New dive bars

MEET THE EXPERTS
Tony Anders, an unemployed former LaSalle Bank exec and self-professed expert on the ’80s, makes Cal’s Liquors (400 S Wells St, 312-922-6392) his regular haunt. Collin (“not your typical bankruptcy lawyer”) Janus and Chris Thompson (a recently laid-off Loop dweller and ardent Phish fan) are barflies at Rossi’s (412 N State St, 312-644-5775).

The Lucky Lady
(440 N State St, 312-670-0335)
Spin Nightlife vets Michael Bisbee and Michael Kaulentis (RiNo, Manor) are behind the Lady, which Bisbee describes as “a low-key and cozy atmosphere…more of an after-work, beer-and-shot kind of bar.”
Straight talk “That candelabra is a no,” Anders says, pointing to the oversize chandelier, and Thompson complains he doesn’t feel claustrophobic enough in the two-room space. But the guys soften—slightly—when they check out the jukebox. “I give the jukebox two out of five points,” Anders says. “It has the best dive-bar album: Tim by the Replacements.” The pizza is less of a sure shot. Thompson seems pleased with the stuff, but Anders isn’t sold: “If you’re a bar, and you’re gonna serve pizza, then serve pizza. This pizza sucks.”

Loft Six Ten
(1332 N Milwaukee Ave, 773-904-8615)
Spin Owner Brad Tice (Goodbar, Cortland’s Garage) insists his bilevel Wicker Park playhouse—replete with a gastropub menu and extensive cocktail list—is “just a beer-and-a-shot bar.”
Straight talk Looking over the beer list, the guys are divided. “A $40 beer served in a Champagne bottle?” Janus asks of the Dogfish Head Fort. But Thompson seems excited by the craft-beer selection and orders a bottle of North Coast Brewing’s PranQster, which Anders denounces as “froufrou.” “You take your German ribbon; I’ll take my Wisconsin ribbon,” the resident “old man” declares. While reminiscing about mid-’80s Wicker Park (“I saw my first dead body at the corner of Damen and Milwaukee. It sat there for an entire weekend.…”), Anders notices Mickey’s on the menu: “I fucking know this is the shit,” Anders exclaims, referring either to the malt beverage or the bar (or both). “Practically no other bar, including Cal’s, has it. It’s beyond a drink—it’s a metaphor.”

The Ledge
(1745 W North Ave, 773-252-6053)
Spin It’s hard to get a sentence out of first-time bar owner Matt Whittaker that doesn’t involve the terms neighborhood bar and very simple. In fact, it’s hard to get much at all out of Whittaker about this narrow slice of a bar.
Straight talk Anders quickly notices the absence of his go-to beer, PBR, but after hearing the bartender’s explanation (“Our PBR is High Life”), the dive-bar aficionado buys it. “I give this place the most stars of any bars by far because the owner has a very cool Sonic Youth T-shirt on,” Anders says. Janus and Thompson are pleasantly surprised, too, griping only that there should be music piped onto the back patio. “It’s not pretentious,” Janus says. “The first two places offered some tribute to classical dive-bar-ishness,” Anders concedes, “but in truth, this is my favorite of the three.” Unlike Lucky Lady and Loft Six Ten, Anders concludes, “this place isn’t trying to be anything besides what it is.”

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