Carol’s Pub is nothing and everything all at one time

When I was given the Historic Bars of Chicago book, I quickly set my sights on Carol’s Pub because it was hailed as one of the few true honky tonks in Chicago.

Geographically, Carol’s is a little out of my sweet spot.  My universe in Chicago ends at the Addison stop on the Red Line and Carol’s required me to go a couple stops further to Wilson.  That’s new territory for me.  I think people probably consider Carol’s to be in Sheridan Park – but it’s pretty close to Andersonville and that might as well be Wisconsin as far as I’m concerned.

So I expected Carol’s to be a great dive with a great country music juke box.  They delivered on that, but I was delighted to see that they actually have live country music on weekends and no cover until 10pm.  The band played a variety of Country Western favorites by the likes of Wille, Waylon, George, Johnny, more Wille and Loretta.  The good stuff.

The shitters at Carol’s are disgusting.  Carol’s is a cash-only establishment, but they will gladly point you to their in-house ATM that only charges you $3.50 service fee.  They do have food, but everything is fried.  The bartenders are less than diligent.  Contrary to what you might be thinking there is plenty of seating at the bar and near the stage.

Carol’s is also one of those Chicago bars that has a 4am liquor license.  That means if you aren’t shit-faced enough at 2 or 3am and absolutely need to keep the party going, you can always grab a cab and head up North Clark to Carol’s and end the night with some warm beer and country music.

The Berghoff Bar – A good place to be a slacker in the afternoon

My only previous experience with the Berghoff name was having a Turkey Sandwich at their Cafe at O’Hare – by far the best Turkey Sandwich I’ve had at O’Hare.

But I digress – this blog is about bars and boozing and a couple days ago, walked by the Berghoff Bar in the Loop.  Instead of going back to my office at 3:30 and acting like I was working, I decided that the Berghoff  was just interesting enough to draw me in to have a beer.  The Berghoff is mentioned in my Bible, the Historic Bars of Chicago, so it benefits a dose of automatic cred right there.

Here’s the good news about the Berghoff: If you’re looking for a place to hide from your co-workers who think you’re out of the office “visiting your clients,” it’s perfect.  No one is going to find you there.  If you’re looking for a place to chill out and listen to some jazz standards by the likes of Sinatra, Martin and James, it’s also a great spot.

If you’re looking for a great beer selection, eh, not so much.  But whatever.  If you’re looking for a good beer selection, you’re probably going to get ratted out that you’re a complete slacker and your clients don’t know who the fuck you are.

Still living in the 90’s? Then you can rock that shit at Bootlegger’s!

Bootlegger’s is one of those places I probably wouldn’t have the cajones to go into by myself.  It’s not a rough place or anything, there’s just something about multiple disco balls that scares me away from places when I’m out boozing by myself.

Bootlegger’s has one primary gimmick: a giant Jenga game right smack dab in the front of the bar.  Right there so God and everyone can see you playing it as they pass by on Division.

Bootlegger’s also likes to rock the 90’s music.  Nonstop.  And we’re not even talking the good side of the 90’s.  We’re talking the 3 Doors Down/Goo Goo Dolls side of the 90’s.  They rock that shit hard.

Oh, by the way, if you don’t want to put up with the bullshit that is other people singing Kareoke, then go to Bootlegger’s on a Monday night.  You’ll have the stage all to yourself.  No competition whatsoever.  You can sing all of the Gin Blossoms songs you want .  You will OWN that fucking place.

We interrupt this programming to hit a few Irish pubs

They make a big fucking deal about St. Pat’s in Chicago.  People love talking about dying the river green, drinking green beer and all of that.  Although I’m back in Denver today when the official dying of the river and other assorted debachery is happening, I had a chance to catch a glimpse of the festivities when I went out for a Streeterville Irish Pub Crawl with my friends and coworkers at Integer yesterday (Mar 16, 2012).

First Stop – Elephant & Castle – Good food, chill atmosphere.  I had a couple big ol’ slabs of meatloaf that came with a Guinness BBQ sauce.  Group did a few Irish Carbombs.  Good clean fun.

Second Stop – Timmy O’Toole’s – Is it an Irish Pub?  Is it a Sports Bar?  It’s both.  It was crowded as fuck and hard to find a seat, but we finally settled in and threw back a few green beers and watched hoops.

Third Stop – Lizzie McNeill’s – As cool as the Pipe Band was, it couldn’t overcome the negative vibe the dudes in power suits were dropping.  One beer and we bailed.

Fourth Stop – D4 – Great beer selection, but this place feels a little too nice for me to put it in the Irish Pub category.  We watched Mizzou get their asses bounced from the first round of the tournament.  That was fun.

Fifth and Final Stop – Kerryman – Things started getting a little sloppy at this point.  After four bars in five hours, the conversation went sideways in a hurry.  Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for me, I had to bail and head to the airport for a 10pm flight back home to Denver.

Good Irish fun in Chicago.  I’ll be back in a couple weeks and we’ll get back to the regularly scheduled programming of hitting dives and dumps around the city.