Booze Muse

Logan Square is host to a food co-op, plenty of dive bars, at least one moderately classy tavern and, now, a brand new brewery. Revolution Brewing Company, a new restaurant and brewery ten years in the making, has opened its doors on Milwaukee Avenue just west of California. Josh Deth, managing partner, has a history with Chicago and beer. He’s logged hours at Goose Island and the now-defunct Golden Prairie Brewing Company (not to mention he had a large hand in starting Handlebar). Brew man Jim Cibak is no novice either. He’s worked alongside Deth at Goose Island as well as other breweries such as Three Floyds. Obviously, beer is the big draw with such homebrews as the Workingman Mild and Eugene, however, Revolution has a full food menu ranging from bacon-fat popcorn to Hampshire-Duroc Pork Chop. “It’s a very warm and comforting place,” Deth, assures. “You’ll immediately feel that when you come in.” Revolution Brewing works on a first come, first serve basis. So regardless of when you get there, you’re bound to see some familiar faces. As Deth points out, the place has been packed with “lots of neighborhood folks” since its opening. (Peter Cavanaugh)

The best charity to young Chicago nighthawks during this depressing economic downturn? Free Mondays at the Empty Bottle.

No cover charge, a Monday night, three bands you’ve hardly heard of, and the room is packed wall to wall, winter coats bulging, shaggy beards sprawling. Only a few stools at the back of the bar, where one man says “I’m too old for this, I just want to sit down.”

A Monday night. Anyone will do anything for free stuff, or at least a $1.50 PBR. A hyper-punk trip called Running grunts and yelps. It’s loud, but not that loud. The music writer from The Reader is here; so is one of the redheads from The 1900s. And an artist, from a long past 2nd Fridays night in Pilsen, with whom drunken stumbling led to a throwaway makeout at the bar in Skylark. She seems to be everywhere these days.

Overheard: “Maybe I’ll meet the man of my dreams, right after I take this shit”; “When I know I’m gonna fuck a guy, I just fuck him, I don’t wait. What’s the point?” “You’re a slut.” “I know.”; and then, finally, in the disintegrating bathroom, “This toilet is being dramatic.”

The band Moonrises takes the stage inside with vengeance, but it’s time to leave. At the outside smoker’s lounge on Western Avenue, the frigid wind interrupts all conversations. A Monday night and the street is full. A homeless man bounces around to each huddled group, speaking what can only be French. (Tom Lynch)

Most people I know save barhopping for summer, when the temperature agrees with crowds and the night air rumbles with tension, with perspiration, with sex.

I drink in winter. The shedding of winter dress upon entering a dark and musty room feels like abandoning the torture outside. Rooms are empty, tables thin. You get to know your bartender. You’re the only sad bastard within range.

I have a half-dream of someday opening a tavern called Scar Bar—“scar” as in “emotional scar,” not “physical scar,” though bikers will always be welcome—where the soundtrack consists solely of Joy Division, The Smiths, Velvet Underground and Elliott Smith. You get it. When I heard the people behind the old Thursday night dance party at Neo were opening a bar in the Logan Square area, the neighborhood where I live, and they had the audacity to call it Late Bar, I was terrified. Terrified because I can actually imagine the Planet Earth people improving on my inevitably out-of-reach fantasy. Read the rest of this entry »

“Whenever two DJs open a bar, music is going to be a big part of it,” says Kristine Hengl, co-owner of the newly conceived Late Bar, set to open December 26 in Logan Square. “It’s part of our existence. There’s a whole bunch of music that we love, but sometimes it doesn’t really bring a crowd. We just think this is a great place to showcase that.” Located at 3534 West Belmont, Late Bar was created by Hengl and her partner Dave Roberts, a seasoned DJ in the Chicago nightclub scene. Open Tuesday through Friday from 9pm-4am, and Saturday until 5am, Late Bar’s flagship night, dubbed “Planet Earth,” will be every Saturday. “You’re going to think we’re really nerdy for this, but our name, ‘Late Bar,’ is actually from the b-side to Duran Duran’s single ‘Planet Earth.’ And we’re open till 4am, so it works.”

Koval Distillery will hold its first mixology contest on Saturday, November 28. Taking place at 7pm at Binny’s Beverage Depot in the South Loop, contestants will go head to head and create an on-the-spot, original cocktail to be judged by a panel of four. “We’re looking to find some great upcoming mixologists that we can collaborate with in the future,” says co-owner Sonat Birnecker Hart. Koval Distillery is a family-owned business, boasting high-end, all-organic grain spirits and kosher products. “There aren’t that many small family-owned distilleries anymore; they were all wiped out during prohibition,” says Hart. “We make everything here from scratch, and it’s all organic and kosher. It’s important to build sustainable agriculture.”

