"February, when the days of winter seem endless and no amount of wistful recollecting can bring back any air of summer."
- Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons
9p---Branch 27 ("Neighborhood Joint")
1371 W Chicago Avenue btw Ada & Noble; Noble Square
10:30p---Red Canary ("Hip Hangout")
695 N Milwaukee btw Sangamon and Huron; River West
12p--- Paramount Room ("Gastropub")
415 N. Milwaukee Avenue at W Kenzie; Near West Side
However, since the crew was small (Just me and Kelly and Jen. Again.) the plan was fluid. We decided to join some of Kelly's friends for their annual pub crawl. My only demand was that we visit at least ONE DrinkDeck bar to make it a DrinkDeck night.
Revised schedule with new pub crawl friends:
7p----Faith & Whiskey
1365 W. Fullerton
Two things that are awesome about this bar:
a. The top shelf liquors are literally on the TOP shelf. Which means that the hot little bartenders have to scramble up the shelves. Fun to watch.
b. There is a bedazzled animal skull on the wall by the door.
Some not awesome things:
a. There is a lot of Ed Hardy.
b. There is a lot of Ed Hardy.
c. I expected a game of bags to spontaneously break out at any moment.
This is where I met Kelly's awesome friends: Adam (aka "MyAdam"). Kristine (the roommate). Doug & Arlene. Tom & Kim. Shelley. Ray & Jeremy. They are all terribly charming. And smart. And talented. And generous. They sing. They travel. They tease mercilessly. They have really great eyewear. None wore Ed Hardy. I really sort of loved all of them.
left to right: Shelley, Arlene, Doug, Ray, Jeremy(see what I mean about the eyewear?)
clockwise from the guy: Adam, Kelly, me, Kristine
Tom and Kim
I did not ask for the bartender's suggestion regarding drinks. I just had a rum&diet.
8:30ish---Tavish Bar & Grill
1335 W Wrightwood
Tavish is a boy's name of Irish or Gaelic origin. It's a variant of Thomas. It might mean "twin" or "hillside." Here in Lincoln Park, however, it means the #2 mini burgers in the city. Tavish was our dinner stop. It's a cozy bar with a fireplace in the front. Lovely for a first date. In fact, I think we terrified several first-daters when our group of eleven strolled in. Fortunately for those losers, they gave us a large, raucous table in the back, filled with delicious appetizers and entrees and drinks and music and fun. I had the fish tacos. The painfully slow fish tacos.
10p-ish----Rocks Lincoln Park
1301 W Schubert Ave
This place has 16 beers on tap, 43 bottled beers and 4 canned beers. I had the Duvel Green (taking me back to Belgium). Delicious. This is where Jen caught up with us. This is also where we started the terrible trend of only drinking half a beer. (Somehow for the rest of the evening, I managed to order a beer, drink half of it and then it was time to go. Good for calories. Bad for $$.)
The walk from Rocks Lincoln Park to Rose's Lounge included snow angels and cows and chickens.
after that pm---Rose's Lounge
2656 N Lincoln Avenue
Rose's is a dive bar. It is awesome. It has every chair from your grandma's basement in the '70s. It was Rose's 75th birthday on Saturday night and the place was full of people helping to celebrate. I had a Miller Lite. I did not mind not finishing that beer. Rose's did have a really fun jukebox, Digital Thunder.
This review on Yelp from Jarod P is a perfect review of the joint:
Okay, here's the thing about Rose's: It's Rose's place. Rose works there. No one else. And Rose is an unbelievable sweetheart who is getting on in years. So it may take you ten minutes to get your whiskey sour. And it may turn out to be a rum sour. And your Jack and Coke may turn out to be Jack and Diet Coke.
But here's the thing: Just nod your head and drink it and pay the lady. Because if you're the type who would complain about the service at Rose's, you are a bad person and should avoid inflicting yourself on people.
If you're not that type of person, just drink your random concoction and ask her about her life and her past and her stories, about how she ended up in Chicago, about life in Macedonia before and during the war. And listen. And then leave her a big effing tip. And ask her if she needs any help with anything.
And if you're not up for any of this, you should go away and never come back. Go hide under a desk for the rest of your life because no one should have to suffer you.
This is Rose.
later that same night pm--- Delilah's
2771 N Lincoln Ave
Delilah's is not for everyone. It's dark. It's super crowded (or maybe just small). There are a lot of tattoos. They seem to have an somewhat unhealthy obsession with Elvis art. And they show films of a genre that I would call "gorno."
But the bartenders are lovely and the Hoegaarden fantastic.
Delilah's is where we bid adieu to Kelly's crew to search for a DrinkDeck bar to end the night. Fortunately, right next door was:
end of the night pm--- Seven Ten Lounge Lincoln Park fka Lucky Strike
2747 N. Lincoln Avenue
Not surprisingly, this bar was empty when Jen and Kelly and I arrived. This seems to be a theme with the DrinkDeck bars so far: empty. Also, the server had never heard of DrinkDeck before. Another theme. I'm beginning to wonder if Kelly and I were the only ones to buy these things. Our server was sweet and it was quiet enough to exchange hilarious stories of college and lost loves/dodged bullets and boyfriends who accused us of being alcoholics (I'm looking at you, Brad Curtis.) I had the Allagash White. We did not bowl.
The upside of having a server who has never heard of DrinkDeck is that she doesn't demand that you order the minimum of $30 before giving you the $10 discount. Nope, she'll just give you those beers for FREE. Which is the perfect way to end a fun night out.
So, let's run the numbers:
drinks ordered: 5
drinks consumed: 3 (1 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 = 3)
$$ spent: $15 (did I mention how generous Kelly's friends are??)
$$ saved: at least $10
uninvolved boys met: 0
awesome new friends: 9
Next DrinkDeck night: March 13. Mark your calendars.
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