Northwestern may not be considered a party school, but that doesn’t stop students from taking advantage of more than 3,000 bars around Chicago.
John McGrath, Kellogg ’90, has made it a little easier to find the best clubs with the second edition of the “Official Chicago Bar Guide,” which which was published in December.
“We think that Chicago is the best bar town in America,” said McGrath, 42, a business professor at the University of Pittsburgh. “We just like to party, we like to get around. It kind of came second nature to us – the writing and the partying.”
McGrath’s $10 guidebook reviews the food and drink offerings, atmosphere, prices and crowds at about 350 Chicago bars, including 125 new locations since the first edition. The bars are rated with up to four mug symbols to represent overall quality.
McGrath’s favorite places include The Village Tap, Weeds, the Heartland Cafe and the Old Town Ale House. Chicago classics like The Berghoff, which was the first bar to reopen after prohibition in Chicago, and the Billy Goat Tavern also should not be ignored, he said.
“Those kinds of places made it all worthwhile,” McGrath said.
The worst part of the reviewing job was exploring dark bars in crime-ridden areas, he said. One of these places was filled with policemen, and although it was advertised as a public tavern, the officers would not let the reviewers in without badges.
“We didn’t put them in our books because we didn’t want our patrons to get that kind of abuse,” McGrath said. “There’s some pretty scary places out there.”
But despite the location of another bar, the Checkerboard Lounge, in a bad neighborhood on the South Side, McGrath said the bar was actually an “off-the-beaten-track blues club” hot spot for celebrities.
“We had to gird ourselves as we went in, and we were glad we did because it was really different,” he said.
The guide covers bars only within Chicago’s limits, but for a drink closer to Evanston, McGrath suggested the Fireside Lounge and The Pumping Company.
NU bar-goers said atmosphere was a top priority in determining a good club.
Weinberg junior Kristina Berta recommends The Empty Bottle, rated three-and-a-half mugs and best music venue, and The HotHouse, rated three mugs.
“I like to go to places with music where you can just chill,” she said.
To write the second edition, which already has sold 2,000 copies, McGrath commuted from his home in Pennsylvania. Although it took several years to make the first edition, which sold 15,000 copies, McGrath said he enjoyed checking out new bars with the book’s co-authors, Jeff Ruby, a writer for Lonely Planet travel guides, and Ryan Ver Berkmoes, a restaurant critic for Chicago Magazine.
The book is pocket-sized and designed with a sleek, contemporary cover to appeal to a younger college-aged crowd, McGrath said.
