Astro's Guide to Restaurants with Bars
In general, Evanston does not really have bars. Instead, we have restaurants that just happen to have bars. Some of these establishments, like Tommy Nevin's, put the bar and the dining area in separate rooms, and so as long as you stay on the bar side you feel as if you are in a real pub. To be included on this page, a restaurant has to have a bar and the bar has to do more than merely serve as a holding area for people waiting for a tables. The restaurants I list below are as close as Evanston comes to the bar experience.
Also, note that Evanston has a non-smoking law that affects all restaurants and bars.
Evanston Restaurants with Bars |
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Buffalo Wild WIngs
Type: Sports Bar and Restaurant
Location: 1741 Maple Ave.
Finally, after waiting years and years, a real sports bar opens right in downtown Evanston. While I am not a fan of chain restaurants, I have to admire this one for taking a chance on Evanston and opening a restaurant with more screens showing sports than any other place in town. Of course many former NU students will prefer the wings at Buffalo Joe's, which is a few blocks away, but if you want to combine wings and sports and beer, this place has to be on your list. Historically, I have spent most of my away-game Saturday afternoons at Tommy Nevin's. This year I plan to split my time between Nevin's and Buffalo Wild Wings until I decide which I like better.
Tommy Nevin's Pub
Type: Traditional bar on one side, full-service restaurant on the other
Location: 1450 Sherman Ave.
This establishment is on the corner of Sherman Ave. and Lake St. directly across from the Best Western hotel. Nevin's is an Irish bar with old hardwood floors and wooden benches. It also has a restaurant with some excellent Irish and American fare. Nevin's recently added a brick-lined outdoor patio with an outdoor bar, fireplace, and flat-screen TVs. This is a great place to watch the game in warmer weather. The indoor bar area has multiple rooms, including one with several flat screens and large projection screens that usually show NU football games. People of all ages hang out at Nevin's. Children (accompanied by an adult) appear to be welcome in the bar area, at least during the daytime. My favorite appetizers are the steak bites and the brown bread with butter (which is not on the bar menu, but you can often order it anyway). My only negative comment is that on some football Saturdays they either do not open the back room for fans or they rent out the back room for events, leaving the fans with too few tables and too few screens. [Sigh] When will they learn.
Bar Louie
Type: Bar that also serves food
Location: 1520 Sherman Ave.
Bar Louie is on the corner of Sherman Ave. and Grove St., half a block north of the Best Western. This is one of a chain bar/restaurants, and as such, there is nothing Evanstonian about it. I can rant and rave that it lacks character, but to be honest, as bars go, it is not bad and I have enjoyed my experiences there. The outdoor seating area is very popular in warm weather.
Bill's Blues Bar (now closed)
Type: Bar with live music most nights
Location: 1029 Davis St.
NOTE: Unfortunately, Bill's Blues could not surive the poor economy. It closed in November 2009.
Bat 17
Type: Deli pub
Location: 1709 Benson Ave.
This establishment aspires to be a distinctive deli/pub in the tradition of such eateries in New York and Lincoln Park. It is small with limited seating, plus a few outdoor tables in good weather. The menu features mostly sandwiches, burgers, and salads, all of them made with quality ingredients and even the breads are locally made. Of sandwiches they feature a large selection divided into the following categories (with multiple choices in each category): corned beef, free range chicken, turkey, pastrami, fish, beef, vegetarian, and pork. Most sandwiches come in two sizes, regular size (RS) and full size (FS). Even the regular size is very large. For example, the California Dreamin' turkey sandwich is about four inches tall. They also have a reasonably good selection of beers and wines. The place has nothing to quiet the noise levels, so it seems loud even if only a few people are in there. They have three TV screens, usually showing sports. On the negative side, their sandwich prices are among the highest in Evanston, typically twelve dollars each, which pretty much destroys the value proposition. The burgers are twelve dollars, too. Despite the prices, the place is fairly popular for lunch and dinner. However, in order to keep the price in the acceptable range, I recommend ordering the large size sandwich and splitting it with a someone else.
Pete Miller's Steakhouse
Type: Full-service restaurant on one side and bar on the other
Location: 1557 Sherman Ave.
Pete Miller's is on Sherman Ave., a little north of Grove St., about one block north of the Best Western. I like this place, but the restaurant is it is on the expensive side. This is a high-quality steakhouse with two bars, one in the middle of the main dining room and the other in a separate room with pool tables. The restaurant usually feature live jazz on the weekends. If you can find a seat at the bar in the dining room, you can enjoy the live music for the cost of a drink. They have huge variety of steak cuts that they offer. The separate bar area is a fine one, but could use more screens.
The Celtic Knot
Type: Bar on one side, full service Irish restaurant on the other
Location: 626 Church St.
