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Bootleggers
Rating Details »
Categories: Restaurants, Dive Bars [Edit]
Neighborhood: Near North Side11 W Division St
(between Astor St & Dearborn St)
Chicago, IL 60610
(312) 266-0944
- Nearest Transit:
-
Clark/Division (Red)
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street, Valet
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$$
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- No
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Music:
- DJ
- Best Nights:
- Fri, Sat, Sun
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Coat Check:
- No
24 reviews for Bootleggers
turn down the music a little bit (yes i know people wanna dance but i've been to clubs where you can talk and not shout as much while others are getting their shimmy on) so i can play my block building tower game and converse with my team mates..and i may come back. you've got the right idea going with that. yes i know you're that kind of bar where some of the clientele are looking for random hookups and prefer body language/grinding over talking. but if you're going to have that building block tower please please turn the music down just a little bit.
then maybe just maybe i may love you forever!
Stopped in for a drink Friday night. Seemed like a good bar and people were having fun. I wasn't too happy about paying 8 bucks for the smallest shot of crown ever. Bartender wasn't too happy when I asked if she thought it looked tiny. She demonstrated how they pour it into a shot glass like I'm a moron. I would have been happy to stay there and drink... I would have tipped her very well if she poured me a real shot... Instead I paid my bill and left.
I was at this bar this past weekend and I have to say it was really fun. I've only been once and the people were pretty cool. It was a nice enviroment at the time and I do like that the DJ actually listens to you and puts on what you want to hear. The music was really loud leading to me losing my after attending but it's not a big deal. I might have been lucky and caught a nice crowd my first time but either way I have to give it a definite thumbs up for now at least.
We were enticed by the bouncer's promise of $2 beer and $2 shots. We thought even if the place was horrible, for that price, it was worth a stop. It was actually $3 beer, still not bad, and the shots were those fruity test tube shots with 1/4 oz of alcohol. We actually had a fun time laughing at all the posers and fatties dancing.
We were there fairly early, around 10:30 on Saturday night and the place wasn't very busy. By 11:00 it was packed with losers, so we left. It was also too loud. I couldn't hear the person next to me talking.
They have beer pong in back, if that type of thing is an important quality to you in a bar.
Another goldcoast favorite;) Hehe... just funny because all the bars in the same strip are rated so poorly.
This place can be fun and it can be sketch just like any other bar in this area. I personally think its one of the more middle of the road not too upscale and not too over priced, but still on that higher end of the spectrum as far as what you're getting for your money.
They do degrade women a little by getting them to put their bras up on a wire in the back bar and "the first 5 girls to jump up and dance on the pool table get a free shot" kinda $#%*. However, I mean some people keep coming back to these places so if you're a super partier in the area its one of my more tolerable places and as always BONUS points for not having a cover.
I have been coming here every now and then for 2 years now when I want to go somewhere after most of the clubs/bars shut it down at 2AM. Usually a girl at the door standing behind a tub of beer and ice when you first walk in. They usually have pretty cheap drink specials as well. The service here can be somtimes hit or miss. They have the girls walking around offering shots in the tubes and sometimes if you say no they look at you as if the want to knock you over the head with the tray.
Pretty loose crowd here on most Saturday evenings, if you know what I mean. A lot of the guys here are really just here to pick-up something for the evening and to be honest most of them are complete scumbags. My buddy was talking to one girl and as soon as he turned to me to make a comment about something, this guy standing right behind him starts asking the girl to leave with him for the evening!
The bathroom here always seem to have an issue. The last couple of times I have been here, the closer you get to the back of the bar near the bathroom, it smells like someone took a dump and the toilet exploded!
Decent place to hit up after a night of clubbing when you are not ready to head home at 2AM.
Dirty. But good dirty.
Go dance on top of the pool table (many nights they put plywood on top of it, for this reason...that should give you an idea of the place), take a shot, and then skedaddle. That's about all it's good for...but it's good for that much, so 3 stars it is.
I went back again last night. Nope, still hasn't changed.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
-
5/10/2008
I worked here about 10 years ago. I went back last night for old times sake. Nothing has changed.… Read more »
Ah, Bootleggers. You are indeed a shithole.
I worked here ten years ago. I was young and stupid. And pretty much drunk the entire time. Explains the poor judgment.
I went back for old time's sake and not much had changed. Still a shithole. At least chicks were no longer leaving their bras and panties to be hung on the ceiling.
Narrowest bar ever.
Lame.
Full of douchebags.
Female bartenders are more concerned with their hair than how to make a drink.
If that wasn't enough, some 30-something Guido with the Italian Stallion version of a Jheri-curl approached me and asked if I was Italian. When I responded in the negative, he told me that it didn't matter and he still wanted to see me naked. CLASSY!
Also - I ordered a Long Island, Miss Bartender with the bleach blonde top layer of hair and the super dark bottom layer. I did not order a rum and coke. And I definitely didn't order a rum and SOUR and coke. Just use the damn premade Long Island shit and be done with it already.
