Matt Butler, left, and Marvin Husby, owners of The Tin Lizzie bar in Chicago, mingle with Sarah Cassidy, left, and Allie Meyerson, employees of the bar, Tuesday night at The Landshark, 101 E. Grand River Ave. Members of the crew were at Landshark to promote The Tin Lizzie, which is an MSU-themed sports bar.
The friendship among MSU students Marvin Husby, Anthony Eugenio and Matthew Butler began at a bar, and it’s never left.
“My partner, Matt Butler, was a bartender at P.T. O’Malley’s, and myself and my partner Anthony Eugenio were far too frequent of patrons,” Husby said. “That’s how we became friends.”
Butler said his friends were regulars at the bar.
“If there were eight days a week, they would’ve been there eight days,” he said.
After leaving MSU, the three friends went separate ways, but all eventually found their way to Chicago.
“I went to law school and began working as a lawyer while (Butler) and (Eugenio) were working the bar industry,” Husby said. “Being a lawyer was very, very boring and I needed something to do. We decided the city needed a good State bar.”
Twelve years ago, they opened The Tin Lizzie, an MSU-themed bar in Lincoln Park, Chicago. Two years later, they opened a second bar called Zella.
Butler and Husby traveled from Chicago back to their alma mater Tuesday. They gave away T-shirts, bought drinks and discussed job opportunities at their bars, all while cheering on the Spartans in the basketball game against Purdue with the patrons of The Landshark, 101 E. Grand River Ave.
“We like to remind everybody that’s going to graduate from Michigan State and move to Chicago that we are a Michigan State bar and we show all the Michigan State games and Detroit games as well,” Butler said. “So they know they can go to the big city and see a bunch of people they already know. Most of our staff are graduates of Michigan State and a lot are in their early 20s.”
Lindsay Rafayko, a publicist at Empower Public Relations, said the partners like returning to East Lansing each year.
“The owners still have a really strong tie to the school and they love coming back to see the school and to introduce the large number of Michigan State students (to The Tin Lizzie),” she said.
As many MSU alumni have moved to Chicago in recent years, MSU-themed bars such as The Tin Lizzie have grown in number and success.
“There’s so many recent MSU grads that migrate that way,” said Tom Allen, the owner of The Landshark. “Places like The Tin Lizzie and Zella have always found a little niche with Michigan State people in Chicago.”
One such MSU bar is Side Street Saloon, located in Chicago’s Lakeview Neighborhood.
“We had a couple of bartenders working for us that were MSU alums … and we said, ‘What the heck, we’re going put up an S flag,’” said Chris Stoddard, a manager and bartender at Side Street Saloon. “I think the success lately (of MSU bars has been) since football has gotten stiff and the Izzone especially.”
Despite the competition, the owners of The Tin Lizzie said they were the original and remain the best MSU bar in Chicago.
“We have the best basketball team in the country for the past 10 years so I think a lot of copycats get involved to try to capitalize on that,” Husby said. “I think to create the right atmosphere for games, you need to have gone to Michigan State.”
That The Tin Lizzie is run by former MSU students is what makes it the best MSU bar in Chicago, Rafayako said.
“They are probably the most dedicated MSU bar in Chicago because they live and breathe MSU,” she said. “They are the place to go and they really care about the school and keeping the community here alive.”
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