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Halek’s Wants to Change its Name to WHAT?!

From the always informative The Adventures of Johnny Northside blog, comes word that longtime Northside bar Halek’s, has a new owner who needs to come up with a new name for the bar within a year. So he has picked “Ya Baby Sports Bar” for the new name.

The new owner was told by the Halek family that he’d have to change the name within a year, so he decided to change it right away.
He’s been a bartender/manager there for a long time (30 years, I think) and one of the regulars yells “Yeah baby!” to him whenever he comes in, and the nickname stuck.
He’s aware of the reaction people will have but he plans on sticking with the name.

Look I’m not crazy about the new name, but I also haven’t set foot into Halek’s for about fifteen years. There’s no particular reason for that, it’s just that I grew up in Northeast and we had enough bars there to keep us busy. Keep in mind, two other establishments in the immediate area have some unorthodox names as well…”BJ’s” (strip club), and “Donny Dirks Zombie Den”. I remember mourning the loss of the old “Polish Palace” bar in my neighborhood when it changed owners and became “The Sample Room”, only because I thought the name was lame and they painted over the big Polish White Eagle on the side of the building.
Here’s the deal…businesses move, demographics shift, and names get changed on storefronts in the city all the time, it’s part of the evolution of the city. If business sucks, he can change the name, or sell it off to someone with a better idea. Only time will tell.

Hmmm….maybe I can get a bank loan for my own place. I could call it “Paul’s Badass Popcorn and Beer Emporium”. We would only offer Grain Belt and Surly for beer, and the only thing you could order from the kitchen would be Totino’s Pizza Rolls. Yeah….that would be sweet.

Oh good grief. Ya Baby Sports Bar? For realz?