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Categories: Bars, Dance Clubs [Edit]
Neighborhood: Near North SideClark/Division (Red)
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Walking into this place reminder me of all the freshman dances you see on tv. Walked down the stairs to see about 15 people standing awkwardly in different corners of the place. One girl was dancing and some guy had his face in her ass as her boyfriend, who was 1/4 the guy's size stood about 20 feet away and watched on.
The door man was cool though, came here with Joe J, let us in with no cover and gave us each a free shot. After 2 shots, 2 quick beers, and a failed attempt to get the boyfriend to go after the ass dude, it was time to move on to greener pastures and find a place that at least had a heartbeat, cause this place was dead.
The douchiest place in the city.
I wish this place would just die in a fire already.
Who goes here?
HONESTLY!
It's where I send my enemies.
The one redeeming quality of the joint is that they have TVs outside with live feeds from inside, so you can see exactly how overrun with trixies and douchebags the place is.
After 83 reviews, I've been wondering which establishment would earn the privilege of gaining my first one-star review. Well folks, here it is.
In short, this place just sucks.
I'm sure when I was 19 or perhaps 22 and still pretending to be straight that I might have had fun here. But alas, when I came here at the ripe old age of 29, good gawd I wanted to get out quick.
The DJ was horrible and, get this, in the middle of the evening, when the dance floor was packed, he started playing.... Johnny Cash. Now I likes me somes Johnny Cash ... And I've never been a DJ. But if I *were* a DJ, I would not place JC and I would not play JC at a place like this.
Add on top of that that they place just feels dirty and nasty - well, it's just not my kind of place to hang.
I'm not sure what's worse - the gross guys who get "permission" to dance on the bar with the ladies, or the ladies who somehow allow those ugly-ass guys to grind up next to them.
Congratulations, Bar Chicago. You are the very first to receive a one-star review from me. That puts you in to a league of your own.
FYI - I classify one-star ratings as: "Oh hell no! I will NEVER go back there! NEVER!"
OK, so if you're from the suburbs, or Indiana, or way out of town - then this place is for you. Bar Chicago is overrun with soccer moms getting all dolled up for girls night out and the douchebags that wanna score. That's it. The crowd looks like it walked into 1998's closet and stole all the denim mini skirts, rayon halter tops, and chunky heeled platform slides. BLEH! A friend of mine (who lives in Indiana) rented a party bus about 2 years ago for his birthday and we hit up Division. I enjoyed the people watching but that's about it. It's obscene that they charge a cover, but then, those from Kankakee don't know any better. The drinks are overpriced and under poured. Don't bother.
This place sucks. Period. Only reason I ever went here is because I knew someone who bartended and I would go in and get free drinks. It was basically his way of bribing me to come in because he hated working there so much. Usually a combination of trailer trash girls and big fat baby mammas running around trying to look sexy. I went here on Halloween to grab a coat from a friend and noticed that the costumes were not much different on a normal day of the week. There's a midget that MCs everything and walks around pouring shots in girls mouths. Its one of those bars that tries to get girls wasted so dudes can have a shot. Its also filled with a bunch of under-agers so I wouldn't bother. Last I heard, this place closed down. They are on the right track. I would rather them keep it closed and let drug addicts sleep in there. Probably end up seeing less skankier chicks walking out.
I'm pretty sure I lose a little self-respect every time I go here. It's always College Spring Break at Bar Chicago . . . girls flashing their boobs, dancing on bars, guys taking shirts off and flexing, drinking contests, midgets . .. did I mention that that is exactly why I've never been on College Spring Break?
Major plus: drinks are cheap, or if you're a girl, usually free since they're pouring weird concoctions down your throat all the time.
We went here two years ago for my old roomie's 21st. We were there early and definitely owned the bar, and we had a big enough group that it was fun. We were drunk early and our night was over by midnight. It was a ton of fun. Would I go here regularly? NO. And unlike the Hangge Uppe, there are few redeeming factors if you're not super drunk.
