Best South Loop bars for watching Bears Games
By Daniel Patton
Originally published in October 2015 issue of South Loop Journal.
The best way to experience a Chicago Bears game without actually buying a ticket is to watch it in a bar next to Soldier Field. That means hunkering down in the South Loop, the neighborhood that the team has called home since inaugurating the official gridiron with a 17-15 victory over the Pittsburgh Stealers in 1971. Here’s a Journal selection of establishments within walking distance of the stadium that tune into the action every Sunday afternoon.
KROLL’S
Kroll’s, the Papa Bar of Bear-watching venues, is as close as you can get to bellying up with the team. Literally. “We’re right across from the Soldier Field 18th Street Pedestrian Bridge,” says General Manager Caesar Douglas. “We open up at 9 o’clock in the morning on game days.”
With a standing capacity that exceeds three hundred and an ambience that goes from sports bar to diner to upscale restaurant by way of two consecutive rooms and a million TVs (give or take), the place doesn’t miss a down. A wall of independently controlled, high-definition flat screens in the main area and four 6-foot wide pull down projectors in the dining sections play several games at once. It’s everything a football fan could want, no doubt; but there are also a lot of things a casual patron can appreciate.
“We kinda just roll with the flow during game days,” Douglas says. “If people are into what’s on TV, we keep it on. If we need to liven up the crowd, we crank on the music and get that going.”
The menu features classic American fare with a Midwestern nod and lots of meat. Drink specials include the Kroll’s cup, a 22-ounce vessel filled with one of five customized cocktails like the popular Cherry Limeade for nine bucks, or any of the Goose Island selections for eight. If those don’t do the trick, there’s like a hundred other beers to choose from.
Since the original Kroll’s is in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the bar draws a lot of Packers’ fans. According to Douglas, it’s kinda like their “home away from home.” But the six-foot, two-inch former University of Missouri linebacker is quick to add that in Chicago, it’s all about the home team. “Word to the wise,” he says: “We are a Bears bar.”
1736 S Michigan Ave · www.krolls_chicago.com · (312) 235-1400
THE WEATHER MARK TAVERN
The Weather Mark Tavern plays hard when the Bears are on TV: every screen in the nautically themed American bistro is tuned to the game and the music is dialed down to make way for the broadcast. Unless the team scores a touchdown, in which case the neighborhood joint goes wild with a round of “Bear Down, Chicago Bears.”
“It’s crazy on game days,” says owner Mark Stern. “We’re one of the few places you can walk to the stadium from, so we get a great big pre-crowd, the during-game crowd and then the post-crowd after the game.”
With a record-setting pair of 120-inch TVs and several high definition monitors inside a breezy, blue-walled room under super high ceilings, the Weather Mark can handle more than a hundred screaming fans at once.
Throw in a seasonal selection of craft beers — the Fall List includes Southern Tier Pumking, Great Lakes Oktoberfest, Left-Hand Milk Stout, SweetWater’s new Hash Brown Ale, Ace Hard Pumpkin Cider and McKenzie Pumpkin Jack Hard Cider — and the impressive collection of main sails becomes a calming diversion.
The tavern also offers five-dollar bloody marys and screwdrivers, and four-dollar stadium cups of Bud Lite and Miller Lite.
To balance out all the beverages, there’s an extensive menu of American favorites that includes six specialty burgers, a rack of ribs and a rum-battered fish fry with homemade red cabbage cole slaw and dill tartar sauce. “If you’re looking for something a little classier,” suggests Manager Phil Cirullo, “we’ve got a really nice filet mignon.” Served with a potato spring roll and a side of asparagus for $26.95, Stern does not hesitate to add that he’ll “put that up against anybody’s.”
When the Bears aren’t playing, the Weather Mark is happy to “accommodate everybody’s needs,” says Stern. This includes catering to a handful of Bengals, Eagles and Packer fans who frequently stop by. “We have the NFL ticket,” he adds, “so we’ll play all sorts of different games.”
1503 S Michigan Ave · weathermarktavern.com · (312) 588-0230
VICE DISTRICT BREWING COMPANY
The Vice District Brewing Company definitely understands the needs of Bears fans. On game days, two large paintings are removed from the walls to make way for the high-definition flat screens behind them. A selection of salads, wraps and sandwiches from one of the 63 (and counting) local restaurants that deliver to the establishment is put out for everyone to enjoy and the Usual Suspects, a 7.4% lager-style steam-brewed copper ale made especially for the Bears season, flows like a scoring drive.
Sounds like the kind of place designed exclusively for Bears fans, but according to co-founder Quintin Cole, “We’re not a sports bar.”
“After the broadcast,” he continues, “we want people to go back to really conversing again.”
This is what happens when a lawyer and a physical therapist open a bar. Cole, the attorney, and Curtis J Tarver, the health professional, grew their basement beer brewing hobby into what is perhaps the world’s first “internet lounge.” They were encouraged by friends who would come by and drink with them until the wee hours of the morning and prompted by spouses who told them, “you guys aren’t running a speakeasy out of our basements,” recalls Cole.
The venue that they opened South Michigan Avenue last September is “very reminiscent of our basement when we were home-brewing,” says Tarver. 18-foot ceilings, subtle grey walls and chrome brewing tanks give the room an upscale, industrial coziness.
According to Tarver II, it’s a “good feel for friends and family to come in and have a good time.”
The brewers craft more than a dozen beers onsite, most of them named in playful tribute to the area’s former reputation as a notorious vice district. Three of them — Everly, Habitual and Pleasure Trip — were perfected in the basement and tested by friends at a Super Bowl party who finally convinced the partners to go out on their own.
