Cool and nice people. Interesting location. Reasonably priced drinks. It's got character. Bartender was chill. Glad Cork exists. I need to address the elephant in the room and that is the place smells like farts. This is possibly due to the lack of windows. read more

We visited here got some friends going away shin dig. It has a very comfy dive bar feel. There are pool tables & shuffle board tables in the back. Pac-man, darts & board games in the front. I ordered a couple drinks at the bar & it was easy. Plenty bar seating. I love that they have local artist paintings and artwork for sale. read more

Cork Lounge - Lounges Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Ten bucks for a Son of Juice?! This dive bar got a gougey attitude somewhere along the way, less than I expected from this place. Tunes are are on the decline too. Does seem slightly cleaner than usual, so there's that at least. read more

Great for beers and catchups with friends. Friendly staff, cool ambiance with art all over the walls that's for purchase. Solid dive.

We had only been here once before and it was fine. We stopped in to bide time until the Cornelia Arts Building gallery openings. They have great specials and art for sale! I sat at the bar and ordered a Cream Ale for $3, and checked out the baseball playoffs. The minimum for credit cards is $10, so we added wine and hot pretzels. A local struck up a conversation about old times, in a non-weird/flirty way, and bought us a drink! The lady bartender didn't seem bothered by it so we were ok with it too. Some tvs had old 80s movies on, and there was music and a pool table. The crowd was small, which was fine. The owner came in at some point, and we met him! We didn't take pictures though, which I am kind of regretting. He is not from Ireland but the name and some of the decorations are a nice tribute. read more

Cork Lounge - Lounges Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

My home away from home. This is the pub I go back to time and time again because of the people. All of the staff are super friendly and kind, and even if I stop for 1 drink, I always stay for more because I get lost in conversation. You can play pool, request to change the channel to a specific game, and they also have snacks if you get hungry. read more

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This has been one of my favorite bars for the last nine years. Love the vibe, music, staff, plus the tamale guy makes the occasional appearance read more

I've only peered through the glass nine hundred times whilst driving past. Always admiring the many signs boasting the many beer specials. Cans for .75 cents you say! I don't give a shit for PBR, so I'm glad there are a great more beer offerings & drinks on special. $2 assorted shots, hellz yeah. As the other guy stated, walk in... All the way in, down to the end of the bar. Sit in the middle of it. Perfect view of those walking in, all TVs and those pool playing. Sit long enough and you can either enjoy the solitude of listening to random music or looking over to your left as the brunette hottie bends over to make her next bank shot. Lots of dark woods, ass enjoying seats, tiled flooring which clacks aloud as the cutie in heels makes her way in. Of course it's another bar, but a nice place nonetheless. Couple beers in and a few shots on sale, I'm done for the night and headed home. A last hurrah before the bedtime abyss. read more

Fantastic bar. Pool table if you're into that, weird art on the walls, nice price for PBR.

Nice little neighborhood bar with an entire bookshelf of games that bar patrons can play. While here recently, we enjoyed Connect Four and attempted to play Boggle (no instructions left in Boggle so we gave up almost immediately - Connect Four was easier for us to comprehend at that point of the evening). There's a few tables up front and then a long, narrow hall where the bar is, and the back opens up to another area where some pool tables are. Nice spot when you're looking for a few casual drinks in the hood. read more

Cork Lounge - Lounges Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

I have to compliment Cork Lounge for offering a clean, fun, safe and affordable destination. Susie, Kelly and Ryan always go out of their way to make everyone feel comfortable. Big shout out to Kelly for our Gremlins marathon. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. read more

I find it odd that this bar is literally under the EL stop and promotes $2 PBRs everyday, yet there's never anyone here. It's location is rather convenient for me so I've been here on Tuesdays and Saturdays and there's not too much difference. I tend to enjoy a low-key, low profile place to hang with a friend or two and catch up on conversation without being hassled by a bunch of drunks. I've yet to break out one of the many board games offered up, but I'm always tempted. I do however enjoy the computer screen games that most bars have but here you generally don't have to wait for people hogging it since the odds are usually in your favor that you might be the only one interested in playing. On occasion there are more than ten people here and that's when the bar seems understaffed since there's only one bartender who is also the server, busser, manager, and security. It's got a good juke box and really good drink specials! read more

Don't judge a world class book by it's under L cover. Great beer list, all the bar games. Leaves no wanting.

