All products featured on Bon Appétit are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
It’s easy to be dazzled by Chicago’s centrally located Loop and River North neighborhoods, especially the bevy of swanky bars. But in a city of 77 diverse communities, we advise you to venture further afield. It’s in these neighborhoods you’ll stumble upon local watering holes, wine bars, and breweries that keep the city buzzing, literally and figuratively.
Take Lincoln Park, home to some perennial heavy hitters like Boka and Alinea, or the James Beard Award–winning farm-to-table favorite Lula Cafe in Logan Square. Esmé’s chef Jenner Tomaska and Katrina Bravo have recently opened a cocktail counterpart, Bar Esmé, where a seasonal three-course prix fixe menu is accompanied by equally seasonal cocktails like a milk punch with Scotch whisky and farmers market berries.
Just west of Chinatown, in Pilsen, new businesses like Monochrome Brewing are a testament to the economic power of Latino-owned and -inspired businesses that have fueled the neighborhood for generations.
Down in Hyde Park, JBFA-winning chef Erick Williams runs acclaimed Virtue Restaurant & Bar. Last November he debuted Cantina Rosa, a cocktail bar that celebrates the Mexican culture of many Virtue team members with punchy mezcal-based cocktails alongside the unsung rums of Michoacán and more.
And that’s just a small snapshot of what’s brewing, fizzing, shaken, and stirred around the city. From non-alc pours at all-day cafés to bars with happy hours, read on for where to drink in Chicago now.
5230 S. Harper Ave., Chicago
instagram.com/cantinarosahydepark
Off the heels of his dining hit, Virtue, JBA-winning chef-owner Erick Williams opened Cantina Rosa, a cocktail lounge in Hyde Park that celebrates Mexican spirits similar to how Virtue showcases Black Southern food traditions. Williams’ new lounge pays homage to the matriarch of his family – his late grandmother, Rosetta – as well as the cherished maternal figures from the families of Virtue Hospitality Group’s team members. Adorned with monstera leaves, mesquite-style woodwork, and hand-stitched embroidery on barstools, Cantina Rosa was designed by Erin Boone of Boone Interiors with blackened windows that invite guests to fully immerse themselves in the experience.
Mixologist Paul McGee’s cocktail list moves beyond just tequila and mezcal, with offerings that include lesser-known agave spirits like small-batch, fire-roasted raicilla from Jalisco, and bacanora, an agave-derived spirit with botanical qualities reminiscent of gin. You’ll also find rarer selections of tequila or mezcal, including Fortaleza Winter Blend 2024 and 5 Sentidos’ single-batch release. The bar serves small bites, including melty chicken and tomatillo salsa tamales, and a sea bass ceviche speckled with slivers of habanero pepper served atop velvety leche de tigre.
.JPG)
3500 N Elston Ave., Chicago
instagram.com/parachutechicago
Parachute, the fine dining Korean restaurant from chefs Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark, has reopened in a more casual iteration as Parachute HiFi. Wood-paneled walls lined with Clark’s vinyl record collection and lampshade-lit booths create a relaxed pub atmosphere, sparking a nostalgia for no-frills neighborhood bars. A DJ booth near the bar serves up sounds of soul, funk, and Japanese pop, while the menu features about 17 sake, soju, and sool, which encompasses a broader category for Korean rice-based alcohols. There are also bar mainstays like a Moscow mule and an old-fashioned, but it’s the house cocktails that unlock a world of contrasting flavors. Piquant notes of ginger play tug of war with a sweet carbonated soft drink flavored with milk and yogurt in the Pickled Ginger. The Matcha Latte features Hatozaki whisky, fig leaf syrup, coconut milk, and a green tea shochu that evokes candied bananas. On the food menu, barrel-shaped bites of tteok are the base for steamy pad thai, glistening fried tofu pouches barely contain mounds of enoki glittered with chives, and nectarous mandarin oranges burst with each bite of the crackling fried noodles and lettuce they’re served with.
The come-as-you-are tavern vibe at Gus’ Sip and Dip aims to woo cost-conscious drinkers with cocktails priced at $12 (plus tax). The 75-seat River North bar takes over the former space Hub 51 restaurant, which had a 16-year run before restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You Enterprise overhauled it. Under the guidance of beverage director Kevin Beary (LEY’s Three Dots and a Dash and The Bamboo Room), the cocktail menu at Gus’ features 30 refreshed classics, including amaretto sours, Irish coffee, and martinis. Juices and syrups are created in-house, and every piece of glassware arrives chilled, thanks to freezers stored under the U-shaped rail bar. A food menu from RPM Restaurants chef Bob Broskey serves up familiar and comforting fare, including a selection of French dip sandwiches, like brown-sugar-glazed pork with mustard and Wagyu beef with horseradish.
