Lake View's Beloved Marching Society Parade Returns to the Streets — Plus, a Pharmacist-Turned-Mixologist Opens Apothecary on Clark
By Socialhood News · Lake View ·
Lake View neighbors, two stories landed on the neighborhood's radar this past week that are worth your full attention — one a time-honored community tradition that rolled through the streets just days ago, and one a genuinely inventive new bar concept from an owner with a background you won't expect.
First, the civic celebration: the annual Wellington-Oakdale Old Glory Marching Society Parade made its return on Sunday, September 7, stepping off at Pine Grove Avenue and Wellington Avenue in Lake View. The parade is one of the North Side's most endearingly offbeat and deeply community-rooted traditions — a beloved annual procession that draws neighbors out to the sidewalks in a way that few neighborhood events still can. For anyone who missed it this year, the corner of Pine Grove and Wellington is the place to mark on next September's calendar. It's the kind of only-in-Chicago ritual that reminds you why living in a real neighborhood — with real block-level traditions — matters.
Now, the new arrival: Apothecary, a cocktail bar with a genuinely compelling origin story, has opened at 3242 N. Clark St. in Lake View. The concept comes from owner Eric Reid, who spent his career as a pharmacist before pivoting to the hospitality world — and who has brought that scientific, ingredient-focused sensibility directly to the drink menu. The cocktail program was developed with Zachary Heller, a veteran of CH Distillery, and leans into the apothecary theme with precision: complex builds featuring ingredients like eucalyptus, and highballs that incorporate fermented components. This is not a bar where you walk in and order a gin and tonic on autopilot.
The food side of Apothecary is handled by Jacquelyn Lord, whose menu includes fried mushrooms, duck confit flatbread, and other shareable plates designed to pair with the cocktail-forward drink program. The combination of Reid's pharmacist instincts, Heller's distillery experience, and Lord's kitchen anchors Apothecary as a concept with more depth than the typical new bar opening. The Clark Street address puts it in one of Lake View's most walkable and well-trafficked stretches, and the bar opened earlier this year — so by now, it has had time to find its footing and its regulars.
Taken together, these two stories capture something essential about Lake View's identity. The Wellington-Oakdale Old Glory Marching Society Parade is the kind of hyperlocal institution that doesn't get covered in national food media or development permits — it just shows up every year, draws the neighborhood out to the sidewalks, and reminds everyone why this community is worth paying attention to. Apothecary, meanwhile, represents the kind of first-time owner ambition that has always given Clark Street its character: someone with deep expertise in one field deciding that the neighborhood deserved a bar built around the same rigor they'd apply to any other discipline.
If you haven't stopped into Apothecary yet, 3242 N. Clark St. is the address — and the duck confit flatbread and eucalyptus-forward cocktails are reason enough to make the trip. And if the Wellington-Oakdale parade is already part of your annual Lake View rhythm, keep passing the tradition along. The best neighborhood institutions survive because neighbors keep showing up for them. As always, if you're spotting something new on your block — a permit posted, a storefront coming to life, a new face behind a counter — tag it on Socialhood. The sharpest neighborhood reporters in Lake View are the ones who actually live here.
Sources:
1. https://www.fox32chicago.com/tag/us/il/cook-county/chicago/lake-view
2. https://www.wttw.com/playlist/2026/03/19/upcoming-restaurants-spring-2026