5 Chicago Cocktail Hotspots Serving House-Made Off-Menu Fireball

Fireball: it's not just for sports bars and frat boys anymore. Five notable and trendy bars and restaurants have concocted and are serving house-made off-menu versions of the cinnamon-flavored whiskey most often seen as a cheap shot at your neighborhood sports watering hole.

Are these bars onto something? If you use Bub City as an indication, that answer would be yes. Management estimates that the Lettuce Entertain You barbecue and country music hotspot runs through 250 shots a night and sold 7000 in July alone.

Here now, five places to find a mixologized version of Fireball.

Bub City: The "FirePaul," named for LEYE beverage director Paul McGee, is basically an old fashioned with cinnamon simple syrup that springs from a nondescript, label-less glass bottle behind the bar. It's less sugary than regular Fireball, which takes some patrons off guard, according to management. Price: $8; $5 special on Mondays.

Parson's Chicken & Fish: Land & Sea Dept's Logan Square spot calls its off-menu creation the "Fever Dee Williams." Price: $6.

Lone Wolf: Beverage director/partner Stephen Cole has concocted his version of Fireball at the trendy Randolph Row bar. Name: "ColeFire." Price:  $7.

Celeste: The multi-level cocktail emporium and supper club in River North has been selling its take on the cinnamon whiskey for months to those in the know. Name: "Fire Escape." Cost: $8.

Wood: House-made Fireball has also been spotted at the modern Michelin Bib Gourmand-rated restaurant and bar in Boystown. Name: "Slingshots." Price: unknown.