Bar #25: Maria's Tap

5357 W. Belmont Ave.

9:00pm, Thursday, August 4

Price of Old Style: $1.00 12oz mugs (Tues & Thurs only)

As we were heading down Belmont towards Harlem Ave., we see it out of the corner of our eye: ANOTHER OLD STYLE BAR! And one that was definitely not on our radar--what neighborhood were we in? I did some research and it's in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood...I have lived in Chicago 12 years and have never heard of it.

We walk in, and the bartender is talking on the phone to someone (in Polish, of course :) ). She sees us, puts down the phone, gets our Old Styles and gets right back on the phone. There are 3 other regulars in the bar, just hanging out, not speaking to anyone. There is one older gentleman at the end of the bar who looks like he's either sleeping or dead (I apologize for no picture - I was a little nervous of the man sitting on my left). Anyway, we drink our beer, wave goodbye to the bartender and leave. Not sure the 3 guys at the bar even noticed we were there...

Bar #24: Little Rascals Bar & Grill

4356 W. Belmont Ave.

8:00pm, Thursday, August 4

Price of Old Style: $2.75 bottles

Little Rascal's wears many hats: bar & grill, karaoke bar, sports bar, dive bar, melting pot. We experienced all of these except for the karaoke, which happens on Saturday nights.

The bar was surprisingly large, but everyone was at the bar when we walked in. A Chicago cop talking to an older woman who had her dog, Jasmine, in the bar as well. A middle aged couple, and a younger guy who was chatting up the bartender, who wasn't that busy. After a few minutes the cop was grilling the young guy, asking him what he's been up to. The guy tells the cop that he's been staying out of trouble, away from the gangs, and has a few job leads that look promising...

We finally got to talk to the bartender after a while...she was a young girl who couldn't have been more than 23 years old, and she was the only one running the bar. Renata moved to Chicago a month ago from Poland to live with her sister...she was able to find a job at Little Rascal's and works mostly days. I swear, 50% of the Old Style bars we've been to are Polish owned or have Polish bartenders.

Renata's friend asks for some food to go, so she goes into the back and pulls out some frozen french fries and chicken tenders. Dumps them into the hot oil and crisps them up perfectly. Renata is a month into the job, and she's already doing it all: The American Dream.

Bar #4: The Levee

8:45pm, Wednesday, June 1

4035 W. Fullerton Ave.

Price of Old Style: $3.25 bottles

The Levee has the best bar in the city, and needs to be patented. It's unique curvature allows for someone to sit 8 barstools down from you and basically have a face-to-face conversation. The other face to my face was Dixie, a 62-year old African-American man who couldn't have been more than 5'1", 120 lbs, married a white woman back in the early 70's, was a huge Sox fan, loved Screwdrivers, seemed like he had a huge chip on his shoulder, but couldn't be a nicer guy.

The owner of the bar, Warren, with his deep bellowing voice, teased Dixie a number of times about his small stature, but it was all in good fun. Warren, noticing our new faces, wasted no time chatting us up to get to know us better. "You guys from around here?", he started with, and the conversation began.

We found out that Warren has owned The Levee for over 32 years, is an ex-Marine, and has lived in the Hermosa neighborhood his whole life. He has six kids, and his oldest, Kim, was tending bar this evening. He told us stories about coaching national championship 16-inch softball teams, his annual vacations to Mexico, and how he could get tickets for any team in the city. He's even inducted in the 16-inch Softball Hall of Fame! Warren is the main reason this place is still around...he creates an atmosphere that allows for great conversation, and then delivers with amazing stories. We could have stayed there all night.

Knowing we had other bars to visit, and needing a little change of pace, we strolled into the back room. I had actually been to this bar before, and I knew there was a basketball hoop hidden in the back bar area by the pool tables. Would Warren be up for a little bet? Of course he would... Best out of 10, lowest score buys the next round. Unfortunately, my brother didn't have quite the hot hand that Warren and I did (9 out of 10 for both of us), and lost the bet. We went back to our seats, and got ready to buy the next round, but Warren beat us to the punch and there were three shots of Jameson waiting for us at the bar. "Thanks for coming in, guys...hope to see you again". Cheers, Warren. We hope to be back soon.

Here is video of our contest, and by the way, this was the warm up...we were both pretty bad here. Check out the shot by Warren at 0:54 -- he definitely received a home-court bounce...

Other tidbits:

--There is a large bush outside the bar trimmed in the shape of a beer bottle.

--The barstools are from the old Soldier Field skyboxes, bought in an auction while they were renovating the stadium.