Village Tap

Weegee’s Lounge will be sold to the Village Tap owner | Eater Chicago

"An established Roscoe Village craft-beer oasis that Hoffman has run since buying it after longtime owner Mike Green died in 2017, the bar provided the genesis for his interest in preserving neighborhood institutions. “Mike would introduce me to other people as his dear friend Jeff even though I’d known him for a week,” Hoffman says. He had quit his job at Allstate Insurance shortly before Green’s death and was asked by Green’s business partner to buy the place. “I’m trying the best I can to continue (his) legacy of just providing excellent hospitality to everybody that comes through these doors,” Hoffman says. The team knows regulars by name — “My staff knows all our regulars by name; they know what they drink.” — and Hoffman says the operation can run without him when necessary: “I’m really comfortable with my crew (at his Roscoe Village bar) and they can kind of run things without me,” he says, adding that he’ll still be there every day, “just not as long as I normally am.” He'd been looking since 2020 to add a second bar (COVID-19 delayed those plans) and sees synergy between the two nearly identical-sized rooms; with declining interest in beer he might add a few of the other bar’s cocktails to the tap menu, particularly their Aviation, which he thinks is the best in the city." - Sam Nelson