Steelers fan flock to Lisle bar
Excitement for the Super Bowl in the Chicago area probably reached its peak two weeks ago.
But at a bar in Lisle, Super Bowl fever was still raging Sunday.
That is because Mullen's Bar and Grill, 3080 Warrenville Road, bills itself as a Pittsburgh Steelers bar.
Around kickoff time, the tables began to fill with Steelers faithful wearing the jerseys of their favorite team. Black and gold balloons greeted them as they entered the bar.
It is not such a mystery behind why the bar is so pro-Steelers when you consider that Mullen's is part of a chain with two locations in Pittsburgh. Naturally, the Chicago-area location attracted Steelers fans the way some Chicagoans flock to Chicago-style pizza locations when out of town.
“There was a time toward the end of the season we had about 45 Steelers fans in here. They had the entire pool room to themselves,” said Manager Chris Prokopiak, who grew up in DuPage County as a Bears fan but always liked the Steelers.
“We get more Steeler fans here than any other bar around. We're actually one of the only designated Steeler bars,” he said.
At one table sat a group of fans drinking Miller Lite dispensed out of a 100-ounce beer tube.
Eric Pluskowski came all the way from DeKalb to join his fellow Steelers fans.
“We've got to be with family,” he said. “We have to be in the right environment.”
But more important, he said, he had to put distance between him and the southern border of Wisconsin.
Pluskowski isn't from Pittsburgh — he's a local boy from Geneva — but his wife, Becky Rogers, is from Steelers country.
Robert Deshazer, another member of the group, said he learned of the bar in an ad he saw two weeks ago. Another ad was placed in steelersnation.com.
Rogers, the Pittsburgh native who moved to Illinois as a child, said her favorite player is Heinz Ward and she predicted a 5-point victory.
Not everyone at the table was a Steelers fan. But Bears fan Kate Parkinson of St. Charles said: “Even if they (the Bears) were playing (Sunday), they would not win.”
Nor was there an absence of green and gold in the restaurant. Sisters Jennifer and Connie Wasielewski, who live in Lisle and Naperville, respectively, sported their Packers jerseys.
“I love rivalry. Bring it on,” Jennifer said.