Booze Muse

By Ernest Barteldes

While living in Brazil, I remember ordering caipirinhas (the famous national cocktail made with muddled lime, sugar and cachaça) at restaurants and bars, and I was hit with the inevitable question: “de cachaça ou de vodka” (“Do you want it made with cachaça or vodka?”).

At the time, I didn’t think much of it. Although I did prefer the spiciness of the Brazilian national spirit, I also often recalled the hangovers I’d get from drinking the (mostly) mass-produced stuff they had there at the time, and most of the time ended up having the drink made from vodka.

The problem is that muddling lime and sugar and adding anything other than cachaça is not a caipirinha, but an imitation (some bars list the alternatives as caipiroska—with vodka—or caipirissima when made with rum). But since the general public was not complaining, they got away with it—until now. Read the rest of this entry »

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)

“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

“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 »

The weather is finally starting to turn, and to celebrate the arrival of the spring season, TheChiGuide.com is hosting its first annual Spring Beer Olympics Tournament on April 23 at Joe’s Bar. The event will feature team beer-pong matches as well as team and individual flip-cup competitions. All participants will be vying for a purse of at least $1,300. And if all that weren’t enough, the night is being emceed and Todd Scholtz, stage manager for “The Jerry Springer Show.” “This is for the younger demographic in Chicago that has grown up with Jerry Springer. So we thought it would be great to incorporate the brand and the people behind the show into the event itself,” says Alexander Laurie, founder and CEO of TheChiGuide.com. According to Laurie, a Northwestern grad, the event is specifically designed to bring students together from all of the colleges and universities across Chicago, something that, in his opinion, doesn’t happen enough.

The Cover Your Bases Wrigleyville Bar Tour will help kick off baseball season this Saturday with a twist on the typical bar crawl. Participants will get a t-shirt with a baseball field design and will receive a sticker—representing each position on a baseball team—at each bar stop. Once attendees fill up their shirt, they can enter a drawing to win Cubs tickets, restaurant gift certificates or t-shirts. Festa Events, which runs the 12 Bars of Christmas pub crawl, created the event. “We’ve done TBOX for thirteen years and entertained the idea of branching out,” says manager Kelly Tribout. Their first foray, a Mardi Gras-themed pub crawl, was successful, so they wanted to try their luck with Cubbie fever. They are considering starting up a few events later this year as well. “It’s tough in Chicago with all of the events in the summer,” Tribout says. “But hopefully we’ll have some other pub crawls this fall.” Tickets for the Cover Your Bases crawl are $12 in advance (at festaparties.com) and $15 on the day of the event.