Fifteen-dollar buckets of long-necks a special does not make. For real deals, mark your calendar: Monday night means Duke of Perth, the handsome Lakeview Scotch emporium, for two-for-one entrées. Read more.
On Tuesdays, chef Mark Steuer slashes the price of ocean-fresh oysters (regularly $2 each) in half, and the bar follows suit, knocking 50 percent off all sparkling wines and Champagnes. Read more.
Wednesday equals Toons, the classic Southport Corridor bar whose juicy, hand-formed, half-pound, no-frills Toonsburger is only $4 Read more.
Bring a date on Sunday, when you can order Sunday Gravy, a stew of meatballs, pork butt, chuck roast, braciola and hard-boiled egg. It comes with a bottle of red wine and foccacia, all for $30. Read more.
Buffered by fatty, sauce-covered rib tips ($12) or a po’ boy sandwich loaded with fried catfish, crab cakes or blackened chicken ($8.50), you won’t mind that you paid a $12 cover. Read more.
The corn dog’s not the only cost-effective comestible at this busy hipster hangout; for $5, a Vienna dog with bold pepper jack, creamy garlic aioli and a crisp winter slaw is as satisfying. Read more.
Head to the Other Side, where the beer list doesn’t extend far beyond the frat-boy imagination, but is cheap and perfectly suitable against iconic bar food like chicken wings ($5 for ten). Read more.
When an order that could have served four people comes to $24 (including a Jameson and beers, and that’s not even on craft-beer Thursday, when brews like Half Acre are $3), you’ve found a winner. Read more.
A red-bean pound cake with coffee toffee might pose a pairing problem. Luckily, Telegraph advises what to drink right there on the menu. The suggested bourbon-spiked coffee is surprisingly spot-on. Read more.
Webster’s and Telegraph are sister bars, but at Webster’s the desserts are less complex. That doesn’t mean the thin slice of pudding wasn’t enjoyable. It left all the more room for another Madeira. Read more.
Ex-Lula chef Duncan Biddulph's food is distinctive and beautiful, from the Roman-style semolina gnocchi with hazelnuts to the delicate corn crêpes to the hanger steak with seasonal vegetables. Read more.
Try the beef tartare with fried nubs of potato and the refreshing salad of sautéed shrimp, jicama and cucumbers. Read more.
The cozy bar beneath Pops for Champagne, where the deftly made cocktails showcase local spirits. Read more.
The burger, made with Slagel Farm beef, is perfection, and the lollipop wings, breaded chicken drizzled with buffalo sauce and ranch, make eating classic bar grub a more civilized affair. Read more.
Rare is a sports bar that plays Lykke Li and New Order, and rarer still is one that serves luscious pork belly sliders and meaty wings with scalp-sweatingly hot Cholula-buffalo sauce. Read more.
Try the arugula and grapefruit salad, with peppery greens complementing the bittersweet grapefruit, shaved fennel giving depth and toasted pistachios adding crunch. Read more.
In nearby Des Plaines is Ssaboo (formerly Hourglass), which lured loyalists from its original Lawrence Avenue location with killer sweet-and-spicy chicken. Read more.
The bar’s built-in flattop is responsible for the best booze snack in town: fire chicken. Bite-sized hunks of chicken thighs are soaked through with soy-spiked chili paste and piled high on the plate. Read more.
The coffee-rubbed skirt steak tacos are just as good, and you can order as many (or as few) as you like. Margaritas come by the pitcher but aren’t the bar’s strong suit, so stick with beer. Read more.
Come here for the very fresh, very generous Mediterranean salad, crisp fish and chips and huge slices of chocolate layer cake—the same cake you ogle on the host stand every time you brunch at Tweet. Read more.
The burgers (three for $12 are mini. The mojitos are minty. And there’s nothing about the name of this place that will make you lose your appetite. Read more.
Italians eat a little lighter in the evening, and Disotto follows suit with small plates like anchovy-ricotta-tomato bruschetta and squares of egg-enclosed toast, rich with truffle oil. Read more.
Chef Matt Troost puts out food that ranges from popcorn with housemade hot sauce and thin pizzas to giant, made-for-two bowls of the Tuscan stew ribollita, his version topped with milk-braised pork. Read more.
This is a very basic, kind of divey beer joint. A very basic, kind of divey beer joint with unexpectedly good food, like a greasy (in a good way), spicy sausage-and-peppers sandwich. Read more.
On a recent Friday night, expats nibble cured meats—cuminy lukanka, air-cured beef pasturma—and shout along to traditional anthems of love, loss and national pride between bites. Read more.
Hit the dance floor when the DJ drops your favorite Gaga or Rihanna. Afterwards, head to the bar room to take down Polish pizza bread, a French loaf with tomato sauce, gobs of mozzarella and ketchup. Read more.
We opt for a flaky, cheese-stuffed pastry called burek and grilled sausage links known as cevapcici. Read more.
This aging South Side Polish dive plugs along thanks to the power of pierogi, plump little pockets of kraut and mushroom or juicy ground beef, made to order and sautéed in butter with nubs of bacon. Read more.
The best mussels, best frites and best grilled sandwiches at any bar in Chicago team with an extraordinary beer selection. Read more.
Metal rages, waits are oppressive, and the beastly burgers, stacked with everything from chorizo to pulled pork, have a reputation so big Lady Gaga ate one during her Monster Ball tour. Read more.
It has the most ambitious charcuterie program in Chicago and served as the launching board for one of Chicago’s most talented young chefs, Jared Van Camp. Read more.
At Paul Kahan’s taco bar, there’s no choosing between the cheap whiskey shots and the tortillas packed with crisp, beer-battered tilapia. Read more.
