but do you think there s something to be said like, you know, the trajectory of your clientele is not bruce: no it s going, it s not ascending. anthony: it s not ascending. bruce: it s not an ascendance, yes. and i ve lost a couple really. i mean, we really lost some beauties. anthony: i mean it s the perils of being a saloon keeper, you bruce: here s, here s my take on that, bar people do not live as long as vegan joggers. however, however, they have more fun. anthony: in this city of factions, of neighborhoods, black, white, north side, south, cubs or white sox, everybody at one point or another, seems to agree on this place. valois in hyde park. bruce: got to grab your tray,
you know, you guys got to go. but uh he says, you know man, you re a real buzzkill. and uh it stuck to me ever since, i mean it s carved in stone pretty much. anthony: chicago is famously a sports town. the bulls, the bears, the cubs, the white sox. to you and me, those are just names, but to many chicagoans, a cause, a defining lifestyle choice. the rivalry between cubs and white sox fans, for instance, is particularly vicious. bruce: difference between a cubs fan and a sox fan is a cub fan goes to the park, they enjoy themselves, they have fun. the team wins, that s okay, if they lose, it s no big deal. sox fans will turn on their team on a dime if they don t if they re not good, if they don t play well. patrick: that is true.
anthony: the old town ale house opened in 1958 and has been serving beer and other intoxicating beverages ever since. unless you re on the no shot list, in which case your drinking options have been for the good of the community limited. there s a no shot list? bruce: there is, the only guy who ever got off it is down there down now. it was just because he was a pure and yeah, we have a fairly extensive no shot list. anthony: extensive, meaning you can drink here but no shots for you. bruce: no shots. anthony: just that will lead to no good? bruce: history has shown us that these people should not drink shots well, now of course what they do is they go to another bar and drink shots and they come over and then we get the remnants of anthony: bruce cameron elliott and his ex-wife are the proprietors of the old town ale house. bruce likes to brag that he s never had an honest job, but he s a writer, legendary blogger and artist.
i mean, barack, um, i used to see barack here all the time, spent most of breakfast. anthony: the machine that is chicago politics goes straight back to emperor richard daily, the father, then the son, with a diverse cast of scoundrels in between. how are things in chicago on the arc of the trajectory? bruce: the problem was that we had this, the daily dynasty, we had the old man and when we had the kid, the not so bright kid, replaced him and he threw a party for his friends for over 20 years and when it came time to pay the bill he snuck out the back door of the, uh, of city hall. so it s a mess right now financially. the one thing about chicago is, you cannot get away with being a fake or a phony. i mean, maybe somewhere out in one of the suburbs. but people see through it right away and that s kind of chicago.
their historic destiny is to be losers. bruce: yes. and like they say, any team can have a bad century. the cubs are working on having two bad centuries. anthony: right. topo gigio is a massive italian-american joint in the old town that serves up much better than you think old school stuff like scallops and pesto cream sauce for bruce here and squid ink pasta with shrimp for buzzkill. my veal saltimbocca is most excellent, and the long festering dispute across from me only makes my food taste better. anthony: is bruce s attitude atypical or typical? patrick: uh it s uh extremely anthony: or is he a relative moderate? patrick: it s extremely typical. anthony: i mean, he is sitting at the same table with a cubs fan. patrick: well, yes. bruce: no, no, i drink with cub fans, i ve even had sex with cub fans, i mean you know, i m patrick: well, truth be told, uh the last time the sox won it in 05 bruce: not that long ago, really. not that long ago.