Somehow I ended up planning a bachelor party on the weekend of April 28th in Chicago. The groom and I are huge Cubs fans and it'll revolve around going to the games. We're staying at the downtown Marriott Courtyard. What's your suggestion for bars and restaurants we should go to. Keep in mind that it's a broad group of friends so it has to have general appeal. Any help is apperciated.

Cubby Bear

That's defintely in the plan. Keep em coming. I need stuff to do that involves drinking for two days.

Whatever the coverted garage (auto repair, not parking) under the EL in Wicker Park, it's next to the Double Door. When the doors are open, it's like sitting in a Central American bungalow. They've got the best CD line-up behind the bar I've ever experienced.

Friday, April 28

Ninth Annual Chicago Improv Festival
Athenaeum Theatre

Performances by ensembles and artists from Chicago and around the world with alternate stage events...[more]


$14 mix-and-match Bud buckets, $4 Bell's Oberon bottles, $10 Moosehead pitchers
Timothy O'Toole's

$15 Sam Adams Light buckets
Timothy O'Toole's

$17.50 prime rib with two sides.
Biasetti's

$2.50 lite bottles, half-price chicken sandwich, DJ spins after 10 p.m.
Holiday Club

$3 Red Hook ESB drafts
Rocks Lincoln Park

1 cent glasses of house wine with food purchase
Carlucci

Alejandro Escovedo
Old Town School of Folk Music
8 p.m.
The Horse's Ha. (SOLD OUT)

A short jog up Clark St to just north of Wilson is Carol's Pub. They're open until 5am on Saturdays, have fairly cheap beer, a live country band and it's a great dive bar.

O'Callaghan's is on Hubbard between State and Dearborn (south side of the street). Another 5am bar, cheap drinks and they actually have a room upstairs which is available for rent.

Schubas has a great bar/jukebox.

Gingerman Tavern, which is two blocks north of Wrigley and next to one of the best music venues around, Metro, has a great jukebox, cheap drinks and hothothottttt bartenders (male and female).

If you need addresses, I can do the leg work, otherwise just google them and the addresses should come up.

Saturday, April 29th

$12 all-you-can-eat-and-drink brunch, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Joey's Brickhouse

$14 mix-and-match Bud buckets, $4 Bell's Oberon bottles, $10 Moosehead pitchers
Timothy O'Toole's

$16 Beck's buckets, $9.99 full slab of ribs
Shoeless Joe's Sports Bar and Grille

$2.50 lite bottles, half-price pork bbq, DJ spins after 10 p.m.
Holiday Club

$3 Miller Lite and MGD drafts
Timothy O'Toole's

$3 Miller Lite bottles and drafts
The Trinity Bar

$4 bloody marys and mimosas
The Kerryman

$4 mimosas, $5 bloody marys
Rocks Lincoln Park

$4 Pama liqueur cocktails
Murray's Pub & Grill

$5 bombs, $4 Stoli cocktails
Gin Mill

$5 Stoli cocktails and glasses of champagne, DJs spin house and old school hip-hop
BeviAmo Wine Bar

$9.95 brunch, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Junior's Sports Lounge

Includes an entree and your choice of coffee, juice, bloody mary or mimosa.

Good stuff. I should add that I only know 1/2 of the people going. He is part of my college friends set. He's about to finish med school and alot of the people going are from med school. Makes it hard because I don't know what kind of stuff they'd enjoy.

Carol's sounds great. If they don't like it, I don't want to hang out with them.

Sunday, April 30th

$1.50-$2.50 drafts and $5-$8 pitchers of Leinenkugel's and Foster's
Gallery Cabaret

$14 domestic buckets
Gin Mill

$14 mix-and-match Bud buckets, $4 Bell's Oberon bottles, $10 Moosehead pitchers
Timothy O'Toole's

$14 mix-and-match Miller buckets
Timothy O'Toole's

$2 domestic bottles, $3 build-your-own bloody marys, $3.50 Stoli bombs, 25 cent wings
Hops & Barley

Minimum eight shrimp.