But when the Bears are done, so are the TVs. That makes it better for the growing number of people who “come in with their laptops kinda spread out on tables” and, more importantly, the kind of conversation exclusively reserved for cool bars. “That’s what we did in our basement,” says Cole. “We solved all kinds of world problems over beers.”
1454 S Michigan Ave · www.vicedistrictbrewing.com · (312) 291-9022
AURELIO’S PIZZA
Aurelio’s Pizza on Michigan Avenue — the latest addition to a 55 year-old, 41-store chain that spans six states — is the only bar and restaurant within punting distance of Soldier Field that dedicates every square inch of its space to fans of all ages.
“This is a family pizzeria and an Official Bears Headquarters Bar,” says General Manager Joe Caruso. “There’s a big focus on service and quality.”
Kids, retirees, moms, dads, and residents of every generation get the camaraderie going within the flat-screened walls of the large main bar before the coin is even tossed on Sunday afternoons. They make a perfect compliment to the parties in the adjoining private dining area, where an 80-inch TV is visible from nearly every corner of the room.
Additionally, the venue’s indoor and outdoor patios swell up all day long with fans trekking between the stadium and the Roosevelt CTA station.
Win or lose, the Bears always give them plenty to talk about, especially at Aurelio’s, where “The Score” football expert Hub Arkush frequently discusses the action with former Bears Olin Kreutz and James “Big Cat” Williams during live broadcasts on 670 a.m. before and after the game.
For those who catch the 9 a.m. show, the menu features a mini-breakfast calzone called The Calabrese. For everyone else, there are game day pizzas, hot dogs, hamburgers and sliders that the kitchen cooks up every Thursday, Sunday and Saturday of the season. The traditionally robust, custom grilled thin crust pies that made the place famous are available year round.
To wash it all down, there’s a huge wine selection and more than 30 beers. Joe Aurelio, son and namesake of Aurelio’s founder, recommends the restaurant’s own Batch 59, brewed by Two Brothers in Warrenville, IL.
“It’s a French Ale and it’s got a little bit of a caramel undertone to it,” he says. With 6.9% alcohol, his advice that “it pairs very well with all of our food” should be part of any fan’s game plan.
1212 S Michigan Ave · www.aureliospizza.com/Chicago-south-loop · (312) 374-4459
FLO & SANTOS
Flo & Santos’ Chef Mark Rimkus has successfully combined the flavors of his Italian Grandfather and Polish Grandmother to make the world’s first, uniquely Chicagoan Italish restaurant; but Manager Phil Shanks insists that the bar, restaurant and outdoor patio do not mix loyalties when it comes to football. “We’re too close to Soldier Field to be anything but the Bears,” he says.
On game days, Flo & Santos intensifies the action with 24 craft beers on tap, a bourbon selection and specials including a $3 Leinenkugle Shandy and a $4 Berghof. They pair nicely with the menu’s signature “Polish Pizza,“ a traditional thin-crusted south side pie with sauerkraut, kielbasa and mozzarella. There are also pork sandwiches from an 80-pound pig that is freshly-roasted onsite. But those are generally reserved for the fans who arrive early. According to Shanks, “They’re gone in a half hour.”
1310 S Wabash Ave · www.floandsantos.com · (312) 566-9817
BUREAU BAR
The Bureau Bar & Restaurant offers laid back comfort to Bears fans. Two leather chairs next to a fireplace, a shelf full of books in the back room and a tap of Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale behind the bar capture the intimate speakeasy vibe that owner Kenny Johnson designed to be like the small places he used to frequent in his hometown, Washington DC, before moving to Chicago.
On game days, a complimentary buffet and a DJ accompany the action broadcast on a pair of wall mounted TV’s. With a 50-person capacity, the mood is determined by crowd preference. “Some people like when the DJ’s playing,” says Johnson, “but if they want to see the game, he’ll only play during commercials.”
2115 S. State · bureaubarandrestaurant.com(312) 877-5122
THE VELVET LOUNGE
The Velvet Lounge is a live music venue that keeps on jumping when the Bears play.
With ten giant TVs and some of the city’s best DJ’s, owner Kenny Johnson says that it “almost becomes like a little nightclub during the game.”
Fans can indulge in a complimentary buffet with favorites like chicken wings and mac & cheese or order their own food and bring it in. There are also frequent Miller Lite and Blue Moon Specials.
Put all of that inside a bar that plays five or six games at a time, and it’s no wonder that, according to Johnson, “a lot of people book their birthday parties on Sunday afternoons during football season because they know how much fun it is.”
67 E Cermak Rd · www.facebook.com/The-Velvet-Lounge · (312) 794-5904
THE WABASH TAP
The Wabash Tap makes no attempt to be a sports bar, and that’s what makes it a great place to watch football. It’s a neighborhood joint with a pool table, a couple TVs and a grill pretty much right out in the open.
Nobody seems to care about the size of the monitors or the quality of the felt and everybody seems to know each other. Not to say that the place doesn’t fill up on game days. It draws a sizable crowd when the Bears play, including a lot of regulars who would have probably been stopping by whether or not the Bears were on TV.
1233 S Wabash Ave · wabashtap.com · (312) 360-9488
THE SCOUT
The Scout, with its bounty of fresh flowers and arrangement of honey mustard umbrellas festooned about the sidewalk, does not resemble the kind of place that has a lot of TVs. But it does, and hard-core Bear fans know it. On game days, wall-to-wall football fundamentalism dominates the room.
1301 S Wabash Ave · www.thescoutchicago.com · (312) 705-0595