In a city with a history of colorful tavern owners, Jimbo Levato still managed to stand out.
He wore loafers, a white tank top, short shorts and a black flat cap to his Bridgeport bar — Jimbo’s Lounge — every day, regardless of the weather.
There was no bar nearer to the gates of the White Sox ballpark, and he was an unapologetic Cubs fan.
“That was one of the big jokes: He was a diehard Cubs fan,” his son Tom Levato said. “It was no secret. Everyone knew it, and it made for a good talking point, all in good fun. Everyone who came in that bar was family.”
Mr. Levato died Feb. 2 from natural causes, according to his family. He was 89.
He kept his signature tan by sunning himself in a lounge chair outside his tavern.
“If it was 50 degrees, didn’t matter, he’d put his lounge chair right in front of the tavern and just lay there, or he’d occasionally go to Las Vegas,” his son Mike Levato said. “But he never gambled. He’d lay by the pool all day long and catch a small lounge act at night.”
A bit of a crooner himself, when the spirit caught him, Mr. Levato would grab a microphone he kept behind his bar and sing along Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin or Jimmy Roselli on the jukebox.
“He’d get the place going and pass around the mic, and everyone did their part,” Mike Levato said.
Mr. Levato is in the Chicago 16″ Softball Hall of Fame. He played outfield for decades before finding a home on the mound in his 50s. As a bar owner, he sponsored softball teams and tournaments, including one across the street from his tavern at Armour Square Park.
“He always said he batted four times a game and got five hits. … In Jimbo’s mind, that’s how it worked,” Mike Levato said.
At an annual golf outing he held at the Carriage Greens Country Club in Darien, Mr. Levato brought one club — a driver.
“He’d walk the whole course and play with a driver,” Mike Levato said. “He was not a golfer, but he loved his golf outing.”
A softball, his favorite clothes and a microphone were placed in his casket.
The tavern represented a second chapter in life for Mr. Levato, who worked for nearly 30 years as a dock hand at a South Side trucking company before he opened Jimbo’s in 1983.
The bar closed in 2008 after a dispute and court battle with his clout-heavy landlord.
“He didn’t want to give it up,” Mike Levato said. “It was a sad day.”
Mr. Levato’s three sons all tended bar over the years. His wife Joyce worked as the bar’s cook, serving up hot dogs, hamburgers, spaghetti and meatballs, beef sandwiches and pork chops.
The bar was at South Princeton Avenue and West 33rd Street, across Armour Square Park from what’s now the Sox’ Rate Field.
“When you mentioned ‘White Sox ballpark,’ you knew about Jimbo’s,” Tom Levato said.
About 100 people could fit inside the bar, but more jammed in following the Sox’ World Series victory in 2005.
“It was just a neighborhood bar, nothing fancy,” Mike Levato said. “He made the most with the little he had. here wasn’t any fights or arguments. Everyone just came, everybody had a ball, and it all stemmed from him.”
Ballpark workers, from vendors to those in the front office, and the occasional player, all drank at Jimbo’s.
Keanu Reeves stopped by in 1996 because a friend of one of Mr. Levato’s sons was a Teamster assigned to drive Reeves around while in Chicago to shoot a movie.
Mr. Levato was born Joseph G. Levato on Jan. 21, 1936, in Chicago and grew up in an Italian section of Bridgeport.
His father Ralph was a dock worker at a trucking company. His mother Mary was a homemaker. The couple had seven kids.
His son’s aren’t sure how “Joseph” became Jimbo.
Mr. Levato met his wife Joyce in the neighborhood. She grew up two blocks from the Levato household.
The couple bought a home near 31st Street and Lituanica Avenue in 1963.
Mr. Levato’s wife died in 2022 after battling Alzheimer’s disease. His son Joey died in 2011 from cancer.
In addition to his sons Mike and Tom, Mr. Levato is survived by 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Services have been held.