ChicagoBars
Working for Chicago’s bars, breweries, restaurants, and music venues morning, noon, and night.
Also Chicago’s leading source of state and local government procedure jokes.
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsEnjoying a Krampus Melange at an undisclosed location @chicagobars.bsky.social #BskyBeer
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsEnjoying a Hailstorm Hotel Life at an undisclosed location @chicagobars.bsky.social #BskyBeer
- Undisclosed location. Drinking a Goose Island beer. And I have confirmed it will be one of the tiny handful of Chicago bars NOT showing the Bears game Sunday night (no TVs).
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsGreat hotel staycation view for my taste. Water tank and . . . almost . . . the roof of Rossi’s. @chicagobars.bsky.social
- As is tradition I will now reveal the official Stare of Illinois required Proof of Age sign for 2026 from a distinguished downtown Chicago undisclosed location. Brace yourselves people.
- Your bar, restaurant, grocery store can download their own here: ilcc.illinois.gov/content/dam/...
- I know Chicago people can have strong feelings about painted over brick & stone buildings but I really like what they did with the Cardozo’s Pub building in the Loop…
- Thanks to a moderate stomach flu I spent the past 72 hours drinking nothing harder than (liters of) Sprite Zero. This concludes my Dry January 2026. Onward.
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsI wrote about Grok's CSAM problem and how journalists keep fumbling the story www.readtpa.com/p/grok-cant-...
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsLike two floundering swimmers dragging each other beneath the waves. Saks bought Neiman Marcus. Little more than a year later, Saks is veering towards bankruptcy. Will it take down both stores in Chicago? Losing even one would be a major blow to Michigan Avenue. www.sfchronicle.com/realestate/a...
- Undisclosed location. Drinking @SeippBeer & @maplewoodbeer while commiserating with bartender co-owner after Chicago ATM bandits did some costly damage to her spot just before Christmas.
- And because January is the slowest month of the hospitality industry year and every place needs all the help they can get…that is the bar at Olive Black Lounge at 3032 N Lincoln Avenue and they are fully stocked with board games too. #FreePlug oliveblacklounge.com
- I greatly enjoyed this "Greetings 2026" customer email newsletter from a new(er) liquor store on Armitage called Off-Premise at 1128 W Armitage. #FreePlug offpremisechicago.com
- Reposted by ChicagoBars"He looked rather pleasantly like a blonde Satan" is still one of my favorite sentences.
- “What are you looking at?” “Bluesky, but I almost never check it.” You have ANOTHER social media account?” “Seriously, I almost never check it. I’m only on it to see if that one diehard Eagles fan at the Illinois Statehouse is still alive right now.”
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsThe greatest conditioning that 8 years of living in the Midwest has performed on me is the now ingrained belief that failing to do the little thank you wave when I let a car in somewhere in traffic is a mortal sin.
- Thanks @molsoncoors.bsky.social!
- CTA bus and train rides will once again be free overnight on New Year’s Eve. blockclubchi.co/4rUtzEa
- Using the power vested in me by this other dumb free app (Chicago style) - I hereby declare a 48 hour Christmas cease fire in the 2025 Chicago City Hall Kerfuffles! The cease fire begins at 9am on Christmas Eve (NOW)! No mean tweets, no dragging foes until Friday! I mean it! 🎄☮️🎁🙏
- On a badly needed lighter note… down at the City Hall #ChiBudget2026 alter-alder alternative budget press conference they used a defunct 41 year old City X-Ray machine as a podium. Literally probably bought during heated City Hall battles of original Council Wars. #twill
- New 🏠🏠🏠 Speaker. Then he opened a tab for the banquet hall downstairs at Kitty O’Shea’s. Classy! 🫡
- Walked past South Loop Club today. I don’t know who bought it or if it will ever reopen (doesn’t look close thru the windows) but this I know if they don’t reopen…..I CALL DIBS ON THEIR BEAUTIFUL SIGN!
- There’s a Scabby the Rat selfie station at Clark and Madison in the Loop if anyone needs a quick pic for a very Chicago holiday letter!
