Chicago's oldest bar closed

Schaller's Pump, a bar that has run for 136 years in Chicago said goodbye to its customers, old and new, on the last day of April.

The bar, believed to be the oldest continuously operating bar in this third largest city in the U.S., has hosted ordinary Chicagoans and elected officials with cold drinks, good food and hospitality, Chicago Tribune reported.

Kim Shinnick, whose family runs the business, told the local newspaper that she is having a really hard time with this.

Opened to business in 1881, Schaller's Pump has long been considered one of Chicago's most historic taverns.

"Every happy moment in my family's life has been here," said 60-year-old Elmer Mestrovic who lives in the neighborhood and has been coming to the bar since he was a toddler.

The bar was packed with customers Saturday. "It's almost like people are here to stop them," Chicago Tribune quoted Mestrovic as saying. "They don't want it to end. Nobody really knows why it's ending." They've commemorated birthdays, funerals, Mother's Days, Father's Days and first communions here. Endit