A total dump and the customer service might have been the worst I've ever experienced in a bar. It's the kind of place you want to take a hot shower afterwards to get the dirty feeling off of you. Will never go back.
C'mon, who dosn't like the smell of stale beer & vomit on a Saturday night? How about sitting in it? The only good thing about this place is that it is where I met my wife and consequently ended up with two gifts called daughters. And for that, they get 5 stars.
I like Bootleggers because the staff is sarcastic and fun. The barbacks always spot me a drink on the house. The DJ takes requests and is fun. The doorguys are the sweetest guys on the block and the waitresses are hilarious.
Pros: Nice woodwork. Can write on bathroom walls. Great staff. Pool table. DJ requests. Dance floor. Two bars and a beer tub on weekends.
Cons: Skinny front section makes movement tight. Bartenders let half-naked girls get ugly-wasted. Bathroom stalls don't always lock. DRINKS SUCK.
Another sausage infestation.
Maybe on a few warm evenings you can find some women, but never many. This bar is your last ditch effort to find anyone.
They got drink specials which blow. Mixed drinks are weak. $7 for a short glass and you can't taste the alcohol in a VT?! screw that.
Man.. this is not a dressy place. Please.
"we're going to bootleggers"
"lol, wut?"
you can judge how much people have had to drink when they start suggesting this place. It's ok if you REALLY need a last ditch effort that doesn't have a cover but it's also full of extremely creepy people. Very sloppy.
Great place for someone else to puke on your shoes...If you need encouragement to stop drinking, this might be a place to frequent..
Its dirty but thats whats good about it. Essentially its the same bar as every other bar on that street, But Bootleggers has a feel to it. Girls on the Bar dancing, Drunk dudes hugging, and Loud Shitty Music. What more could you want out of a Division Street Bar.
Avoid at all costs! Annoying, loud, drunk, touristy, atmosphere with people who will not remember what they did that night. Horrible.
Rush and Division is my version of Hell. Drunken yuppie a**holes, groping butts, flashing money, generally being obnoxious. I'm sorry to say I've been here. Never again.
This place sucks. Do not ever go there under any circumstances. I went there one night because they had advertised they were serving 60 oz margaritas, which turned out to be a blantant lie. When I complained, the bartender told me a lot of stuff they said on their website (such as that they serve food) was false. Not in a "yeah, i hear ya" sort of way, but in a "what's your point chump?" sort of way. I was then asked to leave the bar. Suck this bootleggers.
I'd have to agree this isn't one of my favorite places.. they entice you to go in by giving you a free "shot" which is basically a tablespoon of koolaid.. then the place is soo crowded that you can't even move to get a drink or dance.. the only upside to my time there was that i wrote all over the bathroom wall..
worst bar ever... and i have been to a lot in my day. turned me off of "hole in the wall" or dive bars. i went there after work sometimes w coworkers cuz i worked on that st and a boyfriend used to dj there (he quit cuz the managers are the worst and even physically kicked one of his friends-and not even for a halfway decent reason-as if there could be a reason to kick some one on the ground). the bartenders are rude & slow...i mean the slowest, most unprofessional, caddy - ugly physically but really more so because of their attitude. I remember a time that i ordered a drink and when i payed for it, she charged me double because she accidentally poured too much - but i did not ask for a double & she didn't deny that. She had no shame in being rude. Why would I order a double? I just don't do that. Let me correct - maybe some of the bartenders could be nice like 2%. The problem is that it seems like once they get a good one they are terminated or quit. The guys are the sleaziest, consistently too. i stopped going there and decided to check it out again a while later (this was about a yr ago) and the door guy said he coudnt let me in but would not say why. i found out later from a friend that one of the employees spread a rumor that it is for prostitution! and that one of my co-workers was my biggest "client". I dont even have sex! i am abstinent right now. oh, and that is not the only occasion that i have had a false rumor spread about me, or other people that i knew there. Rumors are common there. It is like highschool? The door guys and some of the managers would always ask me where have i been when they saw me (if it had been a couple of wks), and "come back tonight and ill buy you a shot". it has been about a yr and let me tell you, im not really interested. Some things you can count on: drunk bachelorette parties at least every weekend, only the lowest class tourists almost every night, top 40s music, rap, or oldschool frank sinatra They hire anyone to dj - seriously - almost anyone - yet they have attitudes & may not play requests or at least for a ling while if they remember with out a 5 dollar tip. If you like dive bars - i know a lot of people do, you might like it, but it depends on the type of people you are okay with associating with. Just remember - If you go to a pig-pen, all you are gonna find is pigs. It took me longer than it should have to figure that out.
no coat check in winter? i dont think ill ever go again, rediculous, who wants to carry their jackt around all night, while you get plowed over by servers all night. there's no spot in the whole place thats comfortable, and the place gets trashed by the middle of the night
This place was way too crowed for me. I also thought that the margaritas where on the small side. However, the music was OK, but you couldn't dance due to the crowd.
