On a mobile device? Try our mobile site, optimized for faster browsing.
Category: Sports Bars [Edit]
Neighborhood: EdgewaterGranville (Red)
When I'm craving some decent, moderately priced bar food, PCo is the place. They have a good variety of burgers, sandwiches, wings, salads, and of course beer. I really like the nachos (chips, chicken or beef, onions, jalapeno, black olives, tomatoes, cheese, salsa, sour cream), burgers are decent (a little small for the lunch special, but restaurant portions have gotten out of control these days warping my idea of an appropriate burger size), and they have some pretty nice sweet potato fries.
I got delivery today (first time) and the food arrived sooner than expected. I had a coupon for free delivery (normally $2) so I was happy. The food was just ok. My sweet potato fries I love so much weren't crisp, and my chicken sandwich was sort of bland and dry. The boyfriend had the cajun burger, he said that he was satisfied, the flavors were pretty good.
I've only been served by Jenny (server, bartender) and by my second visit she even recognized me (+1 star). She is very friendly, attentive, and gives great service.
They also have a very small outdoor patio that is nice to hang out and have a beer at if it isn't busy. It is literally wedged between all of the surrounding buildings, but it's a cute little spot.
Overall, great service, moderately priced average tasting bar food (some can be hit or miss), better than Hamilton's in a few areas, but definitely worth checking out!
During the school year 95% of patrons are under 21. During the summer, 100% of the patrons are over 30 and 90% of those are probably over 40. On Thursdays during the school year, the well drinks are served in the smallest plastic cups I've ever seen, much smaller than Hamiltons up the block, and I think like 25 cents more expensive. No good. The place is really, really small. It's 2 floors and the basement is not much bigger than the upstairs.
2 stars because of the weak drinks, small area (seriously it's impossible to move around in here, and the fact that on Thursdays if you're actually legal to drink you feel like you're a senior citizen.
Oh and apparently they deliver food on GrubHub? Who would have thought...
Walking in, you're a greeted by a short, slightly overweight, ungroomed bouncer. He has a toothpick in his mouth, paces around the entrance and tries his hardest to be the cool tough guy. After resisting the temptation to punch him in the face for being so smug. You enter to some pretty bad music and alot of underage college kids. To be fair, some of the under 21 girls were very attractive, but annoying none the less. The seating in interesting, with an outdoor area in back and an upstairs and downstairs. Drinks are moderately priced and their quality varies depending on who's mixed them.
Now, the reason I'm never going to this establishment again. The last time I was there, at around 1AM, there's a crash at the door. Apparently some assholes ran through the door and broke it. My table had just ordered a fresh round of drinks. A moment later, we start to hear, "Everybody out! Everybody out! Bar's Closed!" The staff is proceeding to kick everybody out of the place. To say I was angry would be an understatement. We've got 100 dollars worth of drinks and we can't finish them because the bar decides to unexpectedly shut down. The staff was not curteous at all, they did not apologize to our party (which was a polite and quiet group) and did not offer any explanation to why the place was closing. Extremely disrespectful and rude.
So, in summary the owner is a mule for shutting the place down and the staff are a bunch of rude, inhospitable jerks. I don't recommend going here unless you like to give money to assholes.
Oh and the overweight, ungroomed bouncer? He carded me 5 times coming back in after stepping outside. I explicitly told him I was stepping out prior to going out and he didn't care. The interesting part was, he would look at my ID and hold it for a good 10 seconds or so. Then look at my face and hand it back to me. He wouldn't card or ID most women or the general college kid crowd. Man, was that guy the epitome of guys who live in their mothers basements.
Listen, I don't go here to party or for heavy drinking on Thursday nights, but I go and eat here. I live around the corner and it is the largest best menu within walking distance. I've done eat in and carry out, haven't bothered with delivery because I live so close. The burger options are impressive, the food is good, and the beer selection is wide. The owner and staff are informative and helpful with any beer or food questions I've had. Also there are often specials, and not on the crappy stuff, on the real deal good stuff.
As a twenty something, I have no complaints about the clientele either too young or too old. However, I've never been here after 10:30 or so, so I can't tell you what happens late night.
The Pumping Company, formerly known as The Sizzle- please suppress your giggles- has many names, including Pimping Co. and The Shithole. But don't be put off by this, since you'll find your own affectionately hateful name for it. Usually it's while you're on your way there for the second time in a month.
Pimpizzle is most heavily populated on Thursday nights, when beers are $1, the reggaeton is deafening, and Loyola undergrads attempt to hook up using orange-glo tan, tasteless footwear, filthy ball caps, and countless shots of JD as bait. It's much like the gym on campus, but drunker.