The guy bartender was so rude and made me feel unwelcome. Didn't wanna tip. Won't return.

I like Cork. No frills, its like a nice, local dive bar without looking like a dive. There's no food, sans mini pizzas, but they have a good/decent beer selection and plenty of $2 cans (along with $.75 PBR cans on Mondays.) Enough TVs inside to watch whatever's on no matter where you sit. Location right next to the Addison Brown line stop. And the can selection has some of the older names/brands from Milwaukee (Busch, Strohs, etc.) I can only speak for week days, but there's no dominant social element there. Ehhh, neutral, I guess you could say. Well appointed interior. And a play-per-game pool table. Good for a drink or two. Or more. Four stars. read more

Blah blah blah, cheap PBR, blah blah blah, right by the brown line, blah blah blah BLAH blah... I'm by no means trying to diminish what other Yelpers had to say about Cork Lounge. But I look at the bar from another perspective... from that of... A REGULAR... (insert audible gasps here) I will agree that perhaps this conveniently located watering hole has yet to really hit its stride with a strong brand identity, but in a neighborhood where douchebaggery is very likely to abound on any given night, it's a welcome option for those of us who aren't trying to bang anything with a pulse or don't believe that SATC is in fact the greatest movie ever made. Regardless of how many people are in the bar - be it 2 or 52 - people feel comfortable just kicking back. I've been in there in a cocktail dress and heels while sititng next to me was someone mawing down tamales in his sweats and somehow, neither one of us appeared uncomfortable. I enjoy the lack of pretension and the genial attitude (or lack thereof) all the patrons seems to share. While some may say the location is inconvenient, I belong to the opposite camp. Get too hammered to walk home? Brown line next door, BOOM. Train stopped running? Cabs a plenty zip by the Cork more frequently than rats raid garbage in this city, BOOM. Dumb enough to drive to a bar? Ample street parking, BOOM. I could touch on the PBR, but if you've somehow made it all the way down the page and are reading this, you already know that yes, they have cheap beer, and yes, the bathroom is clean. But the sheer variety of refreshments they offer up to wet one's whistle can almost be overwhelming. From a huge assortment of local, domestic and imported beers to quite possibly one of the largest selections of hard liquor I've ever seen, it's easy to spend just as much time selecting a beverage as you'll spend swilling them. This bar is reminiscent of how cool another local haunt used to be - Goldie's - before that too became rampant with a douchebag-wannabe-hipster infestation. Don't discount the Cork. Stop in when you get off the train for your own personal happy hour - I mean let's face it, you probably hate your job and need a drink or twelve. Or stumble in on a Saturday night. I promise the regulars don't bite and we might even share a slice of our pizza with you. read more

A group of us headed over to the Cork Lounge after we found out our dodgeball bar sponsor, Waterhouse, was packed due to a Bears game. We have been meeting at Waterhouse all season to drink away our woes from losing at dodgeball week after week (seriously, there is another team called rubber facials - this is no schoolyard game anymore). Anyway, our night at the Cork Lounge was the best post game night yet! The Lounge was not crowded when we arrived at 8:30, but a steady stream of people were in and out throughout the night. The bar tender was great - she saw our hungry, down-trodden faces and provided us with a menu book from the bar, Jameson shots, and pitchers of PBR). We ordered in some food from Yindee next door which was just the ticket (must remember to write review...mm mm). This was a great bar to bring a larger group since they had room for us, but it still had a good atmosphere with what seemed like the usual local crowd. Our team is totally coming back here soon and it may even be our new home for drinking our dodge sorrows away. read more

Yes! Finally a cheap, super cool, old school bar! Directly under the Addison brown line, $2 PBR pints daily plus a bunch of daily specials (check small tabs dot com), board games, shuffleboard, darts, decent juke box, chalk in the bathroom if you're feeling artistic. You can bring food in since they don't have any. I like! Only drawbacks are the influx of DePaul kids on the weekend nights thanks to the cheap drinks, and the night we were there they had only one bartender for a very full bar (which may have been uncommon, dunno) so service was just a wee bit slow the later it got. Their hours claim that they open at 1 but we tried to go on a Sunday and found the joint locked up tight with no one answering the phone even at 5pm - when in doubt, call first. Oh, if you want to play one of the many board games, bring your own dice because theirs have gone missing. read more

