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Two cocktails in glasses.
Warlord is a bar with great food.
Chris Peters/Eater Chicago

Where to Drink Cocktails Right Now in Chicago

Sixteen options for great drinks around town

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Warlord is a bar with great food.
| Chris Peters/Eater Chicago

Chicagoans are reaching for their fall gear. Perhaps there’s a few more weeks of patio season left — the city never really knows. So wave goodbye to the hard seltzers and settle into proper cocktails for the September edition of the Eater Cocktail Heatmap.

This listing features mostly new taverns or restaurants with notable cocktail or beer offerings. Think of it as a sibling to Eater’s bedrock, its monthly restaurant Heatmap.

There are four adds to the September edition from a low-key Loop hang out, to a Wicker Park bar that hopefully brings a little soul back to the bro-infested district. Enjoy.

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Eater maps are curated by editors and aim to reflect a diversity of neighborhoods, cuisines, and prices. Learn more about our editorial process.

Nine Bar

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Nine Bar is Chinatown’s first cocktail bar, located behind the Moon Palace Express takeout counter. Owners Lily Wang (whose parents own Moon Palace) and Joe Briglio mix up “Asian-ish” takes on classic cocktails, creating Old Fashioneds, highballs, and margaritias with baiju, soju, and shochu.

The Pearl Club

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The owners of Pearl Club are banking that River West, which is just north of West Loop, will have a similar real estate boom. They’ve gutted a divey Irish pub and replaced it with a sexy cocktail bar that should appeal to folks who want to go out on dates or avoid baseball caps.

A low-lit, moody cocktail bar
Opulent design has erased all traces of previous tenant Emmit’s Irish Pub.
Olivia Blinn/The Pearl Club

The Cauldron

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The unofficial Harry Potter bar makes its debut in Chicago inside a former bank. Stroll into the vault for a cocktail that may change colors thanks to come old-fashioned magic with an assist from an interactive wand. There are no nerds in this fantasy realm, just elves you haven’t met yet.

Two smoking green shots beside a pink teacup filled with a cocktail.
Wild cocktail brews abound at the Cauldron.
Barry Brecheisen/Eater Chicago

Warlord

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A trio of chefs who met while working at Art Smith’s Table 52 opened Warlord in April, creating a 45-seater with late-night food service, appealing to restaurant and bar workers who need a place to decompress after long shifts. The result is a boisterous restaurant with two bars and a cocktail list from Augustus “Gus” Federici, formerly of GreenRiver and Testaccio. The constantly evolving menu currently features drinks like a Hemingway Daiquiri and a Strawberry Boulevard. Seasonal non-alcoholic drinks like a strawberry lemonade are also available. A patio is upcoming.

Kashmir

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The owners of boho haven Beatnik and Michelin-starred Porto seek to top themselves yet again with Kashmir, an opulent new bar and lounge that debuted in late June with lavish new digs on Randolph Restaurant Row. Inspired in part by the hedonistic 1980s club scenes in New York and London, Kashmir serves a menu of playful, easy-drinking cocktails like the Space Cowboy (tequila, coconut, rectified pineapple juice, edible strawberry glitter) and yuzu margarita (anejo tequila, fortified wine). Visual art aficionados will also appreciate its custom collection of eight paintings by famed Spanish neo-expressionist Domingo Zapata.

A plush orange lounge couch sits in front of a bright neo-expressionist painting.
Kashmir unabashedly embraces escapism in West Loop.
Wade McElroy/Kashmir

Monarch & Lion, A British Pub

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British-Indian gastropub Monarch & Lion, the latest project from the owners of Rooh Chicago and Bar Goa, has roared into Streeterville with a regal space where patrons can try familiar hits like fish and chips and savory pies alongside chicken tikka masala and lamb shank rogan josh. The cocktail list plays along similar themes with cocktails such as the Kensington Gardens (Hendricks, cucumber, mint, egg white, black pepper, chartreuse spray) and Turmeric G&T (turmeric-infused Dharma gin, orange and thyme syrup, grapefruit soda).

