RANTOUL — The eye-catching bar that adorns ET’s restaurant in downtown Rantoul has a unique and local history. It features a glass top framed in copper. The glass panels, which contain chicken wire, were used as architectural panels in the hangars on the former Chanute Air Force Base.
ET’s owner, Eric Thompson, said a friend, Troy Bergman of Colorado, formerly of Rantoul, found the glass panels on his grandfather’s farm between Rantoul and Thomasboro.
“We were trying to find ways to incorporate it into the existing space,” Thompson said.
An epoxy was placed in the corrugated spaces of the bar, and lights were added.
Thompson said initially he didn’t know where the glass panels originated, until he visited the B-52 Hangar MX motocross dirt track…
