Brendan McNeill, longtime owner of Emerald Isle, Lizzie McNeill's and D4 Irish Pub, dies at 83

Brendan McNeill was an unmistakable figure.

He owned several of the city’s most well-known Irish pubs.

He was well-dressed, always, with a nose knocked slightly crooked and an Irish brogue that welcomed stroller-pushing families and boomed over a crowded bar.

Over nearly 50 years in the bar business, he owned Emerald Isle in Edison Park; Lizzie McNeill’s, a pub along the downtown riverfront long before the area became a popular destination; and D4 Irish Pub & Cafe in Streeterville.

“He was an ambassador for Ireland but more so an ambassador for Chicago — he loved the people, he loved the city and he loved life,” said Matt Moore, a friend and managing partner of Chicago Cut Steakhouse.

“He had a great Dublin wit about him. ... Good at reading people and situations, and I’m going to miss him,” said Moore, a fellow Dubliner.

Mr. McNeill died Dec. 22 from colon cancer. He was 83.

“He had a huge group of friends who were regulars over the years, a real cast of characters,” said his daughter, Bridget Roache. “People who go to a bar every day are, by their very nature, ridiculous people. So when you get to know them and they become part of the family, it’s a strange and hilarious and sometimes frustrating dynamic.”

A random sampling: There was “Steve the Stockbroker” who had a penchant for magic tricks and singing Neil Diamond songs; Lisa and Jenna, nurses from Northwestern Memorial Hospital who came in the first night the bar opened and met their husbands at the bar; Diamond Bill, who was a diamond salesman; and of course, the doormen from the nearby Sheridan Hotel who came in daily for the free popcorn and to watch “Jeopardy.”

But Mr. McNeill, who forcefully guided the occasional overly inebriated patron from his bar as an octogenarian, was a character with his own powerful backstory.

He was born Nov. 6, 1942, in Ireland, to Michael McNeill, a police officer, and Mary Ellen Hunt, a housemaid. He grew up in the posh Sandymount section of Dublin, but his life took a turn when his father left the family to live in London with another woman.

“He was smart in school, but kept getting in fights because his dad left and he was an angry kid,” Bridget Roache said.

In 1957, at age 14, he set off on his own to find his father in London.

“But his dad was not receptive, and my dad went his own way,” Bridget Roache said.

He lied about his age and found work as a bartender at the world-renowned Scott’s, an upscale eatery. To make ends meet, he also boxed one night a week in a local gym and taught ballroom dancing, family said.

In 1961, at the suggestion of a group of Canadians he befriended, he moved to Toronto, where he sold watches at a department store and was promoted to head buyer of men’s clothing. He later moved to Kingston, Ontario, where he opened a chain of fabric stores.

He sold his business, and in 1979 moved to Chicago to join his brother, who owned a construction company.

He quickly realized hospitality was his calling and purchased his first bar, which didn’t even have a name, on Milwaukee Avenue in Portage Park. It catered largely to Irish construction workers.

After five years running the nameless pub, he opened Emerald Isle and soon after his family confronted him about a drinking problem.

“We had a very stern talk with him one evening and he was checked into a rehab the next Monday morning. He listened, because he was a kind, good man. He just had a horrible disease,” Bridget Roache said.

The staff at the rehab facility in Wisconsin balked when Mr. McNeill said he had to leave the program early to return to work to support his family, and gave him slim odds of remaining sober.

“But he never had a drink ever again, never once,” she said.

After selling Emerald Isle in 1992, and seeking the cosmopolitan vibe he’d grown accustomed to as a kid, he opened Lizzie McNeill’s in Streeterville. He moved from Park Ridge to a town house down the street from his new pub.

Mr. McNeill and his first wife divorced, and he began a long-term relationship with Deb Zalesiak, who also became a business partner.

One of Bridget Roache’s favorite memories was when her father accompanied her to Trinity College in Dublin, where she was studying abroad.

“It was a very big deal to him that I got in and was going there to this renowned university that historically was a Protestant institution where Catholics for a long time did not normally go,” she said. “So when he dropped me off we were about to walk through the gates and he said, ‘You know, dear, I don’t think I’m allowed in.’ And I said ‘Dad, you are most certainly allowed in.’ And he was just overwhelmed with pride at that moment.”

Many future spouses found each other at his bars, said Mr. McNeill’s daughter, Lizzie McNeill.

“I worked for my dad and so did many of my friends. And he could be grumpy,” she said. “If you survived working for him, you were probably used to getting yelled at by your parents, but kids who didn't get yelled at by their parents lasted about an hour.”

He was also very protective of his staff, which included many Irish on work visas and South American immigrants who worked in the kitchen. Mr. McNeill thanked each by name at the end of their shifts, family said.

The suitcase that Mr. McNeill took when he left home at age 14 is displayed behind the bar at D4. The family plans to put a photo next to it in the coming weeks.

In addition to Bridget Roache and Lizzie McNeill, Mr. McNeill is survived by his daughter Margo McNeill, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Mr. McNeill also had a son, Ryan Francis McNeill, who died of sudden infant death syndrome.

Funeral services have been held.