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsGoodnight from the former Cunneen’s Old Style sign, in the wilds of Iowa. Happy Turkey Day to one and all. @chicagobars.bsky.social
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsHappy Bourbon County release to all who celebrate. Enjoying a 2023 Backyard Stout at an undisclosed location @chicagobars.bsky.social @chicagobars.bsky.social
- Ladies and gentlemen….it is OFFICIALLY holiday season in Chicago’s Loop! Cc: @choosechicago.bsky.social
- Was there a Wednesday Drinksgiving news dump I missed?
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsEnjoying a BBQ chicken slice and a gd pigeon porter at an undisclosed location @chicagobars.bsky.social #BskyBeer
- PSA: This Thanksgiving invite IL State Treasurer Frerichs to your family gathering and check his iCash unclaimed property for lost family funds. @iltreasurer.bsky.social Because everyone gives thanks to the family member who finds them free money they forgot about. icash.illinoistreasurer.gov
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsChaser @capitolfax.bsky.social @chicagobars.bsky.social Sun-Times Headline: “A state ID you can’t drive with”
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsA man poured flammable liquid on a woman and set her on fire during an argument aboard a Blue Line train in the Loop last night. She is in critical condition. He is on the loose. cwbchicago.com/2025/11/woma...
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- Reposted by ChicagoBarsWe need to build some real social stigma around being afraid of cities. You don't have to like them or live there, but a politics built this strongly around watching TV and going "ewww" is embarrassing, and people should be embarrassed by it. It's like "fear of werewolves" being your top issue.
- Huh, so Bluesky runs on different cloud than Twitter. Fun! mashable.com/article/clou...
- I just helped an incredibly fetching young person in a short skirt and a long jacket find her way to the fun coach house party on my old block. Join me in taking a knee as I channel Peter Falk and accept I have become the kindly Chicago neighborhood grandpa?
- “You wake up in Chicago, pull back the curtain and you KNOW where you are. You could be nowhere else… a big hearted but cold blooded machine with millions of moving parts — a beast that will, if disrespected or not taken seriously, roll over you without remorse.” - Anthony Bourdain
- Last night while reciting my usual dozen Act of Contritions as I started falling asleep I had a religious epiphany. WE’VE ACTUALLY GOT A CHICAGO AMERICAN POPE! Still can’t believe how freaking great that is.
- Yeah if you’re the @CTA why WOULD you want to minimally raise fares for first time in 7 years and use that extra revenue to shore up your underfunded employee pension funds. That would be too fiscally responsible!
- CTA, Metra and Pace planned to raise fares in 2026 — no matter what happened in Springfield with the transit bill. Now that the $1.5B funding package passed the General Assembly, the RTA is nixing its call for the proposed fare increases. @chicago.suntimes.com chicago.suntimes.com/transportati...
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsI often think about this DHS recruitment ad which captures the bro mentality I’ve seen while covering these guys since May.
- Newly proposed Chicagoland 7% amusement tax & $5 “large event” ticket tax is posted for hearing at the Illinois House. If you are opposed to new taxes on live entertainment of all kinds across our region submit a witness slip opposing SB2111 HFA2 here: ilga.gov/House/hearin...
- In ongoing attempt to prove this OTHER dumb free app is actually useful a friend is selling their Uptown 2br condo. Open house Saturday 12-2pm. You should go. If you do look at it and put offer in let me know and I'll buy you drinks and tell you many Uptown stories. www.compass.com/homedetails/...
- Mall cops in tactical gear and masks arresting gardeners and dishwashers. What are the Feds doing wasting time on this? Give me 50 FBI & ATF agents and a dozen extra US Attorneys to pursue gun crime and felon in possession of firearms cases in Chicago. THAT would actually make a difference.
- NEW — Videos obtained by The TRiiBE show federal agents detaining a Laugh Factory worker on Chicago’s North Side this morning. He and another person were detained around 9:20 a.m., according to rapid response teams. Story TK shortly on thetriibe.com.
- It is a pretty city.
- Absolutely no offense intended but Chicago DOT testified yesterday that some of their projects take TWO TO FOUR YEARS of design work before construction begins. Respectfully we have computers in 2025, bridges and roads are not new tech, how can design take more than two years? 🤷♂️ #ChiBudget2025
- Undisclosed location. Drinking a beer. Should probably start a Chicago aquarium bar list.