If you plan on waking up in a field in Indiana tomorrow with no pants, no keys, and no cellphone, go to BAR Chicago.
I forgot the part about how my friend was assaulted by the male bathroom attendant. He said it was OK to use the men's room since the line for the women's was insanely long, but then as "payment" for his favor, he wanted her to take her shirt off and let him take a picture. Seriously? That's like something out of a horror movie.
Oh, and so is that midget. He is terrifying. He comes out of no where and screams and yells and tries to get ladies to jump up on the bar and do beer bongs. It is so weird.
Blech this place is so bad it's not even funny. Well, there is one funny part: the fact that men over 35 think they can actually find someone to go home with them from this place. Well, I guess maybe they can get someone to go since I imagine people get pretty drunk here, but it's so pathetic. Some of the men looked like they were out of "Revenge of the Nerds 2" or something: they were wearing their finest polyester suits and their male pattern baldness hair was combed over to give it that "classy" look.
Let me preface this by saying we had my friend's bachelorette party here. Now that I have… Read more »
Let me sum it up in one word......BORING! The bartender was nice but the club was EMPTY I swear besides my friend there were like 8 other ppl. I'm the type that tries to make the best out of the situation so I danced to the B96 music (great job DJ...sike!) and some dude asked me if I would turn around and show him what my mama gave me....I was about to b****h smack him and say there it goes hope you liked it.
Avoid this place it sucks!
The one and only time I went in there it was dead so me and my friends started a game of flippy cup. The small ass pitchers of beer were kinda pricey for the size, but at least it wasn't the floors of my apartment getting sticky and wet so I can't complain about that. The DJ didn't want to play any of my musical selection so that was a bust and my friend had put her stuff on the stage while we were dancing and one of the staff took it upon themselves to coat check her shit, so she had to pay $9 to get it back....not cool.
I'm not sure why I am giving this place 3 stars. Maybe it was because I had fun dancing (basically by myself), maybe it was the kick ass chick working in the bathroom (whom I gave my extra rum and coke), or maybe because I just found out my friend works there . I guess I wouldn't be opposed to giving this place another shot.
Paid a $5 cover and I only stayed for a drink. I was there around 1am on a Saturday night, and the place wasn't even half full. It was depressing.
The only upside was that if you're a girl and are willing to dance around the DJ booth, you get free shots. That being the only good aspect of this place is really sad. Oh, and the bathroom attendant was really nice. That's it!
The music is exactly what you would hear on B96. I don't think the DJ did anything other than upload his playlist straight from iTunes.
The place also felt a little dirty. The floor was sticky, and even with it being super dark I could see stains on tables, chairs, and the floor.
My little sister had her 21st birthday here a few weeks ago.
She's from the suburbs, and she wanted to go out in the city and....this is where she picked.
My job for the evening was to insure she and her college-aged friends had a good time by running interference and keeping the creepy 30/40/50-somethings away.
If someone came on too strong, my job was to get between him and my sister, and maybe throw an elbow or a really strong bitch face or make some loud comment about how old guys smell like Ben-gay or somesuch.
I am reasonably certain that most of the guys there that night hated me.
But I am 100% certain that no one in my sister's group was inappropriately touched or roofied or anything of that nature. And at the end of the night, everyone was drunk and accounted for and happy and not being dragged away by some 40-something in a polyester blazer who makes his own version of that "My New Haircut" video in his mom's basement.
I definitely can't say the same for the other girls in the bar (especially re: inappropriate touching).
My favorite ex of all time told me to go here. So I went. And now I understand why things didn't… Read more »
I like to tell people that I don't go out and look for trouble, it comes to me. Bar Chicago was proof of this! Literally not two minutes after sitting down here come two guys out of nowhere asking me if I speak Spanish and if I did, can 'you please have a conversation with my friend because he doesn't speak English'... I mean seriously! Are you kidding?? Well I felt bad for the guy and started talking to him.... my mistake! He was just out to get some you know what!
My saviour was Mark the bartendar who cut in a couple of times with strong drinks... thanks Mark! Oh and he had a shirt on that said 'Long Live Mark' and yes, I took a picture of it.
