The Tavern

Fun, young crowd, good service and good food. Can get a little douchey on the weekends but what place doesn’t?

This place sucks! The music sucks. The door guy sucks! Just everything sucks! Dont even waste your time!

Decent place located at a prime spot on the corner of Damen and Milwaukee. The bouncer/​security dude there checking IDs was friendly and inviting. Inside, the place was rather spacious and the drinks offered behind the bar was plentiful.

I made a point of coming here after work. A beer. a burger… simple enough. 5 mos I did my thing… all good! Then came one Monday… that took the simple enough weekly excursions out of play. The bartender was so busy chatting it up that she failed to notice me sitting at the bar for over 5 minutes. I finally had to get up and ask for assistance. After taking my order… I never saw her again until my check was dropped… No how is everything? No… Would you like another beer? Water? Etc… I mean you get the point!
Here’s the kicker… Look I can get past 1 night of bad service… but Hate speech… I think not. See… I had the great pleasure of listening to the owner/​manager chat with his buddies about this f#g#tt and that f#g#tt, and the fights he gets into… and not quietly I might add. It’s Wicker Park dude… know guests a bit more.
So…no more simple enough burger and beer. I don’t like it served up with a side of hate and intolerance.

I have been bar hoping around Wicker Park ever so often. This place was once awesome to me. One night a few months back this «TALL BLACK BOUNCER» follows me to the wash room. I was using the wash room in the stall and he creeps up and watches me while I take a piss. He prob thought I was doing drugs «coke» that he had to check. «WHICH I WAS NOT» I had to use the wash room. When he sees I was just taking a piss he goes about his business. ISNT WHAT HE DID ILLEGAL? I was wronged, what an injustice, they prob have a drug prob at this bar but for him to do what he did was wrong. NO PRIVACY even when using the washroom. A little advice to the management, check your staff, train them the right way in situations like this, I could of easily contacted my attorney and pursued charges, I KNOW MY RIGHTS. NOT EVERYONE IS DRUNK & DOING DRUGS.

So this is a 4am sports bar in the heart of Wicker Park. Mayhem is inevitable, however no matter what happens in here everyone has a great time. Come here to drink late and just hang. Tourists and locals show up all the time to catch a replay of the game late at night and have a decent beer. Bottle beer changes if you want just a taste of the craft, juke box and every new item to liquor shelves, this is where you go. Hits its mark.

Came here last night, it was rainy and cold but there still was a decent Friday night crowd. It was a little late and most places I like to go to were packed so we came here. It’s located right at north and millwaukee the heart of wicker park. Service was good, they had a decent draft list. But overall was dissapointed, just expected more from a place with this key location. Decent sports bar but better options for sure on north ave.

5 stars to the hot bartender Hanna Hyun and «A-​OK» for the ratchet bathrooms. I was here the Saturday before St Patrick’s Day and had a little dance fest. I’d come back for happy hour weekday drinks. Maybe.

The worst bar ever!!! The men checking id in the front door are always rude and feel like they are holding the key to heaven. The reality is the bar is alway understaffed and the food is nothing to rave about. The only positive is that it’s open late and the music is up to date. Their is better bars don’t waste you time and money.

Minus having really good music and having a prime location. this bar is awful.
The door guys are super entitled/​rude, thinking they do security for Obama. The bartenders are always understaffed, and take forever making really weak drinks with lots of ice. Overpriced and not worth it. Food service takes forever and the food is just okay.
I would recommend many other bars in Wicker Park than this place.

Really loud at around 2am. Ordered an amaretto sour and it tasted like medicine. Good thing I didn’t pay for it. Have to shout into a persons ear for then to hear what your saying. Have to squeeze through people to get to the back or front. Service is ok but wouldn’t want to come back here. Did I mention that the floors were dirty with beer and sticky.

If I could give this place 0 stars I would. Service is absolutely horrible, waited around the bar for over 10 minutes and still couldn’t get a beer, money in hand and everything. The bouncers think they’re God’s gift to earth, gimme a break, you’re checking ID’s for a living. Avoid this place at all costs. I’d rather pay a dollar or two extra and go somewhere else. Screw this place.