A balloon glass filled with a spritz cocktail.
Monarch & Lion G&T (Tanqueray No. 10 gin, English cucumber, peppercorn, rosemary, tonic).
Chris Peters/Eater Chicago

In West Town, Diego is a bar with exceptional casual Baja Med food from chef Stephen Sandoval who earlier this year finished a residency at Soho House, testing his Sueños menu. As Sandoval preps for the launch of his dinner-focused restaurant, Diego is a dive bar with drinks from veteran Chicago bartender Danielle Lewis. Lewis mixes several creative spins using agave spirits to complement the burritos and other food. The marketing materials describe Diego as a dive bar. Maybe the windows let in too much sunlight for that to be true, but whatever you want to call Diego, just enjoy a drink on the patio.

The exterior of Diego, a bar in West Town. Ashok Selvam/Eater Chicago

Good Night John Boy

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Last month, a new tenant checked into the space next to JP Graziano’s on Randolph Restaurant Row. Good Night John Boy is a party bar that opened locations in Cleveland and Tampa. There’s lots of nostalgia here in this cavernous space with odes to ‘70s actors like Burt Reynolds. There are fun cocktails and DJs. One of the owners, Dante Deiana, is a DJ and longtime associate at Barstool Sports. The owners are hoping to launch a new dinner menu after Labor Day and only offer their casual to-go options currently.

Yokocho

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Yochoko, restaurateur Susan Thompson’s (Sushi Dokku) recently reborn tribute to the casual bars and restaurants that crowd Japan’s old-school urban alleyways, treats its food and drink menus with the same delicacy and eye cast toward tradition. Cocktail selections range from staples like Toki highballs (Toki whisky, lemon, soda water) to the clever Ume Smash (Akashi White Oak, spicy Akashi Ume, lemon). Several sakes are also available by the glass and bottle.

Fancy Plants Kitchen

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Fancy Plants Kitchen recently expanded and started daytime cafe service. This makes the restaurant a rare all-day vegan affair with great meat- and dairy-free morning, afternoon, and dinner options like a vegan Italian beef sandwich and more. Wrapped up in that package is a cocktail program that won’t feature ingredients like gelatin or honey that aren’t considered vegan. The wines are also wholly vegan — some vineyards filter their wines through animal bladders. All in all, it’s a quality neighborhood hang with great food that doesn’t rely on proteins from big national companies.

In Good Spirits

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After a batch of successful pop-ups in places like Cindy’s, the duo behind In Fine Spirits have a permanent location. Their mission is simple: to provide a space for folks without alcohol. The space has plenty of delicious drinks that use fresh herbs and juices. The spirit of inclusivity is the wave the owners are riding, appealing to the straight-edge crowd and the sober curious.

Bungalow by Middle Brow

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Middle Brow continues to reinvent itself in Logan Square. The brewery, which has a love for wild beers and makes some of the city’s best pizza, has dove head first into the world of natural wine, offering funky and easy-going pours with grapes from Michigan and California. This move has created Chicago’s first natural winery.

A bottle of wine poured into a glass on a picnic table. Garrett Sweet/Eater Chicago

Bistro Monadnock

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This charming street-level French restaurant, a short distance from Harold Washington Library in the Loop, screams old-school Chicago. The bar is the ideal space to escape the busy city with dark woods and brass rails. The food is marvelous, but the bar space is also a treat during the week. Sometimes the Heatmap isn’t about a bustling room, but a place where drinkers can talk with a bartender, shuck a few oysters, or eat a dynamite burger while ordering a stiff martini.

Desert Hawk

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Division Street in Wicker Park has seen a few phases in recent years. Once a neighborhood for creatives, the bar scene has shifted to more sporty and family-friendly. Desert Hawk reverses that trend, returning a little charm to the area. The West Coast owners want to bring a little of the Golden State to Chicago with tequila drinks and an arsenal of cocktails. The food is also noteworthy: there are tacos and smash burgers from Cocina Sublime. Formerly known as Taco Sublime, they’ve popped up at Marz Community Brewing and Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club and specialized in cheesy, griddled food.

Nisos Prime

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When playing sports, school kids — after a play goes awry — will ask for a “do-over.” When they get older, they “rage-quit” and turn off their video game console after the result isn’t satisfactory. At Nisos in West Loop, the Greek concept didn’t work, so they also reset and are shifting toward a beefier, “more accessible” menu. While the full dining room won’t reopen until later in the fall, the bar and lounge have reopened with cocktails and some of the elements from the team behind Hampton Social. Whatever the interiors look like, the prime location will draw an attractive crowd for people watching.