- Chicago TARDIS.
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsEnjoying a Morbidly Obese Pug at an undisclosed location @chicagobars.bsky.social #BskyBeer
- FRIDAY NEWS DUMP! I finally get to do one! Anyhoo...I figured out @ChicagosMayor 2026 @ChicagoBudget buried a 20-30% increase in all liquor license and probably all other business licenses in their 2026 revenue estimates. Not a word in his budget press releases though. 🤔💸
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsThis is called a perfect Friday News Dump @chicagobars.bsky.social
- Undisclosed location (Top 3 on my all time “Why don’t I go here more?” list). Drinking not a martini but vodka up with a twist. Great place. Ask for Russ if you make a reservation. He was aces. ♣️🧧🍸
- 2025 Chicago marathon sign of the route….so far.
- Undisclosed location. Drinking a beer.
- In niche Chicago things I find hilarious CPD has apparently contracted with a company called “Fast Eddie’s Towing” for special event tows. Had no idea retired Alderman Vrdolyak had expanded into “fee based involuntary vehicle relocation” work.
- You know what they call eating that entire @Ricobenes breaded steak sandwich covered in cheese, sauce, and hot peppers without getting any of it on the white dress shirt you’re wearing? PROFESSIONALISM!
- In the most Chicago thing I will tweet today I just learned @AureliosPizza co-sponsored the Pope Leo XIV Mass at Sox Park.
- Chicago AlleyHenge.
- Undisclosed Loop location. Drank a @halfacrebeer.bsky.social beer. Researching emergency libation locations in advance of the 2026 City of Chicago budget hearings.
- Today in City Council BS. @chialderwoman.bsky.social & Chair Rodriguez are holding hearing on a worker safety ordinance & debating a substitute (revised) draft THAT ISN'T PUBLICLY POSTED. This is BS. City Council needs to stop voting on hidden drafts! chicityclerkelms.chicago.gov/Matter/?matt...
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsKeep calm and karaoke on! 🎙️ BEARAOKE is back TONIGHT with @bearaokewrhettbutlah—a night full of ballads, bops and of course... bears! The singing starts at 9pm, so pick up your friends, pick a song and get ready to take the stage! 🍺 SUNDAY SPECIALS: $5 Miller Lite Drafts $6 New Amsterdam Cocktails
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsThe motion to withdraw was granted, but I do not see any filing indicating that Vallas has found a new attorney, despite these timelines.
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsRandom update amid everything else, but I need y'all to know that Paul Vallas' attorney quit on him last month, citing "Irreconcilable differences and disputes...between Vallas & Laduzinsky making Laduzinsky’s continued representation of Vallas impossible."
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsLooking forward to another $5 BIPA check someday.
- Chicago River at Wolf Point is all grown up.
- Not today squirrel! It has already been too weird today.
- Reposted by ChicagoBars@chicagobars.bsky.social #undisclosed-location
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsEnjoyed a Moors IPA at an undisclosed location yesterday. @chicagobars.bsky.social #BskyBeer #Drinklocal
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsThere is simply no value to Democrats in helping with passing budgets or CRs when the administration claims limitless arbitrary impoundment and rescission powers.
- Eye on Uptown earlier today…
- We used to be a proper City.
- The Fresh Stop Market just east of the Belmont Res/Brown/Purple @cta line has a nice selection of fine seasonal beverages in stock & ready to toast this glorious weather with. #FreePlug #Oktoberfest 🍻
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsA federal appellate court ruled Tuesday that an Illinois state law banning concealed firearms on public transit systems does not violate the Second Amendment.
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsBeen too long. Great service when an unanticipated huuuuge birthday party showed up and all wanted complicated mixed drinks. Somehow, alert bar staff took care of us simple beer drinkers in between various mules and -tinis. @chicagobars.bsky.social
- Reposted by ChicagoBarsEnjoying a Revolution Strawberry Jacket at an undisclosed location @chicagobars.bsky.social #BskyBeer
- If I win the Powerball I’m buying all of you a beer. And then I’m putting 10 lawyers and 20 nuns on perpetual retainer. What is your billion dollar Powerball plan?