$2 Miller Lite and Guinness drafts, $3 bloody marys
The Trinity Bar

$2 off all beers, $1 off all cocktails, DJs spin at 10 p.m.
Betty's Blue Star Lounge

$3 bloody marys, $5 domestic pitchers, $5 pizzas
Shoeless Joe's Sports Bar and Grille

$3 Lone Star bottles and Wild Turkey shots, $9.99 fried chicken dinner, bingo, Fulton County Line performs, 7 p.m.
Pontiac Cafe & Bar

$3 Miller Lite and High Life bottles, free pool
Junior's Sports Lounge

$3.50 Absolut cocktails
Big City Tap

$4 Absolut Peppar bloody marys
Sean's Rhino Bar

$4 bloody marys and mimosas
The Kerryman

$4 Pama liqueur cocktails
Murray's Pub & Grill

$5 bloody marys and wicked cappuccinos
Tilli's

$5 mimosas, mojitos and bloody marys and marias
Zapatista

A bloody maria is a bloody mary with tequila substituted for vodka.

$6 Miller Lite pitchers, $5 bloody marys, $4 mimosas
Rocks Lincoln Park

$9.95 brunch buffet, 9 a.m-3 p.m., $2.50 Miller Lite pints, $15 Corona buckets, $4 margaritas, mojitos and raspberry vodka lemonades, $1 mini cheeseburgers and chicken flautas
Mystic Celt

$9.95 brunch, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Junior's Sports Lounge

Includes an entree and your choice of coffee, juice, bloody mary or mimosa.

All the stuff I posted was from Metromix.

I figured with a bachelor party you'd get some meatheads, and you'd be "his wierd friend who listens to wierd music".

So music is subjective, booze is booze, and the drunker you get, the less you'll mind them which is why i posted the specials I found.

However, if you want to drink late (read last call at 3:30 lights at 4 on Fri. and Sun., and last call at 4:30 lights at 5 on Sat...) you need to know the following places.

Estelle's (North Ave. in wicker park off the damen blue line stop)
Marie's Rip Tide Lounge (Hermitage and Armitage)

The Note (right around the corner from Estelle's and on Milwaukee)

Nick's Uptown (from Wrigley, Red Line to Irving Park, across the street from The Holiday Club, and they have decent pool tables)

If you need black coffee to sober up, the 24/7 starbucks is at North and Wells (Old Town, brown line Sedgwick stop), and directly north of that on Wells is Nookies (get the dixie benedicts, biscuits, ham, poached eggs, sausage gravy), or angle up several hundred feet north of that on Lincoln and Armitage, and you'll find a great sunday brunch at Stanley's Kitchen and Tap.

You can't go wrong with breakfast. If you want other kinds of cuisine recommendations for varying budgets, let us know.

Wrigleyville kind of sucks though.

Thanks Phil and you nailed it as far as crowd. I would love to know some restaurants. It doesn't have to be in Wrigelyville. Around downtown works and we'll travel as long as it's not very far.

i think you're talkin about the Pontiac, no?
http://centerstage.net/restaurants/pontiac-produce.html

Yup! That's it.

