RR's has great history, soon to make more
Tiffany Witte
The Daily Illini
Before students packed the former RR’s Sports Grill on Wednesday nights for its $13 shark bowl specials and $2 “Mug Night” refills, the building hosted Wigwam, which some say boasted the town’s best Italian beef and 25-cent beers.
Owner Scott Cochrane said 708 S. Sixth St. will undergo another transformation into the Firrehaus, a restaurant and bar, by July. The bar’s opening was planned for December 2002, but it had to be pushed back because of the extensive remodeling, Cochrane said.
Ironically, the location, which was built in the 1940s, was originally home to a priest or minister, Cochrane said. He said while his parents were remodeling the bar in 1961, his mother found a bag of silver dollar coins from the1700s hidden in the wall.
The house became Jocko’s in the late 1940s, one of the earliest campus bars. During the 1950s, the building housed two restaurants, T-bird and Timpone’s, and then became Wigwam, which served as a restaurant by day and a tavern by night.
The Cochrane family purchased Wigwam in 1961 with $400. That was enough to pay for the first month’s rent and ingredients for homemade fried chicken, Italian beef and Italian sausage sandwiches. Wigwam featured black-and-white checkered tile floors, a mural of an Indian village scene on the wall, and a neon teepee sign outside.
The tavern had only a handful of employees, and Cochrane’s mother, Joyce, worked in the kitchen while his father, Tom, worked at the bar. Wigwam offered 25-cent beers to compete with other taverns.
“It was the place to be at the time,” Cochrane said.
Former Champaign mayor and University alumnus Dan McCollum said he remembers going to Wigwam with his family on Friday nights when he was in high school for its shrimp special.
“It was much less of a college place back then,” he said.
Wigwam was renamed Round Robin in the 1970s after Elvis Presley’s song, “Rockin’ Robin.” The tiles and booths were covered with an inch of red-and-black shag carpet, and the bar drew a crowd of regulars every day for happy hour. Cochrane said both Wigwam and Round Robin attracted fewer students and more adults.
Round Robin lost its first floor bar and took on a sports ambience when it became RR’s Sports Grill in the early 1980s. The bar eventually became known to most students as simply “R&R’s” and the double-R will carry over into the new bar.
Cochrane decided in 2002 to transform the bar once again. The Firrehaus will feature traditional Chicago firehouse decor and will be combined with the neighboring barber shop to create more seating.
The only familiar piece of RR’s now is the staircase in the middle of the bar. The rooms are filled with piles of boards and other remnants of the bar. Cochrane said the Firrehaus will have 20-foot ceilings in some areas, an island bar upstairs and much more seating than RR’s.
“I want to cater to a more mature crowd,” he said.
He said he hopes the new bar will be open in time for Greek Reunion weekend in July.
Cochrane promised the shark bowls will return, along with a new mug.
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