Bangers & Lace

Good beer selection and decent cocktails. Had the venison and the sausage was a bit gamey and bland and the thick toast was burnt. The po boy was ok, the shrimp was freshly fried but the bread was a bit hard. The cheese curds was salty. Would come back for drinks but not food.

Bangers and Lace is a bar/​restaurant in Wicker Park. They have 32 draft beers from around the world, in addition to an extensive bottle selection. My friend and I came to B&L for dinner on Friday, and we ordered the following:
Chorizo Deviled Eggs-​6 egg halves, brimming with chorizo-​egg yolk filling, encased in lightly breaded, and garnished with watermelon radish and green onion. These were so rich, we only ate 1 – 2 each, and shared the love with a friend and her roommate.
Shrimp Po’Boy-This is what I would come back to B&L for. Shrimp, spicy remoulade, pickles, watermelon radish in a baguette. B&L is so generous with the filling that its almost like eating a shrimp salad in a French baguette.
Pretzel-​Bavarian-​style pretzel with chocolate stout mustard. This is what everyone on Unilocal raves about and rightly so. Brings back memories of the pretzels at Reading Terminal Market in Philly.
Overall, I would recommend B&L for small parties. The place is packed and for good reason, and I like the opportunity to seat myself. Good service, knowledgeable staff, great food. I’m looking forward to coming back for brunch another day!

Highly recommend the venison brat! The addition of jam brings a great variety of flavors.
Pretzel with chocolate stout sauce is also a win!

5 stars for the beer selection. –4 stars for the service and cocktails, mainly service.
Thank god I already downed a nice bottle of red wine prior to coming here.
My friend opened a tab with them, which is enough to warrant a more attentive service to him/​us. Also, we sat in the bar area.
First, none of the bartenders offered me service upon my arrival. It was pretty packed, sure, but the reality of it was, they ignored me while they glided back and forth to attend to guys who were on their cellphones whilst nursing a glass of beer.
Barkeep made me feel like I was an inconvenience every time I asked him for a drink. He served me subpar cocktails that tasted like straight up pomegranate juice — did you forget the alcohol, Mr. 35-​year-​old-​hipster? We opted for their $ 30 shots thereafter so he couldn’t mess it up. There was one guy who seemed to be the manager, that kept lust-​ingly staring me down and smiling whenever I looked over, but was very cold when I tried flagging down for service. Are we in high school?!
At one point, 5 of them stood in the corner doing nothing. I tried glaring and giving the evil eye… but I was drunk, so I can’t attest to the accuracy of my ‘evil eye’; it may as well have looked a bit cock-​eyed. Ugh, I was so annoyed by them — I felt we were being too nice, so before we left, I tried to be as obnoxiously drunk as I could, and asked for the most sophomoric drinks just to annoy the one guy:
Me: HAAAAAYYYY ARE THESE YOUR ONLY DRINKS?
Old Hipster bar tender: Yup
Me: UHM DO YOU HAAAAVVVEEEE… GIMME A SHOT OF FIREBALL.
OHBT: We don’t have that
Me: ALRIGHT, GIMME A SHOT OF JAGER!!!
OHBT: Miss, we only have the ones written on the menu.
Hopefully it worked. Ugh
We came here with the goal of getting drunk — not concerning ourselves with finances. So once we got semi-​drunk we cut the evening short and bolted for some tacos. Of course, the high-​tolerant alcoholics we were, still resulted in a huge tab, but point is, you guys could’ve racked in more had you not ignored my needs for a refill. Plus the 30−40% tip my friend normally gives, decreased to 20% – you’re lucky he’s nice; I would’ve just left you, barkeep, $ 1 in quarters.
Skip this place. We won’t be coming back here, there are tons of other neighboring bars with the same rustic ambience, great selection of beer, and perfect service.

Awesome bar. Amazing atmosphere. Met a rad girl named Ashley here and we plan on making this our go-​to spot from here on out!
Hopefully it’ll even be the place of our first kiss. One can hope.