Cork Lounge is one of those bars you go by a few thousand times before you go in. If there weren't a few neon signs in the window, you might mistake it for some kind of Irish gift shop. The little storefront is deceiving, though. When you get inside, it's the bar that keeps on going. Even if you don't have a good time here, you'll get a kick out of the fact that it goes so far back. I started out with Guinness here, partly out of obligation. A first visit to any Irish bar calls for a pint of the black stuff. As I was already a few whiskeys deep, I soon moved to Old Style, perhaps out of respect for the bar's Addison address. It was at Cork Lounge that I first learned of Jeppson's Malort. For anyone unfamiliar with this concoction, it's an extremely bitter Swedish-style schnapps with cult status in Chicago dives and biker (Harleys, not fixies) bars. It has been voted by at least one publication as the "World's Worst Liquor". I was up for the challenge. It wasn't quite as bad as I expected, but you might have six or seven drinks before a shot of the stuff if you're going to try it. We had a few "encounters" with other patrons at Cork Lounge that have strongly moved me to make a return visit in the near future. At one point in the evening, an extremely intoxicated fellow demanded that I play pool with him. I admitted that I wasn't too skilled, and he berated me for it. "Whaaa? What do you mean you're bad at it? How can someone be bad at pool?" He later sent the bartender over with a Jagerbomb. I sent him back with a shot of Jeppson's Malort. Ladies, feel free to use this move if some douche buys you a drink. Retort with Malort. I also vaguely recall chatting with some tease who kept coming up and nudging me on the shoulder when she ordered at the bar. She may have referred to herself as a Southern belle, which is something a true Southern belle would not feel the need to mention. It turned out that she was from Springfield. Not some other Springfield south of the Mason-Dixon line, but our state capital Springfield. That one. Apparently my brother pointed out the absurdity of this to her while I was in the restroom, and she saw fit to dispense with expletives and a general questioning of his sexual orientation. Great times. The tamale guy makes appearances, and they have a serviceable jukebox. And if the bartending is as solid with all staffers as it was with our guy, good on Cork Lounge. This guy worked the entire bar by himself and made it look like a piece of cake. A real pro. If you're in the neighborhood, it's worth a look. Hidden beneath the Addison Brown Line stop. read more

I sent pictures of this establishment to my large, right-wing-nutjob-family. They blame this establishment for the corrupt elected officials consistent re-election... Mostly because when it is an election you* can cast your ballot here. Drink and Vote! What a great idea**! Now I soothe my frazzled regrets of "Voting for Favorite Menendez Brother" as Joan Rivers once so accurately described voting. Notes: *You MUST be a registered voter **There are NO Free Drinks, regardless of party affiliation or corrupt figure who may or may not be present looking for re-election. I'm pretty and I have tried... all I scored was a doughnut from Dunkin (with pink icing and sprinkles!) read more

This place gets 4 stars purely because I thought it was gonna be a total p.o.s. hole under the brownline. WOW! I was totally wrong. The $0.75 PBR signs outside scared me away from this place for awhile but upon walking in yesterday on my way home from Retro, I was amazed. 1. It's gigantic! I thought it was teeny but was wrong. It goes all the way back 2. It has Magner's on tap. 3. It was busy enough to realize it was a weekend to be savored but not so busy that I had to beat out the north-side barbies to get a drink. 4. So many beers that you could come in everyday for a month and never taste the same beer. 5. Jukebox. Enough said. All in all, a good time and can't wait to go back. read more

The Cork is my kind of place. They have several tasty beers but they also sever $2 PBRs on tap. There is a comfortable section up front with a bookshelf with games and tables to play them. The bar has got that great old timey feel. Large, made of dark wood, and the back wall is covered with bottles and memorabilia. The bartenders sometimes seem understaffed so it might take a while for them to get back to you on busy nights. The Cork has a large shuffleboard table. Get the discs at the bar. The women's bathroom is usually clean, had two stalls, and lots of mirrors with mustaches on them. In the back there are more tables and a pool table. No cards under $10. They have a limited menu of snacks. This place is right across the street from the Brown Line-Addison stop and is a really comfortable place to grab a beer and hang out. read more

