The Motel Bar

This place reopened 2.5 weeks ago under new management (September 2018).

The food here is amazing. We love sitting on the patio on a summer evening. The white pizza is my favorite. Great prices too!!

They're located in the Groupon building and have outdoor/indoor seating.

They have shot specials. $2-3/shot for malort and their "mystery" shot. Interestingly, they were out of malort, which I don't ever recommend. My friend ordered a round of their mystery shot (Thurs. 6/8/17) which was apricot brandy. It was a bit sweet.

I got their rosehip gin cocktail which was pretty good but the table outside where we were sitting at was a little slanted. With the condensation on the table surface, my drink came sliding towards me. It split all over my right leg and shattered on the floor. It took a few minutes for the wait staff to notice and come over. She wasn't the original waitress but asked what happened. I explained the situation and we asked for a new drink. She acted like didn't believe me and then laughed. It was made me a little comfortable as a customer. Maybe it was her sense of humor and/or sarcasm that I wasn't expecting/used to? She did end up getting me a new drink and offered to let us switch tables for our safety since there was broken glass under the table.

Also, it took us 3 asks before we got water.

I've always wondered about the name of this place - "The Motel Bar". Is this place a bar that is connected to a motel? Oh - I guess it is supposed to be a place with the vibe of a cool and funky bar that might be found associated with a cool and funky hipster motel. My co-workers and I bravely wandered in for an early weekday lunch one day, not looking for either a drink or a motel room. Their menu promotes "cocktails / pool / AC" (yup there is a pool table on the premises) but note that lunchtime food is not pushed. The walls are covered with cool artwork, posters and even a gigantic (and functional) wall clock, so again not a hint of any food whatsoever.

So we were pleasantly surprised by the food. I had a Jamaican pulled pork sandwich, served on a kaiser roll. The bbq sauce was not too spicy so that was a plus for me, and the pulled pork was also topped by pepperjack cheese. The cup of coleslaw was fine and creamy. I upgraded the side to an order of onion rings, which were tasty and did not really need the cup of anonymous dipping sauce. Others at our table happily consumed flatbreads and salads. The Motel Bar is probably a cool place to hang out with a cocktail during the evening, but we scooted out of there by noontime.

The Motel bar is a hidden bar, in the middle of the Groupon HQ, condo development along Chicago Ave. it isn't really convenient to get to, and parking is a bit more difficult than your regular corner spot, but the staff is friendly and they have a large patio.
Motel has a full food menu, but I haven't tried the food yet.
They have been open for several years now, and the decor is showing its age a bit.
If you are in the building for work, pop in for a drink and food. Otherwise, there is a parking lot across the street.

I've been to the Motel Bar probably 10-15 times in the last two years. Today is the first time I've left without being served.

A few coworkers and myself went to the bar for a quick beer over lunch (it's Friday after all). There was one medium table - probably about five-six people - and another two at the bar. Otherwise, the place was dead. We sat down and were given menus (though we weren't there to eat) and I asked our bartender about their beers on tap. She gestured that she'd need a minute, so we sat down.

The taps have no handles on them, so we couldn't figure it out on our own. We weren't given a drink menu, so again, we're in the dark. I looked down at the fridges behind the bar and they are empty, and while I've been told many times that they're out of the beer I ordered, they've never been completely empty. At this point, we started to wonder if they serve beer at all anymore.

Meanwhile, the original bartender has walked by us five times or more. The other bartender (there were two), seemed to be struggling to figure out how to use his own point of sale machine, and the busser (yes, there are three, count 'em three employees) kept walking by us with dirty dishes from vacant tables. She is the only one who appeared to be working at all, and while I can't assume that she could serve us, she chose to continue bussing tables for no one instead. There are maybe ten customers in this place and she's still bussing tables like there's a line of impatient customers out the door, waving fistfuls of money at her.

After five minutes of being ignored completely, we chose to leave. When we walked outside, the first bartender was smoking a cigarette and laughing at something on her phone. Very helpful.

Honestly, I've never had a good experience here. The food is okay, but overpriced. The employees are unfriendly, seemingly blind, and unconcerned with your requests (my vegetarian girlfriend once ordered a salad without bacon and was served a salad with, yep you guessed it, bacon. When she asked for another, they tried scraping the bacon off and served it to her again). But, if you're like me, you might be willing to overlook it all for a quick beer. That's a hard thing to mess up, right? Wrong. They won't even bother to pretend to care about your business at The Motel Bar.

If this place wasn't located directly under a bunch of corporations loaded with stressed out sales and logistics employees, it would most certainly have died years ago, and I wish it had. Save yourself some time and a spike in your blood pressure. Go somewhere, anywhere, else.

