The Top 59 Places to Drink Near Fox's Lounge
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Rank 4. Best Intentions
Midwestern Dive Bar
- 50 Best #16 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Bar Team
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- 50 Best #65 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Esquire The Best Bars in America
- The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars In Chicago
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- 50 Best #30 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Esquire The Best Bars in America
- The Banchets Winner · Bar of the Year
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Rank 8. Scofflaw
Gin-Focused Cocktail Bar
Two buildings knocked into one give Scofflaw two distinct personalities: an industrial front room with the bar counter, and a Victorian-ish back room with wingback armchairs that somehow doesn't feel ironic. It's a gin-focused cocktail bar in Logan Square that also leans dive, with craft beer and pub grub to prove it. Expect a line on weekends; they don't take reservations, and forty minutes is a reasonable opening bid.
- Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
- Wildsam The 50 Most Essential Bars in America
- The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars In Chicago
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Rank 9. Queen Mary
British-Inspired Cocktail Bar
- 50 Best #80 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Esquire Martini Service · The Best Martinis in America
- Esquire Market Price Martini · The Best Martinis in America
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- Eater Best New Bar
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best New Bar
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central
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Rank 15. Asador Bastian
Basque-inspired Steakhouse
The Txuletón, a Basque-style ribeye from mature dairy cows, grilled over open charcoal with salt, heat, and not much else, is the organizing principle of this Basque-inspired chophouse in River North. The kitchen takes its cues from the asador tradition, applying that discipline to seriously sourced beef, carefully aged. Spanish reds anchor the wine list. Esquire named it among the best new restaurants in America, and it lands at number 15 on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list.
- World's 101 Best #15 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Esquire Dirty Dirty · The Best Martinis in America
- Esquire The Spanglish · The Best Martinis in America
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- The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars In Chicago
- Eater Chicago’s Best Speakeasies and Secret Bars
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. Central
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Rank 17. Creepies
French
The checkered tile floors and art-lined stone walls make it look like a Parisian bistro that wandered into the West Loop and decided to stay. Creepies is a neighborhood French restaurant from the team behind Elske next door, with a concise menu that leans classic and slides Midwestern where it can. The vesper martini landed on Esquire's list of the best in the country, which is not nothing for a place called Creepies.
- Esquire Vesper · The Best Martinis in America
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The Infatuation #9 · Chicago’s Best New Restaurants
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- The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars In Chicago
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central
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- 50 Best One to Watch Award
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central
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- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. Central
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central
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Rank 30. Bokeh
Cocktail Bar
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- James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Outstanding Bar Program
- The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars In Chicago
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- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. Central
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Rank 36. Lost Lake
Tiki Cocktail Bar
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Rank 38. Parachute HiFi
Korean Cocktail Bar
- James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurant
- The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars In Chicago
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Rank 39. The Victor Cocktail Bar
Cocktail Bar
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Rank 40. Daisies
Italian
Pasta and vegetables carry most of the weight here, at this bright, sun-flooded Italian restaurant in Logan Square that holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand. The house-made pappardelle and rigatoni keep regulars coming back, but the onion dip with house-made ruffles has become a thing people talk about. A bakery tucked in the back means the pastry situation at the end of a meal is genuinely hard to navigate. The bar program turns heads too, a James Beard semifinalist for hospitality.
- Punch Best New Bartenders · Becca Petersen
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- The New York Times The Restaurant List
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Rank 41. The Bar at Hotel Zachary
Mediterranean
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Rank 44. Billy Sunday
Cocktail Bar
The back bar holds what might be the most bewildering collection of vintage Italian Fernet you'll encounter outside of Milan. Billy Sunday is a polished amaro and cocktail bar in Logan Square, narrow and dark-wooded, with green walls and vintage lamps that suggest a gentlemen's club that loosened up considerably. The bar stools fill early with people who know their bitter spirits, and the classically built cocktails give them good reason to stay.
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Rank 46. Bordel
Parisian Cocktail Bar
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Rank 47. The Barrelhouse Flat
Cocktail Bar
The ground floor runs dark wood and dim light, with a long bar and clandestine booths; upstairs it's velvet couches and armchairs, like someone's very well-stocked living room. This Lincoln Avenue cocktail bar leans into an old-time saloon feel without making it a costume, pulling sixty-plus classics-leaning drinks organized by spirit and style. The Harry Johnson-style etchings on the menu are either charming or insufferable, depending on your mood.
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- Midwest Living 2023 · Best of the Midwest
- Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
- The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars In Chicago
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Rank 52. Dorian's
Italian Cocktail Bar
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Rank 54. Big Star
Mexican
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Rank 55. The Drifter
Cocktail Bar
The bar is in the basement, which is the point. The Drifter is a tiny subterranean cocktail lounge tucked beneath the Green Door Tavern, a speakeasy in the old sense of the word, not just the aesthetic. Low ceilings, dim light, and the general feeling that you've wandered somewhere you weren't supposed to find. The kind of place where a well-made drink tastes better simply because you had to descend a staircase to get it.
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Rank 58. Booze Box
Japanese Cocktail Bar
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You ride a repurposed service elevator to reach this speakeasy-inspired rooftop cocktail bar perched atop the Rafaello Hotel. Dim lighting, dark wood, bronze fixtures, and mushroom-toned walls set a moody, upscale tone, and a resident DJ keeps the energy pointed firmly toward party. The crowd skews young and loud, so if you're after a quiet drink and a view, the elevator goes both ways.