Bar #57: Carol's Pub

4659 N. Clark St.
1:00am, Friday, March 15
Price of Old Style: $4.50 / bottle












Carol's - the 4am/5am bar that's usually muttered in the sentence "Why in the f--k did I go to Carol's last night?" Carol's is not a bar that you ever make plans to go to...  Nobody ever says "Hey, let's go to Carol's tonight" at 5pm.  It's usually around bar time, and you have a limited number of options...you don't want to go home, so it's "you want to keep drinking?  Me too! Let's go to Carol's!"

The exception is if you and your brother are doing a tour of Old Style bars and blogging about it, and Carol's just so happens to have an Old Style sign out front.  So we actually did plan on going to Carol's, but we still didn't get there until 1am early Friday morning.  Surprisingly, it wasn't crowded at all...there was a group of about 10 people, which we later found out were all co-workers celebrating someones birthday, and then a few random locals, and us.  

They have both kinds of music...

The bar seemed unfamiliar, but that's what happens when you see it sober for the first time.  I hadn't been here in ages...since my single days.  It was a lot dingier than I remembered...  It's kinda like the sledding hill you went to as a kid, and then you come back with your kid, and you're like "wasn't this hill a lot bigger?"  Yes...because you were eight!  It's a matter of perspective.  Just like when you are drunk, bars seem cleaner and beer tastes better and girls look hotter and karaoke is more fun and country music is awesome...  But that is what makes Carol's work...the karaoke on Thursday nights...and the live honky tonk music on Fridays and Saturdays.  It's unique...and after a few beers with some good friends...it's really really fun.

Unfortunately, this night was a little slow, so we had to make our own fun.  My brother is a musician, so he had no problem going up and singing some songs...me on the other hand, I'm more of a sit back and observe guy.  So, as I'm listening to the younger bro belt out "Easy Lover" by Phil Collins, I get approached by a guy asking if he could sketch my portrait.  And he would do it in 5 minutes.  Sure, I tell him, and then he creates this masterpiece:

Apparently I drink with my eyes closed

So now I'm just thinking of how I can convince my wife to get this framed.  Someday when we own a house (with a bar, of course), this is going on the wall.  Thanks again to Chris Wright, and to Carol's for finally giving me a experience at your bar I will remember!