Almost every other night it seems to be dead around 10p, after attracting local early diners. Look forward to the soggiest sandwich this side of CJ's (which is basically next door, by the way), and you may as well eat there and save the extra $6.
While you're there, please note that the decor is dangerous. The tables are unstable, there are stairs where there really shouldn't be, and there are dartboards at the foot of those stairs. Wall hangings (and doors!) are tacked up just enough to stay put without being used. Things may fall apart or fall on you if you try to use them.
And please, for the love of St. Ignatius himself, watch out for the fireplace downstairs. I once set myself on fire dancing to Sean Paul.
Absolutely the worst service I've experienced and I'm even not exaggerating. First I ordered two sandwiches at 7:26 pm which the waitress said it should take 15 minutes which the typical wait time for this place. So to kill some time I sat at bar and ordered a diluted jack & coke for $7.50 and my regular order were $25.20. I then literally watched the first two quarters of the knicks vs cavs game plus commercials and 30 minutes later my food wasn't done and it's almost half time. And because the bartender diction was that of an uneducated trout talking about "I have sales team that can sell machines for $1,000 a week" Well Geico caveman wtf are u still doing bartending. Now because beavis and butthead decided to take light years to boil water I cancelled the order and will never go back. The subpar food coupled with abysmal customer service doesn't justify the ridiculous price.
This place was pretty cool. I went for the first time last saturday to watch game 7 of the bulls. Probably not a good idea to get a good feel for the place. My friends who took me there said it's not usually that crowded. Not to mention, some Loyola kids were there for a Pub Crawl so it was really crowded. Some people like large, noisy, drunken crowds, and I did too when I was 22 years old, but I think I'm grown out of that shit.
Regardless of the crowd, they had specials on buckets of beer, and the food was really good. The waitresses were really friendly, and there were enough HD TV's to be able to have both the Bulls and Blackhawks on simultaneously.
I will definately be going back throughout out the summer to watch Cubs games and can definately see myself there on sundays for Bears.
Oh plus it's right around the corner from the Granville red line stop so that's a huge bonus, or you can take the Broadway bus.
OMG. This is my new BFF (best friggin food). I l.o.v.e the make your own burger option. Go for the beef burger with the Cajun rub, cheddar cheese, grilled onions, and fried egg-------it is so good you'll feel (what Chris Lowney calls) hog whimpering rich.
Order the sweet potato french fries----they'll make you call your mama. And the brownie with fudge and ice cream-----------it'll make you grab your daddy by the ears and rip off his eyebrows. The Pumping Company is pumping out pure deliciousness.
A decent spot with decent regulars, The Pumping Company can be a noisy PITA when the Loyola kids invade. Other than that, it's a perfectly good choice in the neighborhood.
I'm sure the Pumping Company is indeed a somewhat respectful establishment to the rest of the world.
However to Loyola students it's simply known as "P-Co's" - a place to get completely wasted and find one night stands to hook up with back in the dorms so that my fellow classmates will have wildly interesting stories to tell the next day in class.
I know I'm biased and being unfair, but can you really blame me?
Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays are pretty much the only days you'll have to enjoy it. If you go on any other day after 9PM or so, rest assured that you will be surrounded by LUC students with fake ID's.
Good luck, and God help you should you visit on a busy thursday night.
In terms of cheap Bar Food that is cooked to order, this is your place. Before new management this place was a Loyola student dive, but since a fresh coat of paint, new menu, and well trained staff make this a place to go. Very few places have the balls to cook you a rare steak for under $12. The food tastes good and fresh, with better ingredients than most places in the area. You can tell there is some more consideration for quality and less for speed here. But while you are waiting, the drinks are good and won't cause you to take out another student loan or beg on the street corner.
Full disclosure: my very good friend Jenny is a bartender here, so I'm a little biased. I live in Seattle now, but I was back in Chicago a couple of weekends ago and spent a lot of time at P-Co, since Jenny had to work a lot. The food is great - I'm not really sure what was going on with the other reviewers' food, but I was really happy. This place definitely fills up with college kids on the weekends, but before about 10:30, it's pretty cool. I'm sure it would be pretty cool after 10:30 if I were still 21, but I'm not, so I just find it pretty annoying. Regardless, go visit Jenny and the other awesome bartenders - and don't forget to tip!