By Michael Nagrant

You should always cook with good wine, but whoever set that rule probably didn’t expect anyone to deglaze their risotto pan with $400 Champagne like Jean-Baptiste Cristini. Cristini didn’t want me to mention this, probably because you’d think he’s some snooty rich dude. He’s not. He just happens to work for Salon and Delamotte Champagnes, and was lucky to taste some 1988 Salon that hadn’t aged well and got it as a side perk.

Such circumstance is emblematic of Cristini’s life. He’s like a younger version of the guy from Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man in the World” beer commercials, a cosmopolitan handsome 28-year-old dude who drinks Grand Cru Champagne like tap water. He hangs out in Paris on weekends with his girlfriend, a veteran chef of Michelin-starred kitchens, throws parties for friends larded with Iberico ham and trophy wines, and works as the globetrotting export director for one of the best bubbly makers in the world.

The luster of Cristini’s employer Salon/Delamotte shines even brighter. Located in the French commune of Le Mesnil sur Oger in the Côte des Blancs, Salon/Delamotte produces some of the world’s most prestigious Champagne. If you haven’t heard of Salon, you’ve likely heard of its cohorts Cristal and upstart cousin Dom Perignon which produce 300,000 and 5 million or so bottles a year respectively. If this trio of sparklers were baseball cards, Salon Champagne, which produces no more than 60,000 bottles in a vintage year, would be its Honus Wagner. Read the rest of this entry »

By Michael Nagrant

“Second floor retail is murder,” says Kyle McHugh, aka “The Boozehound” and owner of boutique wine, beer and spirits retailer Drinks Over Dearborn (DOD). Though McHugh learned this truism in business school, he opened DOD on the second floor of an old office building called The Raleigh on Dearborn between Erie and Ontario anyway.

It wasn’t that he was the Evil Knievel of liquor retailers interested in spitting on MBA textbook theories. Rather, a greater truism trumped all: rent prices in the Gold Coast (an area he preferred for its affluent traffic) were a straight-up serial killing. McHugh figured he could better avoid the death of his business by executing his business plan the right way: get a bigger space to conduct classes, tastings and host a wide variety of interesting stock instead of compromising and blowing his life’s savings and small-business loan on a dinky little box on the first floor.

And in a business climate where faux anonymity and cloak and dagger is the new version of the Vegas-style blinking neon sign, who could discount McHugh’s decision? After all, the Lincoln Park restaurant Alinea doesn’t even have a sign and the popular Wicker Park cocktail lounge The Violet Hour looks like a graffiti-covered abandoned building.

If you build it, they will come, right? Read the rest of this entry »

A piece of “The Sopranos” has come to the Midwest with the Chicago-area launch of The Sopranos Wines. Sopranos Wines was originally launched in November 2008 in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut mainly for the large Italian population and wine-drinking market, managing partner Mark Gonsalves says. Over the past few months, after getting their key markets up to speed, Sopranos entered into conversations and contracts with Franklin Park distributor Stoller Wholesale to bring the wine to Chicago. “We’re always attracted to family-run trades,” Gonsalves says. “The Sopranos is a family  business. We liked what [Stoller] had done with other products.” Gonsalves says Chicago is a great market because of the high concentration of Italian-American families. Prior to coming to Chicago, the brand was launched in Arizona and California. They plan to take their wine to Vegas next then to the northwest United States and eventually throughout the rest of the Midwest. The Sopranos Wines has three main tiers of pricing per bottle—$9.99, $14.99 and $24.99. “In today’s market, people are looking for value, a brand they can trust and that they can enjoy with their meal,” Gonsalves says. “The Sopranos fits the bill. We want to communicate that our wine is serious wine, family made and Italian-bottled. It’s value.”

Before Goose Island was even a brewery, Quenchers Saloon was doing the “beer thing,” offering Chicagoans an impressive variety of fermented refreshments. Started in 1979, the bar is now throwing a massive thirtieth-anniversary celebration, from August 16-23. The week-long event will provide attendees with a lot of beer, and a lot of music. “We have three events that we’re focusing on,” says Steve Segel, the bar’s manager. Besides a slew of giveaways and prizes, and a possible vertical beer-tasting to be announced, there’s a bluegrass jam session Saturday afternoon and a rock show on Saturday night. The rock show will include The Lovers, The Amino Acids, The Runnies and The Livers. “The Livers do a great audio video setup behind them,” says Segel. “I’ve seen a lot of shows but this really blew my mind.”

Granite floors, two custom-fitted bars and gleaming cherry wood walls are some of the highlights of what used to be a “basement dive bar” just two years ago.

The original Yak-Zies at 506 West Diversey has reopened its doors after being closed, due to the death of its owner, Kenny Miller, in 2007. The “facelift,” as general manager Dan Schack describes it, began in November.

“People walk in and they’re like ‘wow,’” says Schack. “The response from the neighborhood has been unbelievable.” Read the rest of this entry »