It's suppose to be "ironic" that these scenester sea monkeys named their bar after a sheisty evangelist who whooped up public fervor for Prohibition. Cause if there is a bar gracing the red fiery blazing shores of Hell, Billy Sunday, is it, making the hapless sucker who stumbles in suffer for an eternity.
My model is "Life is too short to drink bad alcohol" but in Logan Square there should be enough Democracy ( not present in most of America any more) to allow a working stiff to get a cold one, walking home from the blue line on a hot summer's day. But the highway men behind Billy Sunday think differently. They take you for five dollars every time you order a Schltiz ! That's right the historic and famed corner stone of the American blue collar worker.
It would be tolerable to pull this bull sh*t for Budweiser downtown or in Lincoln Park. But not a Schitz and certainly not in Logan Square. Further and any one who thinks this is copasetic might live in Logan Square, but they are certainly not "of" Logan Square.
But Mom always told me to say something positive about the negative, so I will say this about Billy Sunday.
Before I get on the plan for vacations, I love drinking in airport bars, so I get there early. It's the feeling of knocking back a whiskey or two to salute the first leg of my journey, off to some place exciting, some place warm, waiting for the plane that will take me there, in mist of the chaos, hub-bub and hum of my fellow travelers, wanders and explores.
Personally, I would never go to an airport bar unless I was traveling. But if YOU would, then Billy Sunday is the airport bar for you. But since they don't call themselves an "airport bar" I can't give them four stars.
But you do get that cramped airport bar feeling, that reminds you to watch your bags against thieves. The decor is of the faux "olde timey" mass production variety used in the more up scale midwest airpots like O'hare. Or just bad suburban chain restaurants. And the drinks are all at air port prices. Except, instead of a standard small tumbler, these drinks are served in a "clever" glass thimble all for ten bucks. And these are "Conglomerate Banker pours" you know the bankers who get government bail outs and turn around and nickel and dime you on your credit card bills.
Finally to dehumanize the experience even more, despite the faux "olde timey" furnishings of Bill Sunday, they use those huge mechanical thing-a-ma-jiggers used at the Apple Store to add up and print your bill, just like an airport bar or if you were being checked for weapons going into Cook County Jail.
Folks you want a real clever Cocktail in an atmosphere of speakeasy snazz and old time jazz in the background ? Check out WeeGee's Lounge on Armitage, which is the favorite street of pirates in Logan Square, get it? Arrrrrmitage.
And if you want a good peaty scotch served in small mason jar sized glass, check out the The Double on Fullerton and Drake. And although these two lounges don't have the greased slick palms to be voted one of the "best bars" in America months before they even opened their doors for so called "service", they are "gin-u-wine" institutions that have branded Logan Square as Chicago' Best Neighborhood.
Yea, partners you gotta lace up your boots, leave the "air port", and walk a spell to these real logan Square institutions , but that's what traveling is about right? read more