We stayed for a while and had some good times after crazy and his friend left us alone. It was dead for a Friday night though. We had $3 well drinks.
TOP 5: Dislikes
1. bachelorette parties like CRAZY
2. number one spot for suburban kids coming to the city-UGH
3. TOURIST TOURIST TOURIST!!!
4. bathroom attendant---ANd its dirty
5. cover charge
the place is too loud to talk to anyone...this place is just lame and cheesy!!!
No, no, no! Okay I'm not sure if this is the MAJOR hangover I have right now or the fact that I'm at work, but Bar Chicago is the last place I want to be on a night out. It was empty on a Thursday night & even though it was fun to dance with my girlfriends, sometimes I like a little bump & grind with a perfectly nice stranger.
I knew I was in trouble when the DJ announced Bar Chicago was the number one spot to get laid (reminder no one was there!). Shit, if this is where it's at then I'm totally screwed...no pun intended. I don't think I'll be back, but hell I had to give it a shot.
This place maybe the worst tourist hang out in Chicago. Bar Chicago is on a strip of crazy and out of control bars but why does every suburban mom who is having a "girls night out" want to go here or the tourist from some small town end up in this bar. Worst off...why have I gone? Here is why...because I'm usually drunk and the only time real Chicagoans go there is when they are trashed and someone says "lets go to bar chicago and laugh at the tourist". There is a cover for this bar...$5 bucks. The bar knows that everyone but locales come here so they can charge. To the wonderful people who come to my city...avoid this bar. Save your $5 dollars! To the locales lets stop making bad drunken choices and AVOID this bar!
This is a very interesting place to wind up at times. Everytime I have been inside of this place I was forced to go inside by friends of mine that are enticed by the guy at the door screaming free entry. When you walk inside you will see some of the funniest things.
You can always count on an annoying bachelorette party going down, they sometimes have special appearances from the wierdest celebrities such as Ron Jeremy and those guys from Jackass, they have midget wrestling and crazy mudfights in this place sometimes. This is lterally the place you go into and see a midget pouring alcohol in the mouths of a bride to be and her whole crew (I've seen it!)
A lot of times it is harmless fun and you can get a good laugh out of it while drunk and sometimes you can be there and be like am I really this lame! You can get a pretty good drink here and they are fairly priced, but I wouldn't recommend this place for those of you with a week stomach!
This is the antithesis of all that I look for in a watering hole. The flashing lights, putrid clientele, cheesy top 40 tunes set to a brutal techno beat, go go dancers behind white screens, obnoxious bachelorette parties sporting cocks on everything, half unbuttoned button downs with no undershirt, coked out bros and skanks, possibility of fighting someone with 'roid rage, over priced shitty drinks, over-serving of Jager bombs to anyone wearing Armani Xchange black tee, permanent vomit/urine/pine sol stench, cover, completely empty inside, dance floor with skeezers who have no rhythm, drunk dudes sporting liquid courage dry humping them with equal to worse dance moves, etc, etc, etc.
But I am giving this place one extra star for the rare occasions that they have Midget Wrestling. Yes, if this place wasn't so awful, I'd give five stars just for getting little people oiled up to brawl for my drunken entertainment. It's surprising that the pure comedy that is Midget Wrestling can get me to venture into this atrocity, but I'd pretty much go to the Gates of Hell, an Oprah screening or Tupperware party if if there was a chance to see little people wrestling.
Yikes.
I went here a few years ago, and I must have been way way drunk, becuase I remember having a good time.
I went again this weekend, and it was like being at a frat mixed with about 10 bachelorette parties, complete with a sticky, plastic cup-strewn dance floor, over-processed 30-something women desperately lifting their skirts up while dancing on the bar (and making out with each other), and a girl or two puking in the corner. Oh, let's not forget the creepy audience of guys (wearing the standard button-down, striped shirt and jeans) oogling the desperation from one side of the dance floor.