I felt strangely out of place in here. I came in after a bit of a walk from a party at Mystic on Southport - and I my friend was raving on how cool this place was supposed to be. We walked in and it looked great, a lot of space and room for people to move around, but there was really no one there. I think the layout of the place was what throws me off. It just feels odd when you are in there. The bar looks great, but the entire location is just a really long stretch of...space. Maybe I am just being picky, but I need to feel comfortable at a bar; here - I didnt. Plus the people that were there were loud and obnoxious.. I agree with one of the other reviewers where it seemed like a bunch of college kids that didn't know how to behave in a bar came rolliing in.. I wouldn't say not to check it out, you may like it - the overall feeling I get though is to walk on past. read more

Not sure what there is to complain about here. I'm a little old school so I like my bars to have good service, (yeah I lived in wrigleyville so expecting good service and not bartenders who act like they are stars is not assumed) bar games, and quality whiskeys and beer. Cork qualifies. That earns it a 3 star minimum. Bonus points for not being ultra crowded where you can't get served. More points for not blasting music so I can have a conversation, but still playing music from the jukebox at a respectable volume so you can enjoy it. The kicker? daily special of tall boy schlitz and a shot of jim beam. I love good craft beers and welcome dog fish, founders, victory, stone, etc and will gladly pay an extra couple dollars for that quality, but nothing makes me feel more american than a shot of kentucky bourbon and a tall beer in a can. Add that to free shuffleboard and this bar has earned 5 stars. I will definitely be back here as it has earned a spot as a regular hang out for me in the city. read more

Great neighborhood watering hole with suffle board, pool, darts, board games, comic books, art for sale, and great people. read more

Cork Lounge - Love this bar and it will love you. - Lounges Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

I like this place. There's a mellow vibe to this place, that matches the neighborhood it's in. There's a slew of drink specials, and you can order in pizza on the cheap. I l really like the photography in the front part of the space, it's different, and I like different. Service is friendly and fast, but for sure our bartender was running her tail off. I think this sleepy location is waking up! And yes, the bathrooms are as clean as advertised. read more

Nice on most nights, the beer selection's good, it's cheap ($2 PBR, gotta love that), and the bartenders are cool. It's a decent stroll from me, but it's worth it most of the time. When someone has a birthday, or there's a game, or there's a crowd for whatever reason, it can be not as great. Especially if you like to shoot pool. They will flat-out sit on the table. You ask someone to move, and another person will immediately take their place. This isn't the norm, but it does make things unpleasant. That said, I hit the Cork Lounge pretty often, it's a nice place, and I love the fact that they have board games. Granted, they're missing pieces, but it's the thought that counts. Awesome place. read more

I've been searching for this bar all of my life. Its conveniently steps away from the addison brown line. I like to stop by for a couple drinks before heading out for the night, but it's also a destination in itself. The drinks are cheap and the bartenders are totally friendly. There's plenty to do (pool table, shuffleboard, board games, etc.). If you're looking for a quaint roscoe village bar that strongly resembles the bar from How I Met Your Mother, this is the place. read more

Nice dive/neighborhood bar. Drinks are priced well and they have a great selection of beer. There are board games, darts, a pool table (good luck trying to get a game) and a shuffleboard. Location is great too, right by the Addison brown line. Overall not a bad place to grab a game and a drink with friends. read more

GREAT dive bar! To be fair, I kind of love a good dive bar. The casual atmosphere, the cheap drinks, what's not to love? This place is way bigger than it looks from the outside. We went in earlier on a Saturday night and it was only moderately busy. The bartender was super welcoming and polite, and there was an overall chill vibe to the place complete with a few sets of armchairs. There are a couple of pool tables in the back and an entire shelf full of board games. We ordered two whiskey sours and the bartender only charged us $8 total. This place may qualify as the cheapest and among the best dive bars in Chicago. read more

My husband wanted to go out for a shot and a beer on November 10th to toast to his fellow Marines on the USMC birthday. We decided to go to Cork lounge since it was close and we figured it would be dead. It wasn't, but it wasn't packed with d-bags either. The crowd had a good vibe- laid back- and the bartender was Jenny Quick-pour. Awesome. And really, they've made some changes to the atmosphere (a little paint goes a long way) that really warmed the place up and made it feel a little more homey and warm. It's no longer that wannabe southport bar. Now it's actually a little Irish pub with good music that I really enjoyed. That is, of course, unless you're reading this and you're not from North Center, want to pack your friends into the place and turn it into a southport-like bar. In that case, this bar was horrible. You should stay away. read more

