Skokie House

Who doesn’t love a good local dive bar? There aren’t a ton of places where three older-​ish Moms can go on a Saturday night and be made to feel like we were the toast of the bar, but Skokie House is one of them. It was hopping when we walked in (meaning all the bar stools were filled) but we were quickly made welcome by both the patrons and the bartender Chuck, who was super friendly and fun and recommended a delightful red wine for me after I went rogue and didn’t order beer or liquor. Good times!
I’ve been here a few times and it’s always memorable. Thanks, Chuck!

My wife and I stopped in before the show across the street, actually a play. Neighborhood bar with probably locals. All seemed friendly enough. Chuck, the bartender, was very personable, the perfect guy for a neighborhood bar. Admittedly smokey from the outside smokers but jeez it’s a bar. Eclectic juke box. I’m a fan of the place. Had a real 1950’s feel to the place. Which is a good thing.

Cons:
*Besides the putrid smell of the place you can get to know the degenerates of Skokie. The clientele is mostly over 50 and/​or homeless.
*The floor feels like it’s about to give way under the years of vomit, spilled beer, and tears. The bathrooms are nasty… i’m talking someone purposely pissed over every inch of the girls bathroom disgusting (think trainspotting). I do have to give them credit for having a decent touchtunes jukebox, but they only turn it on when the bartender wants, and barely audible over the tv/​bar chatter.
*If you are in here, just look around, you have reached rock bottom.
Pros:
*There are about 5 bars/​restaurants within walking distance that actually have drink specials, decent food, and people of the opposite sex.
*You can do all the drugs you want in the back room.

For the longest time I’ve been successful in avoiding this little hometown bar. The usual crowd are locals, older white males, ages 50+, the kind of people that would enter a bar with just an old school budweiser sign out front. It never gets busy, except St. Patricks Day when it goes over capacity.
I got invited to see these DJ’s perform, DJ E-​DUB and DJ Big King. The first spun hip hop, mostly the best of popular tracks and the second did dance, trance, pop mix. Both were good, but, I enjoyed the hip hop portion alot more, wished he would’ve done a longer set.
The bar is dated and weathered. The carpet could use some change or they could rip it out and go all wood. It’s causes you to think of a dirty hooker type motel. Men’s room looked way better than I expected, except for the foul odor of urine washed floors. Can we get some urinal cakes for the toilet please?! Save that funk for outdoors.
Free darts (real board), quarter machine on the pool table and an internet jukebox. Another example of misjudgment on the size due to what the exterior looks like. Three entrances which makes it easy for you to get to the parking lot or run out back to have a smoke.
Mixed drinks were strong, I had Maker’s on the rocks (in a short glass) with a dash of Sprite. $ 4.25. Awesome. So strong people could smell it on your breath. Ahh, refreshing. 24 oz PBR’s for $ 2. $ 3 Miller bottles, so ice cold there was a bit of beer slush that came out with the first sip!
I’d expected a sausage party, was excited to see a few cute ladies in this dumpy place and a few tattooed Gilf’s, I wouldn’t go near, but some of these younger guys went after. On this night most of these people were NW area peoples, 20s-​30s, I can guess most were following the DJ’s. A few token, old Willie Nelson looking type’s minus the loud obnoxious motorcycle. Smart guys, were drinking heavy and cabbed it home. Pretty good time, except its not like this always, I assume it was busier than norm because of these two DJ’s. And the climax of the evening, got flashed by the same girl twice. Well, not me myself, the second time was for review, Q: Do they look nice? yep.

I had to change my rating. I can’t believe no one else has reviewed this place yet. I get messages from people all the time about my last review. So here is the update. The crazy bartender no longer works there. The bartenders there now are great! I go here a lot these days and always have a good time. In fact I was there last night. Sometimes they even have DJ’s (actually just two DJ EDUB and DJ BIG KING) come in and throw big parties. The pool is no longer free but the darts are still free. The place is still a terrible hole-​in –the –wall but it’s become my-​hole-​in-​the-​wall.
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