To give this review some context, my wife and I support pretty much all of the bars in town...Ten Pin, Rick's, Sporty's, Ripple, ML Tap House, Rock Top, Michaels, Paradise, Bob's, Enzo, Danny's...to name a few. This is a small community and the options are somewhat limited to be sure. Every establishment has it's quirks and that's to be expected...we LOVE a good dive bar.
After trying to visit and it being closed on a couple of occasions, we finally went to Chilly Mack's for the first (and last) time last night, March 27, 2026 at 8pm. First thing we noticed was the musty smell. There's no carpet in there so you gotta wonder where it's coming from.
Next thing we noticed is that there are only 2 other patrons in the entire bar...at 8pm on a Friday night. The barkeep takes our drink order and is quick to deliver. I asked why it's so dead and he said it would be packed after 10pm. (We'd just left Ripple and it was pretty busy.) That's the extent of our interaction with him until we tabbed out. Didn't ask if we wanted food, didn't check to see how the drinks were...all he did the entire time was talk to the two other people there who were obviously his friends. Actually, a couple of younger ladies came in about 10 minutes after we got there, got some drinks and were then ignored like we were.
Couple of other things that caught our attention. 1. The menu on the board looked decent for a dive bar...but again, we weren't offered an actual menu or asked if we wanted food. 2. We understand that it isn't named "CHILI MAC'S"...it's CHILLY MACK'S...but wouldn't you wanna play on that and make damned sure you have the best chili mac and/or every viable variation thereof in town? This place has absolutely no identity. 3. There were 6 taps but only 4 being used. 4. Lots of TVs above the bar...that was nice.
We finished our drinks, tabbed out and went to Rick's. We got there around 8:30pm and it, just like Ripple, was very busy. Hmmm. It's hard to imagine a drinking establishment (Chilly Mack's) can survive on only being busy after 10pm on a Friday night?
With all that being said, we won't be visiting Chilly Mack's again which is very disappointing. We weren't expecting a lot...it IS a dive bar and we knew that going in...but this was not a positive experience.
We wish the new ownership the best of luck for the future. read more