Bar: The Lodge
Address: 21 W Division St, Chicago, IL 60610
Score: 8.2/10
An ode to the Lodge. I have eaten at a ton of restaurants in the Gold Coast area, been to a fair amount of bars, somehow I have never visited the Lodge until last year. I had high hopes given the awesome signage and rustic feel from the outside of the bar. When I went in I fell in love with it even more. The rustic atmosphere and all the aged wood from the floors to the bars was exactly as I was hoping for. The sports memorabilia was of course great as well, but I am bias to Chicago memorabilia with my love for all the teams.
In addition to these interior features, the dedication to showing different firefighter memorabilia was really neat. Not too many bars have something like this.
So if you are a fan of my articles and have read a few, everything would tell you this would be a whale score of a bar (9+), so where did it fall short? Was it the fact that it is the oldest bar in the Gold Coast and has a rich history being founded in 1957? Absolutely not, I love that. Was it the free peanuts? No, I ate them like I was a damn elephant, great touch. Was it the massive beer selection? Nope once again. It was the gaudy prices for the beer. I will be honest, part of me gets the $7 beer charge for the area, they can fetch whatever price they want in reality. But the price of $7 for a standard beer is criminal. This shocked and disappointed me. What truly grinded my gears was the card only policy. I have never in my life heard of cards only, what kind of sorcery is this?
I am sure someone can give me a great reason why they are card only, but regardless it’s a dumb thing to have. Sucks the culture right out of a bar by refusing cash. Look, while the price and card situation was not great, this is the standard for the Gold Coast, if you are in this area, expect to pay that for a beer. I guess I was just hoping that a bar with this legacy would be the outlier.
Price: The worst category, by far. This is why it is not closer to a 9+. Part of it is being a product of its environment, this area can fetch $7 for a beer with ease, but does not mean they should.
Decor: Unreal decor, Heavy Chicago themed + a ton of wood around the bars, floors, etc…
Service: Service is what you’d expect. Very good. Should be good considering they don’t have to worry about serving food.
Atmosphere: Immaculate vibe. Good mix of age demographics at this bar.
High Life Bottle?: Yes
Bonus Points: Free peanuts!