Marina's Bistro and Rum Bar

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Chicago loves its tropical drinks, especially during bitter winters. In Uptown, a first-time restaurant owner has opened Marina’s Bistro and Rum Bar which serves Puerto Rican cuisine. Find ridiculous concoctions like the “El Viejo San Juan cocktail” (coconut rum, pineapple rum, pineapple juice, coconut cream). It’s a four-seat bar, so this is a place for an early nightcap if customers aren’t eating a full meal.

Nine Bar

Nine Bar is Chinatown’s first cocktail bar, located behind the Moon Palace Express takeout counter. Owners Lily Wang (whose parents own Moon Palace) and Joe Briglio mix up “Asian-ish” takes on classic cocktails, creating Old Fashioneds, highballs, and margaritias with baiju, soju, and shochu.

The Pearl Club

The owners of Pearl Club are banking that River West, which is just north of West Loop, will have a similar real estate boom. They’ve gutted a divey Irish pub and replaced it with a sexy cocktail bar that should appeal to folks who want to go out on dates or avoid baseball caps.

A low-lit, moody cocktail bar
Opulent design has erased all traces of previous tenant Emmit’s Irish Pub.
Olivia Blinn/The Pearl Club

The Cauldron

The unofficial Harry Potter bar makes its debut in Chicago inside a former bank. Stroll into the vault for a cocktail that may change colors thanks to come old-fashioned magic with an assist from an interactive wand. There are no nerds in this fantasy realm, just elves you haven’t met yet.

Two smoking green shots beside a pink teacup filled with a cocktail.
Wild cocktail brews abound at the Cauldron.
Barry Brecheisen/Eater Chicago

Warlord

A trio of chefs who met while working at Art Smith’s Table 52 opened Warlord in April, creating a 45-seater with late-night food service, appealing to restaurant and bar workers who need a place to decompress after long shifts. The result is a boisterous restaurant with two bars and a cocktail list from Augustus “Gus” Federici, formerly of GreenRiver and Testaccio. The constantly evolving menu currently features drinks like a Hemingway Daiquiri and a Strawberry Boulevard. Seasonal non-alcoholic drinks like a strawberry lemonade are also available. A patio is upcoming.

Kashmir

The owners of boho haven Beatnik and Michelin-starred Porto seek to top themselves yet again with Kashmir, an opulent new bar and lounge that debuted in late June with lavish new digs on Randolph Restaurant Row. Inspired in part by the hedonistic 1980s club scenes in New York and London, Kashmir serves a menu of playful, easy-drinking cocktails like the Space Cowboy (tequila, coconut, rectified pineapple juice, edible strawberry glitter) and yuzu margarita (anejo tequila, fortified wine). Visual art aficionados will also appreciate its custom collection of eight paintings by famed Spanish neo-expressionist Domingo Zapata.

A plush orange lounge couch sits in front of a bright neo-expressionist painting.
Kashmir unabashedly embraces escapism in West Loop.
Wade McElroy/Kashmir

Monarch & Lion, A British Pub

British-Indian gastropub Monarch & Lion, the latest project from the owners of Rooh Chicago and Bar Goa, has roared into Streeterville with a regal space where patrons can try familiar hits like fish and chips and savory pies alongside chicken tikka masala and lamb shank rogan josh. The cocktail list plays along similar themes with cocktails such as the Kensington Gardens (Hendricks, cucumber, mint, egg white, black pepper, chartreuse spray) and Turmeric G&T (turmeric-infused Dharma gin, orange and thyme syrup, grapefruit soda).

A balloon glass filled with a spritz cocktail.
Monarch & Lion G&T (Tanqueray No. 10 gin, English cucumber, peppercorn, rosemary, tonic).
Chris Peters/Eater Chicago

Diego

In West Town, Diego is a bar with exceptional casual Baja Med food from chef Stephen Sandoval who earlier this year finished a residency at Soho House, testing his Sueños menu. As Sandoval preps for the launch of his dinner-focused restaurant, Diego is a dive bar with drinks from veteran Chicago bartender Danielle Lewis. Lewis mixes several creative spins using agave spirits to complement the burritos and other food. The marketing materials describe Diego as a dive bar. Maybe the windows let in too much sunlight for that to be true, but whatever you want to call Diego, just enjoy a drink on the patio.