I am so embarrassed to write this review. I really, really am. Please don't judge me, Yelpers. Please?
Bar Chicago is my guilty pleasure. Basically, it's a bar full of assholes and whores getting wasted and trying to get someone to come home with them. God help me, I LOVE it!!
I love it because the main part of the bar is one big dance floor and I love to dance. You can be just hanging out when a song you like comes on and you can start dancing because you are always on the dance floor.
The people watching is fantastic! Especially when the drunk whores get on the bar and dance. I like to place bets on which one will fall off first.
So, there you have it. My name is Amy H. and I love Bar Chicago. I'm going to go bury my head in the sand now.
So I'm going to admit that I've actually been to this place...yeah I'm the last guy that should even walk foot into this place. First of all, I've never had an interest in picking up a girl at a bar...why? Because I know I don't have the "pick up a chick at a bar, take her home, throw up at 5 AM, kick her out in the morning" MOJO. Second, I AM TOO OLD. And yes if you are over 30, maybe older then 25, don't show up. Please.
My buddies came out to Chicago for my bachelor party. After dinner and another club...my friends decided to hit up this place. This is mostly because we once went to BAR ATLANTA when we were in our mid 20s and had a great old time. Good looking women dancing on the bars, drinks a flowing, dancing, etc.
In Chicago, 5 years later, NOT SO MUCH...some of my buddies think every trip is a 21st birthday party. They drink like it, act like it, and think they can score. Plastic cups, not so cute girls, and a lot of men thinking they have the MOJO I talked about before...just not fun. But boys will be boys and we hung out. WAY too many bachelorette parties, not so cute women dancing on the bar, and testosterone. I give women credit for jumping up there and putting themselves on display, but some shouldn't.
So the funniest thing was that there were was a girl who was totally throwing herself at this relatively good looking guy. Lots of groping and making out in front of the entire bar. My group of friends were laughing SO HARD...and her friends had the gall to tell us to turn away. It was the best entertainment at this place!
My God! I have seen Hell, and I don't like it. I honestly feel like I need a tetnus shot for being here. My buddy needed me to help him "save" the girl he is seeing from her time spent there with a Bachelorette party. There is absolutely no, none, NO redeeming qualities about this place. In fact, there are NO qualitites. The beer is too expensive. The women are too cheap. The guys are too....well....let's just say that I was even covering my drink in fear that I would be "roofied". I am not lying when I say that the floor was covered, COVERED in napkins or some other tissue product. I seriously punched my buddy VERY hard for taking me to a place like that .
P.S. I tried to give this no stars but even that is too generous. This place should have negative stars.
Once we went here just to be stupid. We played this game. We called it "so ... what suburb are you from?" To all of the blatantly obvious underage kids, we'd walk up as if to make casual conversation & ask with all seriousness, "So ... what suburb are YOU from?" Swear to God, 9 times out of 10, we got this answer:
"Hinsdale."
"Naperville."
"Roselle."
"Schaumburg."
"Lisle."
or the like.
& 1 out of said 10 times, we'd get this answer:
"I'm not from here ... I'm from [insert name of Big Ten school here]."
::not that there's anything wrong with either ... just thought this information may be useful to the yelp posse::
Oh yeah ... & if you want to dance on a bar with a mini-skirt or watch girls who do, come here. If you want to have cheap sugary alcohol poured down your throat by a "little person," come here.
This place gets my vote for sleeziest bar in chicago. I have been to strip clubs that I felt more comfortable in. (at least there the girls know what they are in for) Most of the guys are downright creepy and the girls, well - good luck if you take one home because they are probably going to leave you with more than a phone number.
Honestly, I love to have fun... but I just can't relax in this place. If you really people watch when you are there, you are going to see girls way too drunk putting themselves in bad situations and guys more than willing to help them do it. Not cool at all...
ohhh Bar Chicago ... for the 18-23 set. did i love going here? No. did i enjoy it? YES. $hit i danced on the bar numerous times, got the shot pours. I even had the obligatory birthday party here. it wasn't until i actually moved to the city that i realized how crappy it was.
back to the review. if you liked spring break, and you are still under 25, go for it. over 25? nah. hated spring break, over 25? You already are not reading this review anyway.
