The Green Mill Cocktail Lounge

The History

The Green Mill Cocktail Lounge opened in 1907 as Pop Morse's Roadhouse, a modest entertainment venue on Broadway in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. By the 1910s, the establishment was renamed Green Mill Gardens, an homage to the Moulin Rouge in Paris — "moulin" meaning "mill" in French. The venue became a popular destination during the early days of jazz, hosting top musicians and drawing crowds from across the city to what was then Chicago's premier entertainment district.

When Prohibition arrived in 1920, the Green Mill transformed into something far more dangerous. "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, Al Capone's most trusted enforcer, became a part-owner of the club. Capone himself became a regular, claiming a favorite booth near the back wall where he could keep watch on both entrances. The club's basement connected to a network of tunnels running beneath the surrounding buildings — escape routes used to evade police raids. The Green Mill became ground zero for the intersection of jazz, crime, and nightlife that defined Prohibition-era Chicago.

The club's most infamous episode came in 1927, when comedian and singer Joe E. Lewis left the Green Mill to perform at a rival club, the New Rendezvous Cafe. McGurn sent three men to Lewis's hotel room, where they slashed his throat and left him for dead. Lewis survived but lost his singing voice permanently, reinventing himself as a stand-up comedian. The attack sent a chilling message through Chicago's entertainment world: you don't leave the Green Mill. After decades of decline following Prohibition, the club was revived in the 1980s and given a second life when poet Marc Smith launched the Uptown Poetry Slam there in 1986 — creating a global literary movement inside a gangster's old speakeasy.

What Made It Famous

The Green Mill's fame rests on three pillars: its Prohibition-era gangster history, its role as the birthplace of the poetry slam, and its status as perhaps the most authentic surviving jazz venue in America. The Al Capone connection alone would be enough to secure its legend — few bars in the country can credibly claim that one of history's most notorious gangsters held court in a booth that still exists. But the Green Mill's story goes deeper than mob lore.

In 1986, construction worker and poet Marc Smith approached the Green Mill's owner about hosting a weekly poetry competition. The result was the Uptown Poetry Slam, held every Sunday night, where poets perform original work and are judged by randomly selected audience members. The format was radical, democratic, and electric. It spread from the Green Mill to cities across America and then around the world, eventually inspiring HBO's Def Poetry Jam and a global spoken word movement. The Green Mill remains the longest-running poetry slam venue on Earth.

What truly sets the Green Mill apart is its physical authenticity. The original Art Deco interior remains largely intact: the curved mahogany bar, the deep leather booths, the ornate light fixtures, and the low ceilings that make the room feel like a time capsule from the 1920s. The Prohibition-era tunnels still exist beneath the building. Unlike so many "historic" bars that have been gutted and renovated beyond recognition, the Green Mill looks and feels almost exactly as it did when Capone sat in his booth watching the door. Live jazz plays seven nights a week, usually with no cover charge — a policy that keeps the club packed and the music honest.

Key Facts

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