The California Clipper

Met up with a Tinder date here. Big fan of grape soda on the gun, not a fan of the bartenders giving me weird looks for ordering it with rum and then finding out a few months later it’s a drink special. Tinder date went ok but guy wore really high black socks with shorts and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t in a band or skateboarded. He went to the bathroom and said, «I’m going to the bathroom, I’m not doing coke in there.» Clearly, he was doing coke in there. Haven’t been back in awhile, but with grape soda on the gun and good bathrooms for doing cocaine I might have to check it out again.

Cool bar, good drinks, dim lighting. It’s the sort of place where you can have a romantic date or bring someone you’re embarrassed to be seen with (potentially a combination of the two).
If you like fruity drinks but don’t want them to taste too sweet, this place has lots of them. Prime example, their Mai Tai is one of the best I’ve had in a long time.
Taking one star off for the country band that was playing that night. It didn’t match the vibe of the place. The band was good but out of place. The moments when they took breaks from playing were also our favorite moments during the visit.

The bartender was rude and pompous. You want a remote hipster bar with a rude bartender you’re in the right spot. I’ll pass, you’re not that great.

This place is awesome! Relaxing cozy envionment and great cocktails.

We went here for a joint BDAY with my best friend and had a great time. The drinks were great and the space was awesome. I highly recommend it for cocktails! CASH ONLY!

Great music, bartenders and atmosphere but way understaffed. There were only 2 bartenders for the entire place and they were busting their butts. I’ve never seen a bartender move so fast. The owner needs to hire people. I saw people leave the bar Bc of the crazy wait

Well. This was always my Favorite bar in Chicago. Great cocktails, and the Best whisky sour in my experience so far and believe me, I am a bartender so I know what is good. The vibe is great too. But the reason I don’t give it 5 stars is.
The bartenders here before were cool and friendly. And now the staff changed really often. At least every once a while I’m here the bartender changed. I don’t know what’s going on. At least the drink is still good. But the last time I was here, I ordered a whisky sour again, and the price raised. I asked the bartender, «I usually got it for 10 bucks, now I wonder what whisky you got for me.» And he replied, «it just the price listed on the menu.»
Fine… At least you should be a bit friendly and tell me what whisky it is. I pay my bill to get a good drink not a «you are cheap» kinda suggestion. It’s my favorite bar in Chicago and don’t break my heart please.
Luckily I’m not coming back anymore.

The clipper has great drinks, an awesome atmosphere, and often you’ll even get some live music. I love that they have games to play, but the atmosphere is usually too dark to play. My only complaint is that it is cash only, but they have an ATM on site.

Women can vote. Calvin Coolidge isn’t President. There are more than 48 states. The Internet.
There’s no excuse for a CASH ONLY bar.
Bartenders were pros on a Saturday just after opening, but recognised with a disparaged eye the frantic search for cash when I was surprised with the BS «CASH ONLY» sign (after ordering). I rarely keep cash & have just enough for a cab home if I do, but I lucked out & had enough to cover the drink & a small tip.
Great drink. Sorry I couldn’t order more & tip a lot more as I had intended, before magically being transported back in time to an era before women could wear trousers.
My last trip to a Hogsalt restaurant resulted in my portion of the bill coming out to about $ 170 (inclusive of 25% tip), which was promptly paid with plastic. It’s just dangerous for a lady to walk about in Chicago with real cash! Please help me give you money & stop this nonsense!

Best cocktails/​dive bar I have even been too. Growing up in LA this place reminds me a lot of a bar in Echo Park. I really loved all the staff members they were super sweet when it came to my questions about the cocktails. I will come back! Thank you for a lovely experience!

Really cool spot with really solid cocktails. There’s no BS, their drink list is posted above the bar, and they are all well balanced made the right way. I had the old fashioned which was perfect. My wife had the shaved ice cocktail where shaved the ice on some 1940s machine. You can also get a beer and a shot for $ 3. I tried the Genesee cream ale, nice unique beer.

Fantastic hole in the wall with true speakeasy character! The dim red lights in here always make me feel like I’m having a secret rendezvous.
Almost every night there’s live music and the drinks are strong classics. They even have the James Bond vesper!
Definitely a fantastic place for a date or a meeting with your local P.I.
Cheers!