Plastic cups, terrible music, big crowds, & need I even mention under-agers?
Yuck.
I ended up here for a friend's 21st b-day, & even back then - being young & somewhat impressionable - I was NOT impressed. We drank free all night due to some VIP special, but that didn't even make me change my tune.
I repeat: bad music, trashy atmosphere, PLASTIC cups!!
Trust me, avoid this place at all costs. Even with free (shitty) beer, it's still not worth it.
PS: Oh, I just remembered this - I must have blocked it out - but I actually met Brad from the Real World San Diego here. Now if that's any indication...
Personally, the last thing I want to see when I'm drunk is a midget walking across the bar pouring shots into people's mouths. I get that enough when I'm sober.
Seriously, this place is awful. I think the DJ played a Kid Rock song..I don't remember, I had to drink lots of gin to try and have fun. Didn't work too well, and it didn't make the bartenders any nicer. Oh, and mixed drinks in plastic cups...classy.
Judge it for what it is, not what you think it should be
Just as it is possible for a wine to earn a professional rating of 90+ even though it doesn't suit your personal taste, I would argue Bar Chicago deserves a 4-star rating even though I had no businesss being there and clearly would not consider it to be on even my long list of regular places to visit. It's a question of is it doing what it sets out to do, and how well is it doing that.
By that logic, I argue Bar Chicago is a great representation of a bar where you can embark upon an absurd evening of drinking-like-you-just-turned-legal, won $50 on a scratch ticket and are ready to wake up tomorrow morning either (a) somewhere in Indiana, or (b) in a hotel room down by Midway that's not your own.
I am easily 7 years past the time when I had any hope of keeping pace with the Bar Chicago patrons and 12+ years past when I should have even thought about walking in. But an old college roommate was here for the weekend, we'd had a few warm up drinks and the circus wasn't in town, so we wound up here for a bit. I'm glad we did. I doubt I'll ever be back, but I'm glad I had this 'experience'.
Seeing the young'uns answer the siren and swarm up to the bar for free-pour liquor down their necks like deluded, upright, mid-drift baring guinea pigs pawing at their water dispensers is worth the cover charge. I say stay for a drink or two and find a corner from which you can people watch.
Random note:
Judging by the photography exhibit in his 'office', the mens bathroom attendant on the 2nd floor must be the envy of all mens bathroom attendants in the greater Chicagoland area if not the entire Midwest.
I'm with Amy H... but Bar Chicago is one of my guilty pleasures, whenever I'm in Chicago and looking for pure juvenile debauchery without pretense.
Why I like it? Well, there are lots of bars, beer girls, access to booze, a big dancefloor, good music to dance to, and I am usually already drunk when I get there, so I'm not sure if there really is or isn't a moose-ear-hat & tutu-wearing midget that runs around the bar pouring shots down people's throats or not. Honestly, how often do you see midgets?! That's awesome...
This is a great place to go if you like drinking out of plastic cups, listening to the same 20 or so songs, having 50 year old men from Naperville or "out of town" grind on you, having to shout to hear your friend that is two feet away, and watching 19 year old girls dance on the bar while getting shots poured in their mouths.
Not my scene.
However, if the cover & drinks are free, it makes for some amusing people watching.
It's not like staring-into-a-portal-to-hell awful, but I wouldn't do backflips to come here either. In-fact, I don't think I'd ever go here again if I had my way. Like other reviews say, it's a good place to go if you're 25 or under and don't like clubs.
It feels like a dirty college bar that dropped out.
Hey Bar, remember me? You gave me a few free parties? Oh, you give those to EVERYONE that signs up for your e-mail list.
Hmmm... Well, remember the time your staff slapped Bar Chicago stickers all over my ass? No?
Well then you have to remember the time about 3 years ago I rocked the Bar Chicago construction hat for a few hours because your little person had poured so much damn tequila down my throat I could have sworn my name was Jose. Surely you must remember that, right?
