Elgin bar has been in family for three generations, through good times and bad

Early on a weekday, Eaton's Redwood Inn in downtown Elgin had a handful of customers at the bar, each nursing a beer or cup of coffee, chatting or looking at the TV.

The longtime bar at 118 W. Chicago St., owned by the Eaton family for three generations, reopened two weeks ago with a cleaner, shinier look thanks to fresh paint, partial new flooring and new wall decor. Owner Scott Eaton said he'd started working on plans to redo the exterior of the building dating back to the 19th century, but was derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I didn't want it to be dingy. That's why I spruced it up,” said the 65-year-old, who doesn't object to it being called a dive bar. “People think that it's a rough place, but that's not really true. It's kind of a reputation it had years ago.”

His customers, some of whom remember the bar from its heyday, agreed.

“I never had no problem here,” said customer Nicho Marroquin, who frequented the bar in the 1970s and 1980s before moving to Texas and coming back to Elgin in 2005. He doesn't drink anymore but enjoys his coffee there, he said.

“It's so nice. It's very comfortable,” said customer Lois Wardecki of Wheeling, who comes with her husband to visit their nephew, who lives above the bar. “Scott is a wonderful, wonderful man.”

A local hangout

The bar opens at 6 a.m. Monday to Friday, and its customers tend to be older, particularly during the day. Many live within walking distance, including up the hill at the Housing Authority of Elgin on State Street; some are commuters who use the Pace bus and Metra stations next door.

Scott Eaton, who lives just outside Elgin, said he enjoys providing a service to customers, some of whom remember his father, Robert Eaton, and even his grandfather, Dick “D.R.” Eaton, who bought the building in 1954.

There are two pool tables, two flat screen TVs and six video gambling machines. The full bar serves heated frozen pizza from Eastside Cafe in Warrenville and a specialty bloody mary cocktail with Robert Eaton's old recipe of V8 juice, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice and hot sauce. Despite the Old Style beer sign outside, the big seller is Pabst, Scott Eaton said.

The five bartenders know each other and their customers well.

“It's a local hangout. Not fancy, very low key, but fun,” said bartender Tim Patrick of Elgin.

“It's good people down here. I enjoy talking with them. They make you laugh,” said bartender Lavonda West, also of Elgin.

Three generations

The building probably was built about 1880 and included a grocery store, tailor shop, boot and shoe store and restaurant, among other early occupants, said David Siegenthaler of the Elgin History Museum. Scott Eaton restored the original exterior architectural features in 1999 with a project that included city grant money.

When his grandfather bought the building in 1954, there was a bar on one side, apparently called Ernie's Place, and a restaurant on the other, Scott Eaton said. His grandfather demolished the middle wall in the mid-1960s and turned the whole place into a bar, which he'd already renamed Eaton's Redwood Inn.

Back then, much of the clientele came early in the morning after working third shift at manufacturers like the former Woodruff & Edwards Foundry, with a second wave of customers in the afternoon, Scott Eaton said.

“It was very popular back then,” he said. “It was a working man's bar, for sure.”

His father Robert Eaton bought the bar in 1970. Scott Eaton, who had a full-time job as a mail carrier, bought it in 1998. A beloved fixture was Barb Pfortmiller, who managed the bar for more than 30 years until about 2012, he said. “She was taking care of almost everything.”

Police sting

Eaton's Redwood Inn was among four establishments in Elgin targeted in 2003 by police undercover drug stings that yielded multiple arrests. Those charged were patrons, not employees, and had small amounts of drugs, Scott Eaton said. The city took away the bar's license to sell packaged liquor, which had been a significant source of revenue, he said.

The major decline in customers came about 10 years ago, Scott Eaton said. “People kind of changed their patterns on how they are going out, and they (police) were cracking down on the DUIs and smoking.”

The bar hasn't had major dealings with the city's liquor commission in the last decade other than two instances of sale to minors, for which it paid fines. “I try to keep the idiots out of here,” Scott Eaton said. “It's not easy to do sometimes.”

Scott Eaton said he plans to rehab the building next door at 1 N. State St., which he also owns and has been vacant since the mid-1980s. “It's a big investment,” he said, adding he hopes to get city grant money for sprinkler and facade improvements.

A fading “for sale” sign outside has been there for years, mostly to gauge interest, Scott Eaton said. A fellow Elgin bar owner made a lowball offer once, Scott Eaton said, but if sells, he'd want to sell both the building and the bar inside. “I want to see it survive.”