The Trib has thoughts
Remembering Jay Emerich, one of the giants who made Chicago’s Rush Street
https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertai ... nYhAyTlFm0A Saturday night and the corner of Rush Street and Bellevue Place was alive.
The streets were closed to traffic but filled with dozens of tables and those were packed with people eating the food and drinking the drinks served by the nearby restaurants: Gibsons, Tavern on Rush, Hugo’s Frog Bar, Carmine’s, Nico and Luxbar. Conversations were lively, people animated, and memories in the making. If you listened closely, you might have heard the name of a man who helped give this area its durability and vivacious character over the past six decades, especially by running one of the most famous night spots in the city’s history — a joint called Faces.
That man was Jay Emerich and he died on July 11 of lupus, the disease that had afflicted him for a very long time. He was 79 years old and was in the company of wife Jennifer and, safe to say, thousands of his own lively memories.
“He was Rush Street,” says David Floodstrand, a multimedia artist, musician, and author of a pair of soon-to-be published books “Rush Street, Remembrances & Musings” and “Rush Street, Chicago’s Street of Dreams.” “He helped to define an era and make a million memories.”
mas...
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