I regret not taking any photos of this place because the photos on Unilocal are not a helpful sense of what the atmosphere is like. I was expecting a more dive-​y casual «lounge», maybe I got this idea judging from the outside photo of the bar. Bar or lounge? Are those different because if so I’m not trying to go anywhere on Unilocal that is labeled as lounge for a good time.
Let me clear somethin’ up. I’m not the rowdy have to dance all night type, but I appreciate a bar that invites the opportunity to meet people and welcomes all characters.
I had been wanting to come here for weeks now and when I finally got in, I lasted 2 minutes. It’s a decent sized place but it’s all table. There are really low 4 person booth seats that FILL up the bar and no place to mingle. If I wanted to sit at a table with 3 of my friends all night I would stay at home with them rather than treck to a bar. (side note: I think I know where Heavy Feather got their inspiration. bleh) It was a bit pretentious feeling and right off the bat I did not feel comfortable being there, even with all the tequila that was in me! But, the bar was completely full, so they must be doing something right. Beats me.
It’s cash only and drinks are more than I’m willing to spend.

I’ve loved this location for years, but the new ownership’s drink pricing is way, way too high. This is Humboldt Park, not the Gold Coast.
As I perused the drink list I was repeatedly stunned by about how the «standard» cocktails were priced, as well as the «upgrade» pricing… and the choice of the «upgrade». It was laughable to anyone who’s even moderately informed about bourbon. Oddly enough though, the beer pricing was reasonable. I’d return for a beer… perhaps more if the rockabilly bands return. Other than that, I’m happy the place is still in business.

Such sexy lighting & everyone is always rlly nice + drinks are strong and delicious
A+++++

What a cool place! The atmosphere feels like an old dive bar but with good crafty cocktails. Went on a Tuesday night, the crowd was sparse, but they had a DJ playing old country music (Patsy Cline, etc.) It reminded me of the small town Texas bar from the Coen brothers’ movie «Blood Simple». Clipper has a live band during the week; they start around 10:00 and there’s room to dance. Was not like any of the other drink places I’ve been to in Chicago… really liked the laid-​back vibe and chill crowd

It’s our first time here and my husband and I really enjoyed the venue, the look and feel of the place. The drinks are not cheap but the drinks are top notch and they do NOT skimp on the alcohol. We will definitely be coming back. Oh, and the female bartender is on FIRE! She rocks! Come check it out.

What once was my dream bar has now become a nightmare.
Where are the adequately priced cocktails?
Where are the bartenders that checked their pretension at the door?
Where are the horribly amazing country western bands that used to play here?
What I’m getting at is I miss the atmosphere the Clipper had prior to this new ownership. They took away everything that made this place special.
I might even be able to handle the slightly over-​priced cocktails (especially for the area — we’re not wicker park or logan square quite yet), if they still had that twangy live music I love.
Worth a visit, especially if you used to frequent. Worth frequenting? That’s for you to decide.

I don’t even write Unilocal reviews anymore, but I had to trudge out of the darkness because this place – or its «remodel” – has left my little heart broken.
I was really trying to avoid seeing whatever it was morphing into and had written it off as a place to go to anymore, but it’s in *my* neighborhood, blocks from my house, and I had to see. Now don’t get me wrong; I wasn’t just dying to hate it from the start. I like Sodikoff’s Green Street Meats, for example, because even though it’s not a place made for me, it does what it does well and feels right.
New Clipper absolutely 100% does not.
1.) The vibe is gone. It’s just done, obliterated. Now it’s got a failed David Lynch set vibe to it, half awkward seating at The Lodge in the front and slightly cleaned and glossy new booths as they used to be towards the back.
2.) It was pretty apparent that the staff is new. For such a homey and intimate spot (despite its size), ya gotta have some charming bartenders. Alas.
3.) I fear that they’ve gotten rid of the honky tonk and bluegrass, but I just checked their website and there’s a «Coming Soon» so maybe I am wrong and the best thing that can come out of some new rich dude funding is better pay for musicians. I was simply there on a Friday night & no one was performing.
4.) I got real, real pissed in a serious type of way about the fact that they are still cash only (I will never have an issue with cash only at a mom & pop establishment, I most definitely do at something basically part of a restaurant group – stop).
INTERESTING FACT: they are cash only and they have a scotch that’s over $ 200 on the menu.
Let’s think of what kind of crowd they’re trying to attract now. Surely not me.
It’s okay, new Clip, the feeling is mutual. It’s just me and the memories of the old place from now on.

Still cash only after the renovations. Drinks are a little more expensive now, so bring more cash than you are used to bringing.
I know people are up in arms because the Clipper went through an update, but the neighborhood is changing, so business interests change as well.
The upholstery in the booths looks the same but got an update, the bar got some work done, and it looks like they tried to keep some of the history that the Clipper had. I will say it was hard to read the menu cause it was so dark in the bar, despite the red mood lighting.
I’m not sure how I feel about the renovations, but the times I’ve went it’s been full and people seem to be enjoying themselves. The drinks are improved, beer list is more expansive, and the soap is better in the bathroom. Those are Sodikoff trademarks.
Let’s see how the neighborhood embraces Clipper 2.0.