Dil Pickle Club

The Dil Pickle Club or Dill Pickle Club was once a popular Bohemian club in Chicago, Illinois between 1917 and 1935. The Dil Pickle was known as a speakeasy, cabaret and theatre and was influential during the "Chicago Renaissance" as it allowed a forum for free thinkers. It was founded and owned by Wobbly John "Jack" Jones and was frequented by popular American authors, activists and speakers.

The club's legacy has seen several reincarnations, including the revived Chicago Dil Pickle Club, the Dill Pickle Food Co-op, Dil Pickle Press, and the Dill Pickle Club of Portland, OR, "an experimental forum for critiquing contemporary culture, politics and humanities."

In 1914, John "Jack" Jones, a former organizer for the Wobblies (Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) had started several weekly forums at the Radical Book Shop on North Clark Street in Chicago. The forums discussed labor issues along with social concerns of the day. Soon, in early 1915, Jones needed a new venue as the capacity was exceeded at the forum. To accommodate increased participants, Jones found a decrepit barn on Tooker Alley, off of Dearborn Street in downtown Chicago that he would name the Dil Pickle Club. Soon after, fellow labor organizer from Ireland, Jim Larkin would join Jones along with the "hobo doctor" and anarchist Ben Reitman. Reitman would be instrumental in getting regular news coverage of the Pickle in the Chicago Daily News and Chicago Tribune. The news coverage would help increase the clubs following and by 1917, Jones created the Dil Pickle Artisans by officially incorporating it as a non-profit in Illinois for its promotion of arts, crafts, science and literature.

...
Wikipedia