The Stop 'N' Drink

Chicago is a great great city with great great bars. Sheena cannot claim to have sampled a broad enough selection to claim definitively that this is the "Best Bar" in town, but it is one of 3 mandatory stops during any visit. More officially known as the Clark Street Ale House , Sheena just calls it the Stop 'N Drink for reasons I am sure are now obvious.


We discovered it (Sheena and Jeks) a couple of years ago during a multi-phased plan of action to celebrate a certain strategic birthday. After a few bubblies at the Top of the Cock we window-shopped at the Bentley dealership and then ran amuck in the streets looking for the next source of liquid refreshment.

We turned the corner and there it was. The Giant Neon Sign staring us in the face. Awe-struck, Sheena turned to Jeks and reverently whispered.... "That's not a sign, it's a command statement". So in we went.

The CSAH specializes in mid-West craft brews and is a beer drinker's paradise. Their ever-changing seasonal draft list offers some rare finds and the Sampler pack is an essential starting point. Flagship Chicago microbrewery Goose Island is well represented, and Sheena massively regrets not having a picture of their funny draft tap heads. A Goose Head for the Honker's Ale, a Phone Receiver for the "312". (The area code for Chicago, dumbass).

Two words of caution.

1: You can still smoke in a Chicago bar. Sometimes Sheena forgets what cities have smoking and which ones don't. I'm generally a tolerant non-smoker, but appreciate the opportunity to change into some dirty grungy clothing BEFORE going into a smoky place so I don't incur unnecessary dry cleaning bills the next day. My recent stay at CSAH was cut short by some florid loud mouth meathead from South Carolina who needed to whip out the cigars and proceeded to regale the place with stories about how you can't buy draft (ie, "free pour") in his state. Sheena was very close to testing her hypothesis about the ability of the smooth white tapered Goose draft tap to fit up his ass in one graceful swoop.

2. There is no food at the CSAH. We learnded this the hard way when I took a gang of hangers-on there after an event. It was going on 10pm and we were famished. The bartender graciously handed us a couple of delivery menus but it was 1 hour minimum before we got any pizza. So..... we walked around the corner, pooling per-diems and brought back a cornucopia of greasy salty sugary goodness from the 7-11. Taquitos, Big Bites, mini-donuts, cashews, and a Slurpee for our Pennsylvanian friend who had never had one before (Sheena nearly passed out right there and then). A double shot of rum was promptly swirled into the strawberry-Coke concoction. We dumped the bag of goodies on the table, and ate and shared communally. Like good friends are supposed to.