Category Archives: Chicago

Tiny Lounge | North Center / Lincoln Square, Chicago

By pdo | Published: June 13, 2009
We walked right by, actually, saw the number on the next building and realized what we had done.  Tiny Lounge has a tiny sign.  They also have a tiny website.  Everything is understated. The menu has a good selection of specialty cocktails, an easily overlooked listing of classic cocktails (Tom Collins, sidecar, etc.), and even [...]
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Tilted Kilt | The Loop, Chicago

By pdo | Published: June 5, 2009
At one point, there are 34 men on our side of the bar and we can’t see a single woman patron, but they are elsewhere at the bar in weird groups seemingly ready to pounce like jackals waiting for the lionesses to finish. Our waitress arrives kilted, cleavaged.  She writes her name on a coaster [...]
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Seasons Bar, Four Seasons Hotel | Chicago

By pdo | Published: May 22, 2009
Club chairs, wasabi peas, full-height tables — the Seasons Bar is definitely a good hotel bar.  And there are drinks. photo credit: wickenden Lisa orders a glass of Champagne.  I ask for a martini.  Waiter arrives with a bottle of Taittinger and a condensation-covered, silver shaker.  He opens the wine, pours Lisa a glass, puts the [...]
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The Plaza at Park Grill | Millennium Park, Chicago

By pdo | Published: May 9, 2009
Summer comes and Millennium Park trades its ice rink for al fresco drinking (or dining).  Which means there’s a handrail around this place inhibiting entrance.  For some reason, it also means the cups are plastic.  And perhaps the bartenders are skating instructors and that’s why cocktails are so difficult. Come here for two reason.  One, [...]
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Publican | West Loop, Chicago

By pdo | Published: April 28, 2009
“If you need a place for your purse,” the waiter stated, “there is a shelf below the seat of your chair.” “I love this place already,” the wife-to-be responded. They had thought of everything.  EXCEPT idiot men that put their umbrellas on said shelf only to walk out light and free, without a care in [...]
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B.L.U.E.S. | Chicago, IL

By pdo | Published: April 26, 2009
I’ve got the quit-making-out-in-front-of-me-and-rubbing-each-others’-legs-and-standing-up-from-your-stools-and-bumping-into-me-you-gross-old-people-from-the-suburbs-that-have-had-too-much-to-drink-and-should-just-get-a-room-and-I-know-that’s-what-you’re-thinking-because-I-just-saw-you-pop-a-Viagra blues.  Deh dah-dah dum dah-dum dah-dum … photo credit: swanksalot So I was feeling the blues, and Carlos Johnson spoke to my soul, though his actual blues source may have been different than mine.  Great band.  Good bar.  Attentive waitresses.  The crowd … The crowd was wild.  Seemed to be mostly [...]
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C-View | Gold Coast, Chicago

By pdo | Published: March 31, 2009
If you were to take the bar at the Hancock, shrink it by 75%, lower it 500 feet, knock 25% of the cost of a drink, update the decor to be more light and hip instead of heavy and 1980, and add a patio, you’d get C-View. photo credit: PhotoDu.de This place has all of [...]
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DOC Wine Bar | Lincoln Park, Chicago

By pdo | Published: March 28, 2009
Well, we had a good run, what can I say?  Too bad it had to end.  We’ve been patrons since it opened and were sometimes the only ones there some nights in its earlier days.  Took a little while for this place to catch on, what with its lack of flat-screen TVs and all.  But [...]
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Dragonlady Lounge | Logan Square, Chicago

By pdo | Published: March 4, 2009
When the Chaser invites you for a drink, you ask what time. You do not decline. The Chaser wanted to check out Dragonlady Lounge, and I couldn’t resist. So, there’s some residual Stadium West decor (including the sign out front), and the place is definitely a dive, but it was a lot of fun. There’s [...]
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Billy Goat Tavern | The Loop, Chicago

By pdo | Published: February 12, 2009
There’s one bar that I like to go to after work and that bar is Old Timer’s.  It’s dingy, close by, inexpensive, and filled with an interesting crowd.  If I worked on the other side of the Chicago River, I would go to the Billy Goat Tavern.  It’s very dingy, inexpensive, and filled with a [...]
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