Top of the Morning, Feb. 12, 2024
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Grabbing a bite with Joey Wright
On Mondays, we chop it up with the folks responsible for dishing up food around the area. What restaurant should we try next? Let Joey Wright know at jwright@news-gazette.com.
Esquire Lounge has long been the place to be for Illinois fans to gather on Monday night.
That won't change tonight as Illini women's basketball coach Shauna Green sits in as the latest guest on WDWS' Monday SportsTalk with The News-Gazette sports writers. Host Steve Kelly, Matt Daniels, Scott Richey and Bob Asmussen will interview the second-year coach from 5 to 6 p.m. on the stage in the back of the restaurant, where spectators can watch.
"The radio show has been a really popular thing we've done for many years now," co-owner Paul Higgins said. "It's just a fun thing, you know, you get some U of I sports figures, both athletes and coaches. It's just a fun thing."
Suffice to say Monday nights are pretty busy for the establishment, which has been serving cold ones and food to downtown patrons since 1975.
"It brings in a pretty good crowd, especially when you have a high-profile guest," Higgins said.
"I think the biggest I've seen it is when the U of I first hired Lovie Smith, but any time you get men's head basketball coach, women's basketball coach or when a team gets hot, we get pretty busy."
The weekly radio show isn't the only thing to look forward to at the bar in the coming months.
It will celebrate Mardi Gras on Tuesday, and a busy March features a 'Pizza, Puzzles, & Pitchers' event March 2 before its St. Patrick's Day celebration on March 17.
"We have a special food menu, special drink menu, and that's another thing we've been doing for a lot of years now," Higgins said of the Mardi Gras celebration. "We'll have a band that's playing in the evening ... we want people to come out for it."
