here. I know people that live in the suburbs that haven’t been downtown for two years.”
He said that downtown isn’t as bad as it might seem from the images of a few chaotic events, but he admitted that it only takes one bad night to give would-be travelers the wrong idea of Chicago.
On Monday, Both Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) and Ald. Sophia King (4th) said the young people who created mayhem downtown should be held accountable, and a police presence is needed when crowds of young people are there.
They also said Chicago’s youth need to be part of the solution.
“I think this is an opportunity for us to come together to try and figure out this response, which includes parents, opportunities for young people, holding young people accountable, and it also includes making sure we come together as adults and leaders,” King said.
King and Dowell said long-term investments in neighborhoods are essential, but they noted that many people, including Gallios, want the violence to stop now.
“The best thing about Illinois is downtown Chicago, and people are scared to enjoy it,” Gallios said.
Gallios doesn’t want to demonize the city’s youth. He said he understands that any social policy could take years to create an impact. Still, he’d like something more direct done in the immediate future — though he’s not sure what that would be.
With downtown businesses still struggling to make a comeback from the pandemic, Gallios said that Chicago cannot afford any bad publicity, like images from Saturday night, ahead of the summer tourism season.
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