The Dram Shop

Local yokels

One of my all time favorite bars in Chicago has got to be the Dram Shop. It is just down the street from my apartment right by Barry and Broadway. It’s glowing Old Style sign is welcome beacon which summons my thirsty neighbors and I. The Dram, as it is affectionately referred to by it’s loyal regulars, opens every morning at 7:00 sharp. The drinks flow freely until 2:00 am every day except for Saturday nights, when last call is shortly before 3:00 am Sunday morning. The daytime crowd consists mainly of older local neighborhood people who have been drinking at the Dram for years, the boilermaker crowd. At night the Dram attracts a much younger crowd, a lot of food & hospitality industry workers, students, aspiring artists & musicians etc as well as people from the daytime crowd who figured why not hang out for a few more hours. The crowd here is very friendly and welcoming, much more so than any other bar on Broadway in between Belmont & Diversey, in my humble opinion.

The Dram has been owned by Larry Heinerich since March of 2006. Prior to buying the Dram, Larry was the owner of the Bel Air over on Diversey. Larry originally comes from San Diego, and makes a point to show Bolts games on at least one of the flat screen TVs. Larry’s old surfboard used to hang on the wall, but had to be put in storage to make room for the new flat screens that arrived at the Dram earlier this year.

One of my favorite things about the Dram is the jukebox. Thankfully, the Dram has resisted those stupid modern internet jukeboxes where douche bags can pay a few bucks extra to propell their selection ahead of yours. The Dram’s juke has everything from the legendary metal gods such as Slayer, Motorhead, old-school Metallica, Sabbath etc to old country favorites such as Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and David Allan Coe to the King of Pop Michael Jackson. The Dram also has a dart board if you crave a friendly game of darts. One of the top selling shots at the Dram is Mallort, a local Chicago shot that not many are familiar with. Drink prices here are far more reasonable than pretty much any other bar in the neighborhood. PBR cans are $2 at all times. A bottle of Heineken is $3.75. You can’t get a bottle of Heineken for less than $4.50 anywhere these days!

To sum it up, if you find yourself walking the streets of East Lakeview & you crave good booze at a reasonable price and you want to hang out with a down to earth, completely non-pretentious crowd while listening to cool tunes in a place with that old Chicago neighborhood tavern vibe, the Dram Shop, is probably just what you are looking for.

Dram owner Larry gets ready to pour a few shots of Mallort

Regulars hanging out at the Dram on a weeknight

Dram regular John enjoying a cold one

Yours truly playing a few tunes on the juke

The Dram Shop