Meatheads, huh? The breakfast places will work for everyone, and Cubby Bear's got cute waitresses and mediocre overpriced food. All the food in that area is fairly mediocre and overpriced, except Heaven on 7, but I doubt you cajuns would think that it's good cajun. It's yuppie cajun. Straight north on Clark though is The Metro, next door to that is The Full Shilling, and they always have good cheap food, across the street from that is Wrigley Dog, not the greatest dog joint, but passable and near the field. South on Clark from Wrigley at Roscoe or Buckingham is a decent Mexican joint that makes a strong ass pitcher of Margarita, take a left on either of those streets and you'll run into another Nookies (24/7 on the weekends if you need breakfast). A warning, lot of homosexual activity in Wrigleyville and directly south, which is Boystown. However, alot of gorgeous straight girls live there because they feel it's safe or something. Badass chinese food near that Roscoe on Halsted, Mark's Chop Suey. Even badder ass is Yen's on Clark near Diversey (that'd be a short cab ride). Great Thai food and sushi at Satay (Brown Line Diversey stop), BYOB and right next to a liquor store. Tell Rosie or Patty that you know me (Phil) and you'll get some good treatment. Stay away from Penny's, it's bullshit. Get a fantastic burger at Duke's (2616 N. Clark), Jay is the bartender, Brad is the owner, Kelly is the waitress, Nick is the door guy. I play in a band with Brad's brother. They'll kill you with food and booze. I doubt you'll be west of 94 unless you're in Wicker Park but there's alot of good chow on that side of the highway. Quencher's on Fullerton and Western has amazing pubgrub and a slamming jukebox. Emmit is the bartender. Smallbar is hard to find... Albany north of Diversey, another jem, another great jukebox. Bluefin on North (Damen Blue Line Stop, right in Wicker Park near Estelle's and The Note) has slamming fusion sushi. Santullo's across the street makes a great slice of New York Style Pizza. Chicago's Pizza on Sheffield just one light south of Belmont makes great Chicago Style Pizza, sells by the slice, and you can buy booze, AND it's open till 5 A.M. every fucking night. The ultimate late night taco/burrito joint is La Pasadita on Division and Ashland (there's three right there, same ownership). The second is Lazo's Tacos on Western and Armitage which is 24/7.
I'm trying to stay with the drunk food theme.....

Oh, the BK on North just between California and Sacramento has $1 Whoppers all the time. Just in case you're in a bind.

Reza's (two locations, one on Ontario, one on Clark but way north...) has a great Sunday Meditarranean all you can eat champagne brunch for like $20.

Shit, ask for more specific suggestions and I'll jog the brain.

That place has got good chow, fire marshall fucked up the interior recently though. The place looks bare. Alot of the girls there pull double duty at Estelle's around the corner, which i think has a better jukebox.

phil, u so smart

I didn't get to weigh an 1/8th of a ton at my heaviest by NOT eating and drinking.

I miss all those joints. Now I just make bacon and eggs and bike everywhere. Glad to see you back on the internets.

tis temporary my son. laptops are lame.

Dig it.

Let's go crash this bachelor party. U gotta fake i.d. yet?

thanks phil. I'm gonna print this before we leave.

nah, i'll just grow the beard back out.

Holy Shit Phil.

I'm guessing you'll only need a month in LA before you'll be able to tell me all the places I need to eat.

Cool, you can look up lots of info at www.metromix.com, and you can save a lot of cash getting around town using the trains/busses etc...

http://tripsweb.rtachicago.com/

Best of luck.

Oh, the meatheads might like Goose Island Brewing Company right in Wrigleyville on Clark. It's o.k., but there are better breweries in and out of town.

And THE BEST BREAKFAST IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE is at Walker Brothers Pancake House, which unfortunately is in the burbs. For fastest service, take 94 north to Half Day Road, hang a left (west), hang a left on Milwaukee (north), and it's on the right directly across from The Marriot Lincolnshire. Largest of their locations, fastest and best service. Also very near Flatlanders Brewery (Better than Goose), and Mickey Finn's Brewery (SO MUCH BETTER THAN GOOSE), kitty corner from Finn's is Firkin. Fantastic American Nouveau, and jaw dropping wine and beer list.

Downside is it's in the burbs, upside is it's way less crowded.

We'll see, L.A. is slightly more sprawling.

But I'll work on it.

U got 10 days young skywalker.

Oh, and if you guys are looking for higher class, check out Blackbird...

http://www.blackbirdrestaurant.com/dinner.php

Food for foodies without the Trotter price tag.

And if you want meat fest 06, i highly recommend Fogo de Chao on Erie and LaSalle, a Brazilian churrascaria. Without booze you'll be running bout $120 a head, but it's all you can eat, and you can eat for DAYS.

www.fogodechao.com