Came here Friday evening for after-​work drinks just this past week for the first time.
The place is larger than it looks from the outside. Given that the autumn chill is here to stay, the outdoor patio was no longer available, but the inside is dimly lit giving it a warm and pleasant feel.
Overall though, this place is just OK. They have a pretty decent beer list, I was drinking Founders Spectra Trifecta, which is pretty good and the prices seemed standard. I was pretty hungry by the time I got there, so my friend and I ordered the hummus plate and the cheese curds! Portions are generous. It felt like our cheese curds could have lasted days! Definitely a group sharing plate, those curds.
Service was good… although I felt like they asked us at least 6 times if we were done with our food, which, as I mentioned earlier, was a quite a bit to share, but we had been picking on it all through the night. I guess it’s better than not having anyone check up on us.
I’m gonna take off a star though. As the evening wore on, it got progressively louder and louder, so we ended up having to shout quite a bit just to hear each other’s conversation. I don’t really hang out in Wicker Park much, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I wasn’t a fan of noise.
Overall, not too bad. A pretty chill place to have a beer and hang.

I went here on a Friday night with some friends and it was very crowded. Luckily we were able to grab some seats. The first thing I noticed was that it was very LOUD. Yes, I understand I’m in a bar, but I could barely hear my friends that were right next to me. I ordered the Char Dog — all beef dog, pimento cheese, spicy ketchup, bacon and pickled jalapeño. It was served with chips. I thought it was good, but so messy to eat! Definitely not the easiest thing to eat, but it had good char flavor. My friend ordered an old fashioned and seemed to enjoy it. I need to try their drinks the next time I’m there. I thought it was a fun bar with elevated bar food and friendly service.

Nice little place in Wicker Park with friendly staff and a fantastic beer list. Small but enjoyable outdoor patio — makes it easy to meat people at the tables next to your’s.
Nice variety of dogs ‘n’ sausages and they even have a vegetarian one. I can’t comment on them though as I haven’t eaten there yet. But I plan to!

We walked in and we’re seated pretty quickly at 10 pm on a pretty crowded night. It was first come first serve. They had a selection of various Bells beers that were delicious. We met a few other groups and had a great time. Really awesome vibe for drinks with friends. Bathroom is a one seater = only pitfall.

I came here pre-​North Coast Labor Day weekend and they weren’t nearly as crowded as I expected. They had two cider options, neither of which I had heard of, so it was nice to explore them.
Seeing as how it was over 80 degrees outside, I was kind of surprised they had the doors and windows open without any heavy duty fans blasting, but it wasn’t too unbearable.
It was hot so the salad and pretzel I got really hit the spot in terms of my summer eating needs.
I’m not sure I would pick this place if I was paying for myself. Though, I wouldn’t mind having drinks here.

Just updating — This has become a regular place in our brunch lineup. The biscuit and gravy is the best deal in the city. The breakfast salad is so good. The bloody is great and the vinyl on sat/​sun mornings makes for a great visit. Haven’t been here in the evening but i get my fill at brunch.

My first clue that I had made a mistake coming here was when the handlebar moustached douchebag came charging up to me as I walked in, demanding to see my ID. First, if you have a handlebar moustached douche for a bouncer, that’s a problem. But I’m 40, and while I look closer to 30, you’ll never confuse me for being anywhere remotely near 21. You are more than welcome to politely ask to see my ID and say it is policy to check everyone’s, but don’t come charging up to me demanding to see my ID.
Second, don’t have any delusions that this place has anything resembling decent food. They have appetizers and «gourmet» hot dogs (if such a thing exists). Don’t plan on eating dinner here. Also, the beer selection is fairly limited. Hope you enjoy hoppy IPAs.
The only thing keeping this from being a one-​star review is that for some odd reason there were a fair number of attractive women there. Why, I have no idea, maybe it’s the trendy new place. But this place will be dead in a year when the fad wears off and will have a new theme in two years. Stay tuned.

Nice little spot that feels very cozy… This seemed like a cool place to go on a date! I only got to enjoy the deviled eggs with chorizo and the soft pretzel with the chocolate stout mustard and both were good. The pretzel stole the show given that it was very soft and the chocolate stout mustard was just great (very different in a good way).
The drinks were also very enjoyable… Old Bitter Ben was very unique and I felt like it whopped my butt with just a few! I will def be back to try a few more cocktails and maybe some food items.

