The North Shore has frequently been featured in movies and television shows—it’s a beautiful area and the local governments are cooperative.  I don’t watch Ferris Buehler’s Day Off for the storyline or even to admire Charlie Sheen—I wait for the drive-by shots of my house.  Everyone drives slowly past the Home Alone house and New Trier West?  Well, that’s Breakfast Club territory.  When my own son Beauregard was invited as a freshman to a Saturday morning at the Breakfast Club—a written invitation by the principal herself—he explained to me that I should consider it a mark of prestige rather than call it something so crass as “detention”.

But there is perhaps no television series or film that has so exploited the North Shore than Winnetka Road.  It starred Ed Begley, Jr., Josh Brolin, and Meg Tilly.  It lasted exactly four episodes in 1994 and I can’t say I understood the storyline.  But one thing I noticed immediately—Meier’s is in the wrong place.

Meier’s is a tavern at 235 East Lake Street in Glenview, just a door west of the Wilmette border.  Meier’s originally was opened by Frank in 1925 as a barn where teenagers went to purchase one dollar bottles of liquor.  There was that little misguided social experiment known as Prohibition.  So in 1935, Meier’s OFFICIALLY opened.  Frank sold the business in 1962 but continued serving drinks until his death in 2004.  That’s an impressive allegiance to alcohol.

Meier’s is the Platonic Ideal of a bar.  There’s a back room where you can take the kids.  No smoking, television playing in the corner, the comfortable grill sounds emanating from the kitchen.  There’s only two things on the menu worth having and they are perfect in their way—cheeseburger and tater tots.  No fries.  The front room is for smokers and drinkers who like to linger.  And then there’s “packaged liquors” at the cash register for those who don’t know how to let a party end.  Outside there’s a parking barrier with a dozen rosebushes—the sign says Meier’s Rose Garden.  No peeing in the Rose Garden.

In the storyline of Winnetka Road, as it can be pieced together in just four episodes, Meier’s was imbued with a sort of wrong side of the tracks vibe.  But that’s not the Meier’s that exists in Glenview.  You’re as likely to meet the president of Harris Bank as you are the plumber who fixed the backed up toilet in your powder room.  You’re also going to run into me—I’ll be the gal at the end of the bar wolfing down my cheeseburger and tater tots.   You can buy me a drink.

Technorati Tags: Winnetka, Wilmette, Glenview, Ed Begley, Meg Tilly, Josh Brolin, Meier’s, Tavern

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 8th, 2007 at 10:12 pm and is filed under Glenview(t) , Wilmette(t) , Winnetka(t) , Thoughts(t) . You can leave a response.