Wish I could give an actual review of the bar but they wouldn’t let me in with a FOID OR State ID. Bouncer said only drivers license or passport (ok ya I take my passport out when I’m out on a Friday night).
Anyway, walked right out. Worst… Bar…Ever. And that’s saying a lot cause I go to some pretty crappy bars.

Came here on a Friday before heading to see a concert. This place would be amazing if I was 25 and had a serious need to begin drinking exactly at 5pm. As I walked in two people bumped into me because they were too drunk to stand up or walk straight. Ha! Glad they were able to take full advantage of happy hour. So, if you are looking for a spot to drink with people at the end of the week, this place is for you. I was glad we were only going to be there for one drink. The server was very nice and the bathrooms were clean despite the craziness of the crowd.

Typical sports bar. Came during a Bull’s game and they had $ 3 313 drafts. The tv’s are so loud and I always seem to get a table that’s right underneath the tv so it’s super straining to watch the game.
Service is fine, food is standard, bathrooms are clean.

I came here yesterday and there were only about ten people in the entire bar, and super quiet. It was about 3 pm on a Tuesday. I was treated rudely. They had some special going on, burger and fries for $ 1 if you buy a beer. Well, I expected bar food, but not a microwaved burger. the burger was dropped in front of me, grease splashing on me, from the annoyed looking bartender who quickly ran back to fold napkins.
It took over 20 min for the bartender/​server to bring me change after waiting for my check to be brought to me.
I may only be 22 years old, but I would not judge a book by its cover. I have money to spend and I promise you when I plan on meeting potential clients, as what I was doing yesterday because I was having a business client meet me at the bar from the Blue line (she was arriving from O’hare), to discuss business. I promise that I will never make the same mistake of potentially have them meet here for some drinks and I will never come here on a weekend or game day or party.
I will spread the word a thousand times about the horrible service and foamy beer that was presented to me!!!
Just to point out, I understand that type of establishment is not a «traditional» setting for a business meeting. But it was much more have a beer and talk type of thing before heading to the office.

Yikes, maybe this place is nice at night, but I was wandering through WPB trying to find a place for dinner and ended up here (there was no wait, but I should have referred to Unilocal first).
I realize this is a bar but I was here around 7 pm and the music was so loud I could barely hear my friend throughout dinner. My buffalo chicken sandwich and fries were not good, and our service was pretty horrible too. I definitely won’t be back!
2 stars because the prices are cheap, though.

This is the state bar! If you order a beer, you can get a burger and fries for $ 1! What!!! I only came here for drinks though and they were super cheap!
My friends and I were in town for the weekend. We went to a couple of other bars before we ended up here because this is a 5 AM bar. It was crowded and the music was good, we knew it would be a good time and it was!
The drinks were so cheap so we took too many shots. There were 4 of us and none of us remember leaving the bar or even the cab ride back to the hotel.
My last memory of the night was telling a random guy that came to our table that his hair was F***ING ugly. He was pissed and walked off. HAHA

A few years ago, my buddy and I were wandering around Wicker Park after a day of summertime grilling, eating and gluttony. We passed by The Tavern and he mentioned wanting to go in and check it out. I mentioned, «I’ll be the only black guy in there.» The bouncer laughed but didn’t disagree. Considering he was already four sheets to the wind, he offered to buy me a shot for every black person we saw inside. I protested going inside but it was getting late and the next choice would be Ohm so I hedged my bets and went in.
The result: I stayed sober (just me, as I thought) and left, cursing my friend.
Fast forward to the semi-​recent present. After a night of good eats, good drinks, great friends, and ridiculous conversation, an errant taxi driver and a lack of attention, led us to the intersection of North, Milwaukee and Damen. Oh no. I was *not* doing this again. My group threw out a laundry list of bar selections. I said I was game for anywhere but Tavern.
We wound up at Tavern.
As I sat on a chair by the door and sulked, I noticed a more racially diverse crowd than I remembered but regardless of the color of skin (or gender), everyone had something in common: messy inebriation. Loud. Sloppy. Hot mess status. It was too messy to even laugh at. Add this to rain outside which leads to humidity, musk and funk inside… and you know that I bounced into the night… staying sober… and cursing my friend.

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