Chet's Melody Lounge

The house

Chet’s sits on Archer Avenue in Justice, directly across from Resurrection Cemetery — the graveyard that gave Resurrection Mary her name. The story is a 1930s girl in white, last seen leaving the Oh Henry Ballroom (later the Willowbrook) in Willow Springs, who flags a ride down Archer and vanishes at the cemetery gates. Chicago History Museum still tells it. Chet’s does something simpler: every Sunday the staff leaves a Bloody Mary at the end of the bar for her. She has not claimed it on the record. The Willowbrook is gone. The Irish Legend and Ashbary still hold the other end of the road. This is the cemetery end. Come as a paying regular. The hitchhiker does not take reservations.

This is a tavern plate and a beer, not a tasting menu. Sit at the bar. If it is Sunday, leave the last stool alone. Archer between Willow Springs and Justice is one road with three tables in this guide. Drive it once.

The Ghostly Gourmet