La Crosse native owns Packer bar in Chicago

If you can't get — or afford — tickets to the NFC Championship Game at Soldier Field but want to feel Chicago's electricity Sunday at one of the city's Packers bars, the owners have advice: Arrive early.

Kickoff for the game between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears is 2 p.m., but the taverns will fill up much earlier.

Will's Northwoods Inn, a North Side bar near Wrigley Field[interesting!], was already standing-room-only at 11:30 a.m. last Saturday, nearly eight hours before kickoff between the Packers and the Atlanta Falcons.

"It was wall-to-wall Packers' fans screaming," said Reuben Bigjohn of La Crosse, who was at the bar while visiting his brother in Chicago. "I lost my voice."

At Kroll's in the South Loop, just blocks from Soldier Field, manager Nicole Steinmetz has been fielding calls from bus tour operators in Wisconsin hoping to park busloads of Packer fans at her bar.

"It's going to be craziness," she said.

Will's and Kroll's are two of a handful of Chicago bars that market themselves unapologetically as Packers havens. The Spot is on the far North Side, while O'Leary's Public House is just north of Downtown.

The original Kroll's is across the street from Lambeau Field in Green Bay, owned and operated by Mike Wier. Despite opening the Chicago branch in the heart of Bears' turf, the bar has remained true to its roots.

"We're huge Packers fans," said Steinmetz, Wier's daughter. "We're stuck dealing with Bears fans all year long."  [A heavy cross to ....bare  snickersnicker]

A 15-foot fiberglass bear stands watch beside Will's. Manager Kevin Kruse pointed out it's a black bear, not to be confused with the growling brown bear in blue-and-orange. For good measure, the bear will wear a cheese wedge on Sunday. [Like!]

"It looks like a tiny little party hat on him," Kruse said.

The place is owned by a La Crosse native, John Bunge, who wanted to transfer the ambience of northern Wisconsin to Chicago.

"It's that slice of Wisconsin in the middle of Chicago," Rebecca Eckhart, 28, a UW-Madison graduate and Milwaukee native, said of Will's.

She'll be there Sunday.

Leah Qusba, a transplant originally from Green Bay, will watch the game with her husband, Sunil, among fellow Packer loyalists at The Spot on Chicago's far North Side.

"I enjoy nothing more than poking and prodding my Bear-fan friends at game time," Qusba said in an e-mail.

Wis State J

If any of my good readers from Chicago(about 130 of you in the last month) are natives, I hope these safe zones provide you with the needed support amongst the Bears fans.

HT V