Chain O' Lakes bars recuperate from floods
For businesses along the Fox River, the summer got off to a rough start. Springtime floods put quite the damper (literally) on typically packed bars along the Chain O' Lakes, and island clubs like Blarney Island, which financially thrives on sun-soaked patronage, only recently reopened after months of damage control.
For those keeping track, the Chain O' Lakes marks the spot where the Fox River empties into nine major lakes located in Lake and McHenry counties. The lakes are known for boating, fishing, water skiing, swimming and, yes, a whole lot of partying. When natural disasters hurt drinking establishments, we feel the pain too, so we decided to check on our Chain pals while they recuperate.
Blarney Island
Of all the bars, Blarney Island was probably affected the most by flooding. Literally located on an island one mile offshore in Grass Lake, this tropical outlet doesn't just rely on the lake for business - it depends on it for transporting customers. In fact, if you want to visit Blarney Island, you need to take a boat shuttle or drive your own boat just to get there.
"We lost tons of revenue because of the floods," Blarney Island managing partner John Haley says. "There was no physical damage to Blarney Island, but the economic damage was substantial."
From around June 9 to 29, Blarney Island was forced to close. That's about three whole weeks that they missed out on. And not just any three weeks. Three of the hottest weeks of the year - literally and figuratively. "June, July and August are when you make your money," Haley says, "and we were closed for three weeks of it."
For Blarney Island, this was damage done from their third flood in 10 months. To make matters worse, rainstorms earlier this month threatened to flood the island once again. Thankfully, the water level has since gone down, and Blarney Island reopened for the Fourth of July weekend.
"There was a lot of cleanup to be done. All around the building and the shoreline; it was days of scrubbing for us."
More damage done
Blarney Island wasn't the only Chain O' Lakes bar that suffered at the hands of torrential storms. Inland bars took an equally hard beating. Though they didn't need to shut down, Jimmy V's Sports Bar and Grill in Ingleside was hurt by the floods too, whereas other businesses went down for good.
"Because of the flooding, there weren't boats on the water, so people from outside the area were not around," says Tony Bodanyi, owner and manager of Jimmy V's.
Jim Earley, a corporate general manager for A la carte Entertainment, the company that owns Famous Freddie's as well as Moretti's in Fox Lake, put it a little more bluntly, saying "Famous Freddie's profits were down 33 percent for May and June. We missed out on the boaters."
Neither place was forced to close, though, and going against the grain, Moretti's ended up turning a profit in May and June, closing out one of their best two-month periods ever, according to Earley, due mostly to their food carryout and delivery options,
The word has since gotten out about Chain O' Lakes being "boatable" again, and it shows. Boaters are back out in full-force, though nothing can be done to regain those lost weeks.
Good news for partiers
To make up for soggy summer months, these bars are pulling out all the stops the rest of the summer.
Famous Freddie's partnered with Miller Lite to give away a Harley Davidson on Saturday, and Jimmy V's is planning an event called Picnic in the Parking Lot on Sunday, featuring three-legged races, corn-on-the-cob eating contests and other picnic-themed games for a chance to win a 12-foot Leinenkugel canoe. And not to be outdone, Blarney Island is hosting a "Girls Gone Wild" shooting Saturday. Yes, THE "Girls Gone Wild" crew is going to be filming in Antioch.
The summer may not have started on the right foot for bars along (or in) the Chain O' Lakes, but they're doing their best to recover and obviously giving people plenty of reasons why they should visit. Let Mother Nature know that she isn't going to stop you from enjoying a drink on the lakes this summer.