05/14/09

Market Report

The sleek new West Loop spot Market strays from the sports-bar norm: It's less about the champagne of beers and more about champagne, from a Chandon Brut-infused Tom Collins martini to an entire roster of sparkling cocktails. The addition of yeasty, boozy champagne to my Market Mojito ($12), for example, turned a classic into something...

05/07/09

Rocks It

At the end of the day, what matters in most sports is the score. So, here it is: After my latest Wrigleyville drinking escapade, this time at the second outpost of Rockit Bar & Grill, The Chaser is 1-1 on Cubs bars. And this win was well earned (as was the Cubs' 4 to 2 victory over San Fran).

Rockit two has some cosmetic similarities to the River North original: same two-floor setup, same menu with same famed Kobe burger...

04/30/09

Everyday Jay’s—Plus, a Weekend Checklist

New neighborhood bars that open in not-so-new neighborhoods have a choice to make: Stitch themselves into the fabric or blaze a new path. In a neighborhood as established as Little Italy, it’s not surprising Jay’s on Taylor (1421 W. Taylor St., 312-666-6663) toes the line—so much so that I almost expected the bar, which opened mid-April, to seem a little more weathered and old-school than shiny and sleek...

04/23/09

Narrow Ledge

Opening a bar, like buying a house, is all about location, location, location. And The Ledge Bar & Grill (1745 W. North Ave.; 773-252-6053), just down the block from Wicker Park’s Six Corners, has that—and the inevitable neighborhood foot traffic—going for it. Also as with real estate, it helps if the prime spot (here, the former Parlor location) comes with nice...

04/16/09

Stretched Out

Game day seemed like the only day to hit The Stretch (3458 N. Clark St., 773-755-3980), Wrigleyville’s latest steps-from-the-ballpark sports bar. Which means what follows is the account of one relatively sober person among a sea of disappointed Cubs fans—following Wednesday’s loss to Colorado—who had been drinking since at least 1:20 p.m. So, you can take my opinion with a grain of tequila...

04/09/09

A-Plus C-View

If my visit to C-View in Streeterville’s Affinia hotel had been a vacation instead of just feeling like one, I would have needed only three photos to tell the story of my trip: one of the gorgeous bar, one of my equally sleek drink, and a third of my...

04/02/09

So-So Social Twenty-Five

The idea behind Moda’s reinvention made sense. Shake up the pricey (bottle service), exclusive (booth reservations required), and fashion-obsessed (who’s buying Prada these days, anyway?) approach in favor of something a little less Roberto Cavalli and a little more recession-conscious. The owners’ decision to join up with the team behind the more downscale Barleycorn seemed logical, so when...

03/26/09

Cocktail Class-y

My bar at home is pretty uneven: We have our pick of a good 40 bottles of wine, some rum remnants, Grey Goose (a wedding leftover), and vermouth (from … college?). As much as I like cocktails, crafting anything fancier than a martini has always seemed like an expensive hassle to me.

Leave it to a man who mixes arugula, heirloom tomatoes, and Iberico ham into his drinks to change my mind. Nacional 27’s master mixologist Adam Seger...

03/19/09

Re: Rebar

They say you never forget your first love—that’s true for bars and boys, in my case. Both cemented themselves in my heart on a cold January night, post-dinner, in the Loop. The streets were dead, so when my now-husband Ben and I hopped into a cab I assumed we...

03/12/09

Sham Rock

Seeing as how I’m a good 50 percent Irish and St. Patty’s is mere days away, this week seemed like the perfect time to scout out the newly opened Cagney’s, an Irish-themed sports bar in west Lincoln Park. Unfortunately, my Irish half was not impressed—and neither was the other half. Launched by a trio of New Yorkers and a pair of Chicagoans in the old Jack Sullivan’s/Varsity Club/Barleycorn space, Cagney’s has something of an identity crisis going on...