In September 2024, Friends of the Edgewater Library presented the first “Edgewater Stories” program. Our goal for this community engagement initiative was to reach into our diverse neighborhood, where more than 60 languages are spoken, and share stories about how and why individuals came to live, work, or visit Edgewater. We know that everyone has a story to tell!
We're pleased to present 17 stories that made us laugh, cry, ooh, and ah! We hope you’ll find them as entertaining, thought-provoking, and emotional as we did. More importantly, they helped us create new bonds of friendship with our Edgewater neighbors.
Beard & Belly's story begins not in Edgewater, but in a walk-up food window at The Long Room, a beloved Chicago bar in Lakeview with a focus on local craft beer. Kyle "The Beard" and Jim "The Belly" (creative nicknames are clearly our forte) had a simple approach: Share quality bar food at a fair price.
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