Sigh, what am I thinking. You have so many girls all up on you every night. You're a whore, and I just didn't want to believe it!
***Also note: Midget Wrestling = not all that cool. Actually, more like disturbing once the staple gun gets whipped out.***
Moral: Don't expect this to become your local watering hole. It is what it is, nothing more, nothing less. They play tunes everyone can somehow manage to sing along to at 3 in the am, and it doesn't matter how big of an ass you make out of yourself... someone else in the place is guaranteed to be a bigger train wreck!
Biggest boo-hisssss: Bathrooms are upstairs. No bueno in heels after all that stupid free tequila they pour down your esophagus during the song Tequila!
it's not a bad place but i do concur with the previous posts about plastic cups and dense crowd.
I think that this place has a name outside of chicago (in fact i heard about it in San Francisco) and there are some tourists that end up there as well. All in all if you're there with the right people, even plastic cups are not that bad.
Please note that I've averaged a three because I give bar chicago a 4-5 for people who are just or not quite 21 and haven't ever gone out before, but a 1-2 for anyone else.
My friends and I used to frequent when our IDs were still fresh from the DMV. Yes, we even danced on the bar/DJ booth (I was the chunky girl who broke the plastic safety cover over the DJ's console and almost got kicked out....seriously). My advice? Get down if they play any remotely racy song unless you want to flash your thong to a room full of co-eds. I think that every time we went here some sort of bitch fight among my friends ensued, with someone inevitably crying by the end of the night. Classic.
Drinks are crap, crowd is awful, music is cliched, and most of the patrons will be involved in some sort of statutory rape in their lifetime. That being said, I think BAR Chicago is a place everyone should experience at least once, if only for the opportunity to have alcohol poured down your throat by a midget.
Crappy, trashy and everything else bad you can imagine.
There is a midget who runs around on the bar pouring drinks into peoples mouths. Its just a shame they won't let me give 0 stars
You have to be in the right mentality before you walk into this place. Be prepared to enter an atmosphere that will probably remind you of a college party. The bar is very dark & dirty. The bartenders encourage people to dance on the bar and do body shots. And the DJ challenges women to dance on the DJ booth. That's the kinda place BAR Chicago is. I was lured in by the free beer happy hour so me and three friends started our night here pretty early. Throughout the night we witnessed a hula hoop contest on the bar, a bachelorette party dance on the DJ booth, plus the bartenders gave out free shots to the whole bar. Then they brought up a guy and girl and each of them bonged a beer on the bar for their birthdays. If you're looking for high class night, or just a nice night out, or even just to have a few beers this probably isn't the place for you. If you're looking to relive a few of your college moments and get a little crazy BAR Chicago is the place to be.
This joint looks like a sorry strip club, but with a cool door man. The guy was trying to get folks in and offering a free shot of anything with a drink purchase, best 6 bucks i ever spent, 2 miller lites and 2 jameson shots! I got my drinks and left as soon as i was done. It was dead. Felt Dead.
yeeeeah COLLEGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was dragged here to meet up with my boyfriends under-age cousin. That pretty much sums it up.
All I will say is props to the bartenders who make mad cash from stupid suburban kids and yuppie dorks who still act like they are rushing.
I had fun because it was sooo ridiculous. It felt like MTV spring break 1998. A bad cancoon party. Napkins fell from the ceiling!!
They did have jolly ranchers in the ladies room.
This place is so dumb.
This bar is right next to leg room and funk. Bartenders, doormen, bouncers are very rude (absolutely no hats allowed). I rather go to funk than get the meanest look and rude comments. If you like 80's and techno music with young (looking underage) females dancing on the bars than this is the place. Bathroom is flight of stairs, good luck making it up there if you are tipsy on few drinks. I had to carry few friends up the stairs and bathroom was gross.
I wouldn't want to bring a date or out of town friends to see this place. There are plenty of other places you can go on Division street. I live around here and this is one place I rather not go to at all.
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