This, I guess, is one of those local bars...
We went on a Tuesday night, not a lot happening outside or inside.

Bar is very dark, with a jukebox at the door. Only one bartender that night, and I only saw one server. Oh, and one pool table on the back. I do like the place... Love their leather seating, specially to the back where you feel with a bit more privacy. If we would have been a larger group, (or if I had gone with "livelier" people) this could have been a lot of fun. There's an extensive drink menu, and great items to eat - not expensive at all. I tried PIMMS for the first time - exciting! Love trying new / or house specialty drinks, asked the server to make the second one less sweet and they delivered. We tried the Hummus, it was good but lacked a bit of flavor, shared a "Burger Number Two" - had to try this one, which includes bacon, egg, avocado, and more... Again, good but the burger needed a bit more condiments. Now, the "White Pizza" was just right!

I would like to go back with the right people...

Popped in for a quick lunch and really enjoyed the place. I wish we had been able to spend more time enjoying the environment. Ordered the Motel Burger and a BLT and Avocado. We enjoyed our meals very much. I would visit again just it play the skeeball machine since I have world champion skill!! I'm also good at dodge ball.

Kind of dicey, but lots of laughs and happy drunks. I liked it and chowed down on a great bean burger before my thinking got all twisted up at Chicago Ideas, right next door.

I've been a bartender for 8 years. I went to this place weekly. I'd order 6 shots of Malort, 2 cocktails of Jim Beam, and a salad. Listen, I drink. I had a buddy that also placed a comparable order. Typically the check would gross around $80 combined.

There was a new bartender. I asked what the difference would be between Jack and Dewars. She said Dewars was $10. I passed. No point if I'm throwing soda or coke in that anyway.

We ate. We drank. We got the check. That's fairly typical. This time though we had all Dewars shots. As in, that's what was on the check. Not what we ordered. That means, no Malort. All scotch. That's shots of scotch. That means, in her head, we were getting Jack and coke cocktails and shots of scotch like psychos. We're not psychos. We order Malort like a religion. Maybe ordering Malort makes us psychos? But not monsters. Only monsters shoot scotch.

So, seeing as nobody in their right mind shoots Dewars, and I don't even need to take a survey to definitively state that, it doesn't happen, I can conclude that the bartender was new. Okay. It's a wash. Stuff happens.

I brought it up. Didn't feel any good doing so. But I did the same routine here every week. I'd order 2 shots of Malort. Every round. I would say the words "Malort." I would say the words "two."

I explained that to the new bartender. Ultimately she was cool though we did fight about it for a bit. She brought the owner out. He's fine. He was our bartender the week before. The shift bartender called in that time. That's fine. He was cool that shift. Told us riff raff would come in and order Malort when he sold it for $.25. So he raised the price. He doesn't like Malort. Fine. Cool.

So anyway, he told us there would be "No more Malort because of this." He was kidding. I think. Probably not. Because it felt like he had reached a definitive conclusion despite his joking.

Look, I get the frustration. But it's whatever, the Malort shots brought us in but then we spent all this other money. That said, I don't own this spot. I don't get it but I don't make the calls there. I don't know how they make their bread and that's up to him. It is what it is. He should drop Malort if he doesn't like it, you know? Whatever. Doesn't affect my life.

He took the check. Was going to correct it. I waited a while. The amount of time I waited wasn't a problem but it wasn't in any way quick either. The owner came back and asked which check was mine. I told him my name to properly attribute my charges.

He dropped the updated checks and went into the back. He charged me for 2 Dewars that I didn't order. Me, not my buddy, and after asking for my name. I have a photo of it. Kept the receipt. Could have been a mistake but in a scenario where passive aggressive jokes keep getting dropped, probably not.

Look, if it was a mistake I'll update this review. If it wasn't, this place is at least poor in service, and at most super weird and passive aggressive. I left without finding out. Life is too short. Plus, I'm a troublesome Malort customer. Life is hard. Boo hoo. One star.

Interesting experience to say the least. I was waiting for someone in the public area just outside of their patio and decided that I might as well have a seat on their patio and enjoy a few drinks while I wait.

I walked over just as the waitress was clearing the table after a couple had left (and now the patio was empty) and I asked about a seat. She said to go inside and talk to the bartender. I went inside but the bartender was preoccupied (as in conversation) with a couple of guys at the bar (the ONLY customers in the whole bar). I stood at the bar, looked at a menu, made eye contact with the bartender and hung out for a while but she just kept talking to those guys and digging her hand into a bag of snack food and munching! Eventually I walked out and she did give me one more "look" on the way out. WTF?

So, I resumed waiting out in the public area outside (not on their patio) and eventually saw the other customers leave and waitress and bartender sitting at a table on their patio!