That ’70s bar

NIGHT FEVER Evie accepts the Beagle’s fruity drink but turns down Raphael’s invite to his key party.

Raphael: All items from Beatnix (3400 N Halsted St, 773-281-6933); Evie: Halter, fur, skirt: Beatnix; shoes: Lulu's at the Belle Kay.

For most of us, a pure memory of the ’70s doesn’t really exist—that’s because pop culture of the era and every era since has insisted on playing up the decade’s unselfconscious attempt to infuse carefree grooviness into American life. It makes for good TV. As a period-piece bar, the Reagle Beagle (160 E Grand Ave, 312-755-9645) itself is modeled on a memory of the ’70s (and ’80s) as seen through a pop-culture lens—it’s based completely on nostalgia for television shows. As a drinking pal notes upon sliding into a vinyl-padded booth: “On Three’s Company, didn’t they hang out at the Reagle Beagle?” Exactamundo, as Fonzie would say.

General manager Don Larisey says owner Bill Scheidhauer opened the “modern lounge as a nostalgic throwback to the ’70s and ’80s.” And it looks it—close enough, anyway. The vinyl booths in earthy red, ski-lodge brick around a fireplace, cocktail-lounge lighting from red lamps and a menu of retro standards (fondue, pot pie, lamb-chop appetizers) might have made the point well enough. But the Beagle wallops us over the head with kitsch: walls covered with family photos of our TV parents—Diff’rent Strokes to Magnum, P.I.—drink names straight from Nick at Nite, endless reruns on the plasma screen and retro DJs on the weekends.

Perhaps by accident, the Beagle does feel like an authentic throwback in some ways. If the ceiling tiles remind you of the pizza joint your soccer team went to after games in 1979, that might be because this was previously an Italian family restaurant. There’s an instant shabby-not-chic comfort level to the Beagle—like the den your parents never got a chance to “upgrade.” The waitresses are so friendly and attentive as to seem like time-travelers from a more swinging era—and the cocktail concoctions (such as Love Boat Lemonade, Tony Danza Extravaganza, the Tootie, the Vinnie Ba Ba Rita) tend to subscribe to the let’s-get-loose formula: multiple kinds of booze in curvy glasses plus fruit. Your sleazy neighbor Larry will love it.

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