The exterior of Diego, a bar in West Town. Ashok Selvam/Eater Chicago

Good Night John Boy

Last month, a new tenant checked into the space next to JP Graziano’s on Randolph Restaurant Row. Good Night John Boy is a party bar that opened locations in Cleveland and Tampa. There’s lots of nostalgia here in this cavernous space with odes to ‘70s actors like Burt Reynolds. There are fun cocktails and DJs. One of the owners, Dante Deiana, is a DJ and longtime associate at Barstool Sports. The owners are hoping to launch a new dinner menu after Labor Day and only offer their casual to-go options currently.

Yokocho

Yochoko, restaurateur Susan Thompson’s (Sushi Dokku) recently reborn tribute to the casual bars and restaurants that crowd Japan’s old-school urban alleyways, treats its food and drink menus with the same delicacy and eye cast toward tradition. Cocktail selections range from staples like Toki highballs (Toki whisky, lemon, soda water) to the clever Ume Smash (Akashi White Oak, spicy Akashi Ume, lemon). Several sakes are also available by the glass and bottle.

Fancy Plants Kitchen

Fancy Plants Kitchen recently expanded and started daytime cafe service. This makes the restaurant a rare all-day vegan affair with great meat- and dairy-free morning, afternoon, and dinner options like a vegan Italian beef sandwich and more. Wrapped up in that package is a cocktail program that won’t feature ingredients like gelatin or honey that aren’t considered vegan. The wines are also wholly vegan — some vineyards filter their wines through animal bladders. All in all, it’s a quality neighborhood hang with great food that doesn’t rely on proteins from big national companies.

In Good Spirits

After a batch of successful pop-ups in places like Cindy’s, the duo behind In Fine Spirits have a permanent location. Their mission is simple: to provide a space for folks without alcohol. The space has plenty of delicious drinks that use fresh herbs and juices. The spirit of inclusivity is the wave the owners are riding, appealing to the straight-edge crowd and the sober curious.

Bungalow by Middle Brow

Middle Brow continues to reinvent itself in Logan Square. The brewery, which has a love for wild beers and makes some of the city’s best pizza, has dove head first into the world of natural wine, offering funky and easy-going pours with grapes from Michigan and California. This move has created Chicago’s first natural winery.

A bottle of wine poured into a glass on a picnic table. Garrett Sweet/Eater Chicago

Bistro Monadnock

This charming street-level French restaurant, a short distance from Harold Washington Library in the Loop, screams old-school Chicago. The bar is the ideal space to escape the busy city with dark woods and brass rails. The food is marvelous, but the bar space is also a treat during the week. Sometimes the Heatmap isn’t about a bustling room, but a place where drinkers can talk with a bartender, shuck a few oysters, or eat a dynamite burger while ordering a stiff martini.

Desert Hawk

Division Street in Wicker Park has seen a few phases in recent years. Once a neighborhood for creatives, the bar scene has shifted to more sporty and family-friendly. Desert Hawk reverses that trend, returning a little charm to the area. The West Coast owners want to bring a little of the Golden State to Chicago with tequila drinks and an arsenal of cocktails. The food is also noteworthy: there are tacos and smash burgers from Cocina Sublime. Formerly known as Taco Sublime, they’ve popped up at Marz Community Brewing and Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club and specialized in cheesy, griddled food.

Nisos Prime

When playing sports, school kids — after a play goes awry — will ask for a “do-over.” When they get older, they “rage-quit” and turn off their video game console after the result isn’t satisfactory. At Nisos in West Loop, the Greek concept didn’t work, so they also reset and are shifting toward a beefier, “more accessible” menu. While the full dining room won’t reopen until later in the fall, the bar and lounge have reopened with cocktails and some of the elements from the team behind Hampton Social. Whatever the interiors look like, the prime location will draw an attractive crowd for people watching.

Related Maps

Marina's Bistro and Rum Bar

Chicago loves its tropical drinks, especially during bitter winters. In Uptown, a first-time restaurant owner has opened Marina’s Bistro and Rum Bar which serves Puerto Rican cuisine. Find ridiculous concoctions like the “El Viejo San Juan cocktail” (coconut rum, pineapple rum, pineapple juice, coconut cream). It’s a four-seat bar, so this is a place for an early nightcap if customers aren’t eating a full meal.

Related Maps