Mott's Lounge marks 100 years in Burlington: 'Everybody comes here'

BURLINGTON, Ill. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — This week’s Made in Chicago serves up the story of a family-run bar that has survived the Great Depression, World War II, and countless other challenges over 100 years in business.

Mott’s Lounge, in the tiny village of Burlington in western Kane County, opened in 1924. Robin Getzelman’s great-great grandparents, Flora and Albert Mott, started it in a garage.

“When the train would come through town, it would stop — it’s no longer a train that stops in town here — but when it would, the conductor would yell out, ‘Vinegar Hills,’ and then people would know there was a speakeasy in town to visit,” Getzelman said. “Well, Al Capone was also known to be traveling through the area, and I think that’s how the bar got started.”

During Prohibition, Getzelman said they had to be careful.

“People would come in and say, ‘I would like a whiskey,’” Getzelman said. “Well, Flora would take the money, and then she would say, ‘OK, whiskey: Go five rows back in the corn, six to the left,’ so they could pick up their liquor. Or, if there was a big party going on inside, and the cops came in through the front, people would run out the back to hide out in the cornfields.

The lounge changed names over the years but kept its original Brunswick, wooden bar from the 1920s. Maybe because Flora was a stickler for keeping the bar clean, it maintains a glossy shine as bartenders serve up a green vodka called Swamp Water and hand-pressed burgers to locals.

Flora passed Mott's Lounge on to her granddaughter, Shirley Getzelman. Her son, Ted, now owns it with his wife.

“I don’t know what this town would be without this, because it’s more of a social [center] than a bar,” he said. “Everybody comes here. There’s really not a library or anything in town to go to.”

Mott’s Lounge plans to celebrate 100 years in business with a street party on July 27.

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