It pains me to say this, but after multiple visits after I first moved here in September 2012, I was telling everyone I know that B&L had the best biscuits in history. But over my last 3 – 4 visits (I live in East Village, so I’m here every couple of months), I have to admit – the biscuits here are just good now. Not great, but good. I typically do the Build-​a-​Biscuit sandwich with the sausage gravy, egg and cheese, and on our last visit two weeks ago, I had to admit defeat here; even my normally-​kind wife went a little overboard after we left, threatening to never come back here.
Service is still great, sitting on the patio is still great, prices are still very fair. It’s just that Bangers isn’t special now, it’s a place we go to hang out (and the overall Unilocal rating here is probably more my feeling now, too). Sad… but with the proximity to my house, I’ll find a way to come back here!

I love this great neighborhood bar! I stopped in with a coworker to meet a friend and it was such a good way to wind down after work. Thankfully it was nice outside so the windows were open and it felt so airy inside. I love the exposed brick walls and the lace curtains in the windows.
They have a great list of craft beers. I got the «off color you never take me anywhere nice» and my coworker got «revolution». We were both very happy with our orders. The staff is very attentive but not annoying. If I’m back in the area I will definitely head over to this one again!

Really fun bar atmosphere and great patio for the summer. There is a good tap beer selection too.
Food isn’t anything worth coming here for. We ordered homemade chips, the Greek sausage and the po boy and I wouldn’t order any of them again.

I came here with friends on a Saturday night before I moved to the Wicker Park area. We were looking for a bar with a good drink selection that was near to my friends’ apartments and Bangers & Lace fit the bill perfectly.
(+)
–The food is really good. A drunk girl asked me if I wanted her food because she wasn’t hungry. Don’t mind if I do! It’s hard to tell if I thought the food was so good because I was drinking or because it was free. Regardless, the food here does the job well as bar food. Take that for what you will.
–Excellent beer selection. I was a big fan of everything I tried here. I would definitely come back here just to drink.
–Great service. Bartenders were friendly and efficient. I never felt like I was ignored or not attended to, which I really appreciated.
(-)
–It can get way overly loud in here. There’s something annoying about the acoustics because I felt like every conversation could be heard. Or, rather, it was like none of the conversations could be heard, including the ones I was trying to have.
Will I come back? You bet. Sure, a loud environment can be annoying at times, but it has a really cool ambiance and killer beer. It’s not as hipster as other places around Wicker Park, which I appreciated. I hear brunch is great here, so maybe I’ll be updating my review within the next few months for that.

Hipsters paradise!
Came here with a few friends for some after dinner drinks. We walked in and I think the guy was checking out our cool factor along with our id’s.
We were just a couple of giggling girls so it felt like we were a couple of just turned 21 year olds in a neighborhood bar full of regular boozers.
I liked the décor. It was very cool. The way you order your beer is cool. The food is cool. I mean it’s just a cool spot. The other thing I loved was they had 2 bathrooms that anyone could use. Whoever came up with that idea is a freaking genius! Only thing was the wall in front of the toliet is full mirror so you can see what a hot mess you are while you use the facilities.
Final thoughts: nice bar, don’t be afraid of the hipsters, enjoy the fun beers, and order the cheese curds.

I’ve been here a few times and it is the perfect place to grab a bite late night but also has the added benefit of great beer list. The beers are of good quality It has mostly pub food here which is fine by me. The fries are delicious and crisp and the Tellagio dip is amazing and makes this one of the best cheese fries that you will ever get.
The other great thing about this place is that it also has really good vegetarian options, but can cater to carnivores as well with dishes as the duck BLT, which is phenomenal in it’s own right.

Came back to B&L sober and it was a slightly different experience. It wasn’t freezing cold so I got to see how the space opens up, inviting others in, like my heart does in summertime.
I had the slaw dog with a veggie weiner, hub had foie gras dogs and we shared the truffle ‘wich we loved last time. The slaw dog was cool because of the toppings but the veg weiner itself tastes just like the pack of hot dogs I get at TJ. Sandwich is still the bomb but the tomato soup sucks by itself. We literally left half the thing there. Hubby really enjoyed his foie dogs even though the price is a little steep ($ 13). In terms of food, this is def a small plate, have a little bite while you get tipsy-​type establishment. I wouldn’t suggest anyone to have a full meal here without drinking as their drinks are what hold them up.
Without alcohol, this food is a solid 3.5 but I like the über chill vibe at B&L a lot and service was perfect.