As our faithful readers (and anyone who read the previous post) know, we planned on going to Tonic Room at 4pm yesterday. The Tonic Room's website says they're open until 2am M-F, and 3am Sat. They fail to say when they open, and we discovered 4pm saturday is not within their hours of operation. Onto Lincoln Station.
LS sits across the street from the Biograph Theater, notable for being where I saw The Village with my brother during the summertime once and also where John Dillinger was shot. There's a bus tour in Chicago called the "Untouchables Tour" where they drive around to famous gangster locales allowing tourists to take pictures. It stops at the Biograph and everyone shoots photos of a spot in the alley where this shooting took place. The alley runs along the side of Qdoba, so it's always a good chuckle when you can eat your burrito while watching people take pictures of the side of the building.
Anyway, back to Lincoln Station. One Alpha King and one Bell's Best Brown and we're out, but not before being entertained by the solo drinker at the end of the bar. He was vocally announcing updates in the hockey game that only he was interested in, trying to strike up conversations about baseball (one claim, "I know for a FACT that the Big Hurt never did steroids." while I agree with this opinion I'm not sure that I am aware of the same acquiting evidence he is) and constantly demonstrating his obliviousness to the world.
He had been quiet for a good 5 minutes when suddenly he exclaims, "A-ROD dead at 33??!!!?!? This articles says A-Rod is dead! When was this printed?!" Our bartender patiently explains to him what The Onion is, "It's comedy, these are jokes." First off we're shocked someone roughly our age, who presumably spends a lot of time in bars, doesn't know what The Onion is. Second, and more importantly, this A-Rod story was ON PAGE EIGHT. He made it that far through the issue without raising an eyebrow or being alarmed by anything else.
Next up...we tried to go to the newish bar that is part of Clarke's...it was closed (another operational hours thing). So we then tried to go to Red Lion...it was closed (this one a result of the health department...disconcerting). Finally, the relocated Hi-Tops granted us admission. This location was formerly the Gin Mill, and they still have the Gin Mill sign up in the back of the bar. I had one Sam Adams Winter Ale. They're running a promotion on 3/14 (the day Chicago collectively gets smashed this year) with a $25 drink deal from 9am to 1pm. Slogan, "You Can't Drink All Day If You Don't Start In The Morning"
We stopped at Buffalo Wild Wing's for food, more beer, and NTN trivia games. B-dubs featured Mini Corn Dogs, Wings (Sweet BBQ, Hot BBQ, Jerk), Kyle winning the first game we played (and Rick getting 2nd), losing a lot more games, and a declaration that "Into The Mystic" is probably a top 3 Van Morrison song.
Fourth on today's list, Lilly's, a live-music bar that I've walked past probably 400 times without entering. Having spent some time here, I have no regrets about not visiting it until now. It's a cool place, interestingly decorated with some odd color choices and arches randomly placed throughout the seating area. There was a $6cover that we paid half of and a girl signing folky songs accompanied on rhythm guitar by a grizzled old man with an incredible beard. Nothing too memorable, but I'd head back there if I needed a cheap live music fix.
Heading over to Irish Eyes we were surprised not to see many people appearing underage, a rarity for this place. Friend of the blog Craig happened to be in town as the band he chaperones around the globe isn't currently touring. We gave him crap about the recent postcard he sent us from Dubai having nothing written on it -- usually they arive with cryptic messages such as "Luxembourg breeds great genes." I'm clearly feeling the affects of the beer at this point in the evening as the notes I wrote about Irish Eyes are illegible.
Prost! is a german beer hall with an exclamation point in its name. Without EBONY I never would have gone there. It was packed, and mysteriously one of these giant steins pictured below is now sitting on my kitchen counter.
Final stop: The Dugout in Wrigleyville. I recall nothing significant from this place.
(it wasn't actually the final stop...Craig and I went to Baby Atlas afterwards without Rick)
I asked ChaCha if the best Elton John songs were better than the best Billy Joel songs, and they fed me some crap about beauty being in the hear of the beholder. Lame, ChaCha.
