Tina’s Cocktail Lounge

Yes, you saw it. Just one star and I’ll tell you why…
Came here Friday night (¹¹⁄₂₀) about 9:30, for a friend’s surprise birthday party.
First, I’ll begin with the pros…
1) Table service-​the bartenders/​servers do come to your table to take your drink orders
and…
2)The bar does allow you to play your own music via CD or MP3
Now the cons…
1) We were hounded by the bartenders/​servers to order drinks at least three times BEFORE the birthday girl arrived… we explained that we were waiting for others to arrive, then once we begin to eat, we would order drinks, but they still continued to hound us anyway.
2) They inflated our drink prices… Once everyone arrived, including the birthday girl, the bartender/​server approached our table for the fourth time to take our orders. I ordered an amaretto sour and my fiancée ordered a jack/​coke. The bartender/​server went to the bar and consulted with the owner (a woman who’s name is W.C., I think) for about two minutes. Then she came back to inform me that the amaretto sour would be $ 12 — yeah $ 12, freakin bucks. You wouldn’t even pay $ 12 for an amaretto sour at some of the most elite establishments in/​around downtown!
3) The birthday girl’s friend paid a deposit for having the party! What the hell!!! Who pays to have a party at a damn lounge, especially like this one.
4) The owner, W. C, didn’t even offer the birthday girl a birthday drink! What a cheap ass!!!
5) Now I know I mentioned in the pros section that you can play your own music, but the so-​called DJ didn’t even care to wipe the CDs when the music began skipping.
6) We were stared by the owner and her two bartenders/​servers the ENTIRE night, I guess because we were literally the only «party» people in the house.
I can guarantee that none of us will EVER return to this place. Next time someone wants to throw a party at a lounge, I’ll recommend Freddies on W. Madison St. Now he’s classy. He offers to buy the cake or enough chicken to feed the entire party; a deposit is not required what-​so-​ever, and he buys the birthday girl/​guy a birthday drink, just as expected.

She’s a classy broad, NTBFW — this can’t be denied — and her place reflects this all up and down the brick and mirrored walls — for reals:
Harold Washington poster on the wall that probably went up in 1983 and never ever came back down again? Check (and niiiice).
A large sign that warns that profanity, such as «bitch and motherfucker» won’t be tolerated? Double check (and that’s a super hot direct quote).
Malcolm X’s image superimposed onto an American flag poster above the ladies room hallway? Checkmate (and solid).
Serena the bartender is a doll and all about the attentive service and all-​pro barkeep chit-​chatting — loading up the juke box, pushing water on lushes, heavy pours. They carry three different flavors of fresh pork cracklings (pork rinds, son — get the salt and vinegar flavor) behind the bar for like a buck a bag, which pretty much kicks bar peanuts’ ass. There are like a billion orangey-​red pleather bar stools in there, so seating –thankfully– isn’t an issue.
Drinks are more like dranks, with nothing really Tom-​Cruise-​Cocktail style going on, but don’t let that fool you — those dranks cost the same as drinks — remember, I said classy, so fancy prices are in effect… actually kind of scared my far, far less classy ass with the drink total…
Oh, and fools won’t be suffered here — you have to be buzzed into the front door to even get inside, so consider yourself lucky if you do.