Wreck Your Heart is set at McPhee’s Tavern, where the owner, Alex, has built a stage for Dahlia and her band to perform. (You’re going to like Alex.) I wrote about Chicago in this book because it’s A) easier for me to write about a place I know and love and B) Chicago is awesome, and has so many stories to tell. And once I was writing about a pub in an old building in a Chicago neighborhood, well… it wasn’t too long until I was imaging a speakeasy past for McPhee’s. But is it real or myth?

If you’re into speakeasies, check out Susanna Calkins’s two books set in Chicago speakeasies at the height of Prohibition, Murder Knocks Twice and The Fate of the Flapper (in that order). They’re so fun and Susie will get them historically accurate.

Have you been to a Chicago speakeasy? Oh, yeah. They still exist. Wander into a corner neighborhood bar in this city and ask how long they’ve been in business. Is there a basement at the Alamo? There might be some stories for you, if you go looking.