I went here once, wasn't there long, and have never felt the real need to go back. People have commented on bars like the Local Option in Lincoln Park as being too much of a college bar. THIS IS TOO MUCH OF A COLLEGE BAR. You can tell immediately at least 80%-90% of the crowd in there are from Loyola. Not that this is a terrible thing, but not always welcoming either. Seating is relatively limited too, forcing you to come earlier than necessary in order to enjoy your stay. The beer menu didn't look that impressive, and prices were average. I don't really feel there is anything special about this place, BUT to be fair one day I may come back to try the food. I'm always willing to give new food a try.
Recently a few friends and I started getting together a few times a month to play Euchre. We try to accomodate everyone's different neighborhoods, so last night we went to the Pumping Company.
My friend said wed thru saturday the place is packed with Loyola students. Lucky for us, it was a tues night and the place was empty. It's a decent place to hang out, but stay away from the food. It's your typical bar food, but all four of us hated everything we ordered. I had the chicken, avocado bacon wrap and when it came the swiss cheese was on the OUTSIDE of the wrap???? We joked that they forgot to add it so just put it on the outside. Since I didn't want fingers full of cheese, I went at it with a knife and fork and was extremely disappointed. It was so bland and dry. I barely ate half of it.
On the plus side, it worked out well for a couple rounds of Euchre on one of their off nights, but I'm a little old to be hanging out with college kids.
This bar is always good to my drunk running club. The bartender is decent, the beer selection is the same, the food is pretty good and the clientele is the kind of people I could hang out with. The bar gives us the basement to ourselves and the staff is always very willing to pour us many pitchers of the nectar of the gods. I always go to runs out of The Pumping Company.
As I wandered about one night, desperately seeking some wi-fi in the neighborhood, I decided to pop in here. It was about 9 on a weeknight, and there was a small crowd in there. Definitely not "busy," but it took a little while for a waitress to come by and take my order... then to come by again so I could pay...
Wasn't terribly impressed with drink specials or regular prices, but they were pretty standard. The food on the menu sounded decent, but in light of other reviews, I'd probably steer clear, or at least have pretty low expectations if I did get anything.
Be that as it may, if I need a place close by to hit up some free wi-fi and grab a beer or two while I work, I'll think of the Pumping Company. Just from the other reviews--as well as the crowds I've seen outside on the weekends--that would probably be my only reason to head over.
The Pumping Company is not new and has been here for a while; been going there since 2001 to be more precise. My friends and I used to hang out here a lot when I went to college down the street at Loyola.
PCo, as we called it, was great for cheap beers and live rock bands. The food is nothing more than okay. The HDTVs are a great addition to watch the games but this place is way too damn crowded on weekends with overly excited college students, most of whom have never been to bars before! Stay away at all costs Thursday through Saturday nights when the kids are out! Come back in the middle of the week for a good wind-down after work. That's when you're more likely to enjoy the place.
I considered a two or three star rating but... Coming on off nights is also a great health and sanitation tip. We went on a busy college night and on those nights, glasses are hurriedly washed, without inspection. Think where all those nasty college mouths have been! I had a rash around my mouth the next morning and lasted over a week. My doctor linked it to the damn beer glasses. Total gross out! If I were vindictive, I would've sued the place.
I am highly suspicious of any five star rating for this place!
What a shock! I went into here to meet a friend and I was expecting an average bar. The food her was fantastic. I ordered a hand-made burger and it was cooked a perfect medium-rare temperature. Usually receiving anything below well-done at a bar is the norm.
From what I understand, this was the Pump Room, and then they changed names for awhile and then they went back to PC.
Negative - no ventilation. I can't wait for January first. Good-bye disgusting smoke!!!!
I'll go back, after Jan 1 of course.
Solid. Nothing spectacular, but not bad. Cheap beer, decent food. Good crowd. Always can get a table and close to my house!
Cheap beer, good sliders, an outdoor patio, Wrigley style urinals and decent food? I'm sold. I agree with the other guy, you should avoid the place after 10 pm on the weekends, unless you are 21 and new to cheap beer and the problems that occur when you combine it with a freshly cashed student aid check.
Our first experience at the "new" Pumping Company was only mediocre. Mediocre food, service and value. The best part was the atmosphere - not too crowded and lots of TVs. We had a few different beers, they had a decent selection on tap, but our waitress was slow to refresh our glasses. We had some snacks - onion rings and wings, which were just kinda average. (the celery with the wings was slimy and so un-crisp that it just bent in half, without breaking at all). It wasn't a great time, just simply ok, nothing special. And I certainly wouldn't want to see it on a night packed with Loyola students.
Neighborhood: Edgewater
Category: Sports Bars
Neighborhood: Rogers Park
Category: Pizza
Neighborhood: Edgewater
Category: Gay Bars
Whether it is a dollar on Monday night, or $16…
Loading...
