Rubel’s handprints appear at numerous other Chicago venues, including Ada Street, Billy Sunday, Pizza Lobo, and DMK’s shuttered Hubbard Street venue, Henry’s Swing Club. “He set a path for me and I followed him.” “He was a really, really good friend and mentor,” adds Guillermo Martinez, Estereo’s longtime spirits manager. Music, sports, spirits, cocktails - you’re going to get all the details and statistics and minutia you could possibly want.” “You couldn’t have a casual conversation with him about anything. “Michael was one of the most passionate people I’ve ever met,” says Estereo partner Jeff Donahue, who shared a love of baseball with Rubel. Though Rubel wasn’t involved in the second location, his influence on the original Estereo and the city’s bar culture at large remains potent. A follow-up outpost, Estereo FM, opened Friday, May 12, in Fulton Market. Rubel in 2016 also helped create and launch Estereo, Heisler Hospitality’s popular cocktail bar in Logan Square. He created the spark our story was missing.” “Michael educated us on the Bakersfield Sound, the birth of the outlaw country genre, 1950s Honky Tonks. “We were missing the through line that tied it all together,” One Off partner Terry Alexander writes in a statement. Big Star initially focused on bourbon, rye, and country music. Rubel’s touch can also be seen across the street from Violet Hour as he had a major hand in the development at Big Star, One Off’s boisterous taco and whiskey bar. He crafted a family tree of whiskeys and distilleries as an educational tool for employees and created a culture where it was cool to get excited about work, Maloney says. Rubel later transitioned to beverage director at Violet Hour and had a special way of stoking enthusiasm among those around him. The Violet Hour, and the bartenders who worked with him there, benefited hugely from his leap of faith in coming to Chicago.” “I’ll be forever indebted to his sense of adventure. “Cocktail bars, especially outside of New York City, didn’t really exist then so there was no assurance of success,” Maloney says. Maloney also works as beverage director at Mother’s Ruin and Loverboy in New York. The two were also roommates during Violet Hour’s first year. Impressed by Rubel’s commanding presence, renowned bartender Toby Maloney says he hired him on the spot as general manager at the Violet Hour. One Off Hospitality’s Wicker Park bar helped recast the neighborhood and altered how the country’s bartenders viewed Chicago’s drinking scene. The 54-year-old Rubel died on Tuesday, May 9, at his Logan Square home, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.Įquipped with an encyclopedic knowledge of spirits and a drive to share his expertise with colleagues and customers, Rubel uprooted his life in 2007 in New York City and moved to Chicago where influential cocktail lounge the Violet Hour would open. ![]() Rubel played a significant role in launching groundbreaking Chicago bars including the Violet Hour, Billy Sunday, Big Star, and Estereo. ![]() Michael Rubel, a towering figure in Chicago’s bar industry who mentored local bartenders and helped redefine how the rest of the country sees the city’s cocktail scene, has died.
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