| A jumpin’ juice bar with a kick |  |
Photo By
Dave Msseemmaa |
| A jumpin’ juice bar with a kick | |
Photo By
Dave Msseemmaa |
By Nate Bloomquist
College students in the IVCC area don’t have much to do for entertainment over the weekend. Fortunately there’s an oasis in the desert of boredom that is the Illinois Valley. That oasis is in the form of the Main Squeeze Juice Bar at the Northeast corner of Fifth and Crosat streets.
In addition to serving inexpensive non-alcoholic drinks, the juice bar houses a band every Saturday night. For a cover charge (usually $3 or $4), students can dance to local bands such as Where’s Andy? Vehicle and Commodore Nut.
But there’s more behind the juice bar than a drink and a song. There’s a unique story behind the establishment’s existence.
Ed Alvarado, the building’s proprietor, picked up the idea for the juice bar after a trip to a local bowling establishment.
"I was up there (at the bowling alley) and there were all these kids hanging out," says Alvarado. "They were just standing around not really doing much of anything. I asked some of them, if there was a place where you could go to have fun without alcoho,l would you go? They said yes and I got the idea for this place."
That idea came in May and since then, Alvarado says business has been booming. There have been other similar businesses in the area that are youth-oriented that failed. Alvarado believes his business is here to stay.
"I really don’t know what I’m doing," he says. "I’m no business man that’s for sure. I think we will be around because I can keep the trouble out. At other places there was an element of competition because of pool tables or something else. There’s none of that here it’s just a lot of people enjoying themselves and dancing."
The business has already won favor with LaSalle’s mayor, Art Washkowiak. The mayor sent Alvarado a plant with a message that thanked him for putting his business in LaSalle.
"I don’t think there’s any other city anywhere that does that sort of thing," Alvarado says. "That really makes me feel good and it makes me feel welcome here."
Like the bands that appear every Saturday night, Alvarado says he’s an entertainer. In addition to running the hot-spot, Alvarado is ‘Rocko the Clown.’ He entertains younger children and adults alike with an act involving balloon animals, sock puppets, and a little acoustic guitar. But Alvarado wasn’t always the smiling face behind the clown makeup.
"Ten years ago I didn’t have anything," says the 39-year old Utica native. "I literally drank everything away."
In 1989, Alvarado says he couldn’t stay out of the local taverns. He built up five Driving Under the Influence charges and was put in jail. He was then put into a detoxification center. He lost his wife, his house, most of his belongings, and nearly lost his job.
"(Bars) became my whole world," he said. "I couldn’t get out of them and it destroyed me. You have a lot of friends when you go into a bar. But when you’re in jail there’s no one there; suddenly they all disappear."
Alvarado says his drinking problems may have been a blessing in disguise. He says while he was in recovery he picked up a guitar and taught himself how to play it. He also began to put together a clown act involving some ventriloquism.
"I never knew I could play guitar or do anything like that," he said. "I started doing it and kept on doing it and I got good. Now I’m so busy doing things like that and working on music I don’t have time to hang out in the bars. I haven’t had a drink in 10 years and I don’t think I ever will again. You don’t need it."
In 1996, he lost his job at Mendota’s Motor Wheel factory as it went out of business. He said at that time a lot of his co-workers turned to the bars, but he didn’t return to the bottle.
"I had 18 years of seniority behind me and then one day it was gone," says Alvarado, who was a group leader at the Mendota factory that re-located further south. "It comes to show you that there’s no security in life and there’s no security in what I’m doing now. But I’m having fun."
Alvarado says several of his former co-workers from Motor Wheel turned to the taverns.
"I could’ve gone back and drank again, but I learned that it doesn’t solve your problems," he says. "When you’re all sobered up they’re right there again and sometimes they’re even bigger than before."
Alvarado has some advice for those who turn to drinking and dwell in the taverns.
"Open your eyes," he says. "There’s a whole world out there. I don’t know where I had the time to stay in the tavern because I’m always doing something. When you drink you’re not only ruining you’re own life, you’re ruining your family’s."