A friend and I were looking for a dive bar and we found Cork. I was impressed by the size of the place, and it was pretty clean, too. We had drinks and a frozen pizza. Surprisingly, the pizza was tasty! There were people in there, but it wasn't totally crowded, not at all. And the service was fantastic, the female bartender couldn't have been nicer. read more

Walk through the door, past the bar, go way to the back, where the pool table is. Sit on one of those stools. Seriously... they might be the most comfortable stools in the world. They have some killer specials on low-end beer, and even sometimes on the good stuff. The bartenders are friendly. They have a good pool table. Kind of a chilled-out, down-to-earth vibe going on here. Feels a little loungey and classy without overdoing it. Good bar, 4 stars. read more

I'm a simple man. I like things simple. I like Cork Lounge because it's simple. A simply beautiful refurbished Irish-style lounge right next to the Addison Brownline stop. Perfect. Last night I went to Cork Lounge to indulge in their Monday 75 Cent Cans of Beer Special. The cans consisted of Blatz, Burger, Old Milwaukee, Hamm's, Milwaukee's Best, Busch and Pabst Blue Ribbon, my favorite, and even Pabst Blue Ribbon Light. We all got good and happy for less than 10 bucks each. They even bake up and serve pizza to soak up all the delicious beer. Besides the amazing can selection they also offer many other good beer and liquor too. Everything from Hacker Pschorr to Goose Island IPA on draught to Jameson, Jack Daniels, champagne and house red and white wine as well. Cork Lounge is a great place to imbibe fine spirits, friendly people and good times. read more

It's not you...It's me. I'm not sure how I feel about this place...not a fancy bar, not a dive bar. Hovering somewhere in between. It's huge, and there's plenty of seating, but something's just...off. The beer list is expansive, but service is slow. There's a pool table, which is great; and plenty of room for darts - but no board in sight. I just didn't make enough of an impression on me to want to return. I've been to alot of bars, and you've got to be special for me to want to pay you a return visit. This place just didn't have it. read more

This place definitely had a weird vibe the couple times I've gone. It doesn't have a whole lot of personality. I'm not really into blaring music or big crowds at the bar, but when I was there last Saturday the music was fairly depressing and there was almost nobody there. The bartender was really nice, and the service was super fast, so those are definite perks. It was also very clean, which is hard to find in a ladies' restroom at a bar! But, I guess I'm just looking for a little more ambience in a bar. read more

I'm glad to see other reviews mention "clean", because this is honestly one of the cleanest bars I've yet visited. This is a little out of my way, but when I visit a buddy of mine in that area, this is a good spot to stop. PROS: -Cheap beer specials (still home to a $2 PBR) -As mentioned, clean -Friendly staff CONS: -Location (for me anyways) I do agree with kourtney l. on the sterile quality... but I'm sure the place will find its vibe soon. read more

I had an awesome evening in here! We rocked some Journey and had a pizza. De-LUX Baby!!! The beer selection was hearty and the pizza was hot as hell. Comes right out of the ol' oven, with toasted cheese and everything! Pretty much hit the spot. We also got talking with the bartender, and it was a nice connection to make. Stopping by late on an off-night had the bar fairly quiet, but we got cozy and to conversation, where neither the beers nor music stopped... I can get where the other reviewers are coming from in regards to the height of the ceiling, but it didn't stop me from bellying-up. There IS a nice pool table in back; however, I couldn't find any dartboards... so that might be an upgrade? No worries regardless! Bottom line: Comfortable family place growing into its new digs. I would definitely take friends or family here. Great staff meets extensive beer list. -w00t!- To the Cork: Keep it up! Drop in a dartboard or two, and you got yourself my next neighborhood bar! -d0uble w00t!- read more

By definition, this is what a 4 star bar is. Acceptable beer prices, cool bartenders, board games, decent pool table, and they actually were playing late 90's early 00's punk rock. Combine this all and normally I would give the spot a 5 star rating, but then you realize this is where stuck up folks go for a beer to hold them till they make it further down Addison. Overall if you can deal with random Chad and Ashleys popping in for a drink and leaving in disgust within 45 minutes, you have a major sweet bar. read more

Say what you will about this place, but I absolutely love it. It's not terribly crowded most times, and they have my favorite beer from California on tap. I haven't been able to find it on tap anywhere since I moved to Chicago last year. Ok, so maybe I'm a bit biased. But really, the bartender was very nice, the bathroom was clean, and the prices aren't too shabby. It's a pub, not a romantic dinner lounge. read more