200 North Columbus Dr., Chicago
instagram.com/fairmontchicago
Chef Richard Sandoval is the man behind a constellation of 65 restaurants found across 10 states and 11 other countries. The Mexico City native has most recently staked his claim downtown at Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park with the opening of Toro. Touted as contemporary Latin cuisine without borders, the menu celebrates the flavors from Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, with a cocktail list to match this blurring of geographical boundaries. Take the sunset-hued Paper Beach—a guava-infused Leblon cachaça, Aperol, Amaro Montenegro, and lime—and the Incan Goddess, made with Peruvian whiskey derived from Andean black corn plus damiana, Fee Brothers habanero bitters, Angostura bitters, and agave. Blackened steel, bronze finishings, and terra-cotta-stained tiles surround an oversized horn sculpture suspended over the bar.
2200 N. Clark St, Chicago
instagram.com/esme_chicago
After creating the acclaimed Michelin-starred tasting menu restaurant Esmé, husband-wife team chef Jenner Tomaska and Katrina Bravo are back with Bar Esmé—an intimate, 16-seat cocktail lounge with floor-to-ceiling views of Lincoln Park. Tomaska’s French-style cuisine three-course tasting menu is accompanied by a bar menu from beverage director Stevan Miller. The wine list at Bar Esmé focuses on winemakers that utilize biodynamic, regenerative, or organic practices to promote healthy ecosystems. The cocktail program is presented in a carefully crafted and decorative booklet that lists 20-something alcoholic and nonalcoholic cocktails—all inspired by artwork found in the Art Institute of Chicago or on the walls of Esmé. Highlights include the Charro (named after artist’s Salvador Dominguez work), which pays tribute to Miller’s Caribbean grandmother with a house-made plantain mole: muddled ripe plantains, sesame seeds, pepitas, sugar, chiles, and a blue agave called tequilana. Female Nude #39 (inspired by artist Courtney Shoudis) is a layered cocktail with Bayab African gin and pineapple, topped with habanero and green-cardamom-infused egg white, plus strips of edible rice paper, emulating the strips of color featured throughout the painting.
2101 S Carpenter St., Chicago
instagram.com/monochromebrew
Monochrome Brewing is a community-inspired and led project of Enrique Rivera, who grew up in Pilsen and has seen its many iterations over the years. Rivera, who co-owns the space with his aunt Enriqueta Hibbard, brewer Luis Flores, and Arclight Brewing Company owner Dave Coyle, joins the growing number of Latino business owners who have helped the neighborhood maintain its strong immigrant community despite threats of gentrification. Self-taught brewer and partner Luis Flores, another Chicago native, is behind the brewing operation. Reminiscent of a Dole Whip soft serve, the Pineapple Swirl is a double milkshake IPA with pineapple purée, vanilla, soft serve, and milk sugar. Or try a fruit-forward beer inspired by mangonada, the popular Mexican dessert with mango sorbet topped with chamoy and chili powder. Visitors can pull up to the wood-paneled bar or enjoy a spacious patio in the warmer months.
2829 W Armitage Ave., Chicago
instagram.com/barparisette
For a casual French wine bistro and bar option, head to Bar Parisette in Logan Square. Owner and wine director Matt Sussman of Table, Donkey and Stick brings a rotating list of mostly $16 cocktails, some discounted even more (alongside wine) during happy hour. Sussman, a sommelier, has curated an extensive wine list of predominantly French selections, including grower Champagnes and an array of skin-contact wines. Head chef Madalyn Durrant (formerly of Webster’s Wine Bar) focuses on seafood- and vegetable-friendly dishes, including seasonal dishes like a recent delicata squash tempura boosted by of zest from fermented lime, black garlic, and soy.
165 N Ogden Ave., Chicago
instagram.com/expatchicago
This West Loop all-day café and bar takes its cue from famous bars from around the world. Think of a Bellini from Harry’s Bar in Venice, or a Papa Doble from El Floridita in Havana. Each of these drinks has a story—one that beverage director Brian Sturgulewski and Bonhomme Hospitality creative director Daniel Alonso aim to tell. Coffee cocktails and a bottle selection of natural wines priced at $50 or less round out the drinks menu. The 2,000-square-foot space has plenty of room for remote workers to claim an outlet and order lunch items like a deconstructed BLT sandwich that gets layered on a pizza crust with ricotta mayo. Rotating blends highlight local roasters Hexe Coffee Co. and Metropolis Coffee Company. A dinner menu with a focus on small and large plates is also available until 1 a.m.