After careful deliberation and numerous e-mails, Hamlet and I have come up with a short list of area bars to consider for the ChiDope festivities this coming May. (Y’all should thank your luck stars Hamlet got in on the gig, by the way. Had it been up to me I’d have picked a place within closest stumbling distance of my home and called it a day. Big Ted’s Drinkin’ & Knifin’ Pit it is!)
If anyone is available to join us in checking these places out, please drop Hamlet or me an e-mail or post here. We’ve not firmed up a time yet, but we are planning on meeting sometime on the evening of Wednesday, March 12 – maybe 6 p.m. or so. Everyone is welcome, so please come along!
As one of the NYC Dopefest bar scouters, I wish you and your colleauges luck on your difficult quest, Gundy.
I must say that it was quite a challenge stopping in every bar for blocks to see whether they met our requirements. In fact, our survey crew had to go out several times to find the right locations. It’s tough work, but someone had to do it for the benefit of the Dopers in general.
Seriously, we did have a bit of trouble finding a bar for Friday night that would hold 50 people and was handicapped accessable (one of the NY Dopers is a wheelchair user). I hope that Chicago bars are a bit better on this front than those in New York. Fortunately, we had found a Saturday night bar that met our requirements early.
Good luck on your search – and on the morning after. Can’t wait so see you and your choices in a couple of months.
I’m probably the wrong person to check out bars, since I never hang out in them unless there’s a favorite band playing there (and I’ll be out of town that night anyway), but may I humbly request that cigarette smoke level be taken into consideration for those of us who have a hard time dealing with it?
Billdo, thanks for the good wishes. With all the requests to keep in mind, it will be a tough job indeed. But we’re up to the task! Hopefully most people will be pleased with the outcome.
Eva Luna, we’re mostly looking at places that have private rooms, so cigarette smoke shouldn’t be a problem. An ideal situation, I think, would be an outdoor patio. Rest assured we’ll keep it in mind.
Okay, I’m blanking on the name right now - but I love Piano bars. There is one in Chicago with two pianos where two people play together and it’s a fucking good time. (Dueling pianos!)
Of course, it is my dream to spend my days at my piano so…
Just last night I was at the Big Bang in St. Louis. Packed to the gills with Mardi Gras folks. What a blast.
Hmm…I thought Howl at the Moon was shot down in the original thread because it’s really hard to talk to people you’ve never before met over the noise of the crowd participation.
I just found out yesterday that on May 10 we’re having a major combined birthday party for my nephew and father, so I won’t be able to make ChiDope.
However, for your information, at the New York dopefest we went to a piano bar on Thursday night after our Korean dinner, and that worked out really well.
I just thought I’d throw out a few ideas on an itinerary for the 12th. I thought we could meet up a one place about 7:00 or so and go from there.
Gundy and I thought it would be a good idea to find a place that was near the blue line, so that both the visitors staying downtown and the visitors staying at O’Hare would have a chance to come without having to drive. With that in mind, we figured the Damen stop (where Damen, North, and Milwaukee meet) had the best opportunities for a Dopefest.
Here’s the places by the el-stop that we want to check out on the 12th.
Now, I know it will be a daunting task to have to go to potentially 6 different bars with the beautiful and wonderful Gundy, but I’ll put on my stiff upper lip and try to bear that horrible burden. Oh the humanity.
Any additional thoughts on a timetable, place recommendations, or anything else?
I don’t think you’re missing any places (though your link for Cans goes to some weird political site – try this one). Let’s say we start at Cans (at 7 p.m.) since it’s probably easiest to find, and go from there?
And, since I will have to suffer through an evening with the beautiful and wonderful Hamlet, I hope others will be available to share my pitiable task.