The Celtic Knot is on Church St., half a block east of Orrington Ave. in the same space that used to be Roxy's. I have heard that the Celtic Knot was started by renegades from Tommy Nevin's Pub after Nevin's changed ownership. It is much smaller than Nevin's and the emphasis is more on the food than on drinking or sports watching. They have a room in the back called the Snug, which is used for live music and for soccer watching. As far as I know, they do not use it for watching college football. They have many of the beers that I like (Guinness, Harp, Smithwicks), and they offer a good corned beef sandwich made with Kerrygold Swiss cheese. In the evenings, you may catch some of the staff wearing their "Knotty but nice" T-shirts. Tip: try Sunday brunch here: excellent quality but not as crowded as most of the Sunday brunch places in town.
The Rhythm Room
Type: Bar that also serves food, but with a limited menu
Location: 1715 Maple Ave.
Many people do not know about this place. The Rhythm Room features cocktails and live jazz music on the second floor of the Century 12 movie theater. In other words, the movie theater in downtown Evanston has its own sophisticated night spot. You go up the escalator to the main lobby, then through the glass doors on the right. If you are seeing a movie, definitely stop by and have a drink before or after the flick. A big, thick wall was recently built around a concession area in the middle of the Rhythm Room, cutting down on the elegant ambiance, but it is still an elegant night spot, especially when a jazz combo is playing on weekday evenings. The food menu is limited to a few appetizers (quesadillas, chicken crunch, panini sandwiches) and some desserts. Of course, you can also get popcorn from the concession area. On Friday and Saturday night it gets busy in the mid to late evenings.
The Keg
Type: Bar that also serves food, student hangout
Location: 810 Grove St.
The Keg is on Grove St., very close to Sherman Ave. and next door to Bar Louie. This place has seen better days, but it serves well enough as a bar for students. It has multiple rooms, which server multiple purposes, everything from dancing to sports watching. However, it does not have the reputation of being a place to find and interact with typical Northwestern fans (outside of students). On warm evenings during the school year, a large number of legal-age NU students stream into this place in a parade that is amusing to watch from the outdoor seating area of Bar Louie. A police car often sits nearby on weekend evenings, and a person was shot in this establishment in June 2005.
The BlueStone
Type: Restaurant with a small bar area
Location: 1932 Central St.
The BlueStone is one of the closest restaurants to the football stadium. It is on Central Street about half a block west of Green Bay Road. This is a very popular neighborhood restaurant with a few flat screens that usually show Northwestern games. Game attendance has a big effect on how crowded it is on a Saturday afternoon. On game days when Ohio State or Michigan come to town, it can be almost impossible getting a table here. My favorite item on the menu is the quesadillas. It is one of the few bars in the northern part of Evanston.
Globe Café
Type: Restaurant on one side, bar and lounge area on the other side
Location: 1710 N. Orrington Ave.
This restaurant is inside the Hotel Orrington, but it has its own access to the street. This is the less expensive of the two restaurants in the Hotel Orrington. In previous incarnations, this was the Coach's Café, Gary Barnett's, and the Huddle. Long time Northwestern fans feel as though this location should always house a Northwestern theme restaurant of some kind, so when the Globe opened up without any obvious NU motif, many fans were surprised. Since then, management has started to embrace the NU fan base, at least in some ways. For example, the Globe Café hosted a meet-the-team event for the basketball team the fall of 2006. Some of the beer glasses there have the NU football schedule printed on the side. Also, the Hotel Orrington is now a sponsor of Northwestern athletics. So, slowly the Wildcat look and feel may be returning. The dining room has white tablecloths and a reasonably diverse menu, but the only thing I have eaten here are the burgers, which are good. The bar area has a few flat screens and the staff is willing to change the channel to accommodate the requests of patrons. As you would expect, many of the people who dine here are staying at the hotel.
Merle's Rib Palace
Type: Bar in front as you come in, full-service restaurant in back
Location: 1727 Benson Ave.
This is the land of BBQ in the form of ribs and pulled meat sandwiches. Elvis memorabilia, John Wayne movie posters, and assorted pig figurines decorate the walls. Try a full slab or half slab of baby back ribs Chicago-style, so tender that the meat falls off the bone. You can also order the ribs Southern-style, or more chewy. Try the tangy BBQ sauce - deliciously sweet and smoky. If you order one of the pulled-meat sandwiches, you can substitute any of the available sides for the fries. I usually go for corn on the cob. I also like the Brunswick stew, a mixture of pulled meats and vegetables. Even a cup of it makes a filling meal -- plus beer, of course. The Evanston Athletic Club is upstairs in the same building, and at certain times of the day the folks working out can smell the barbecue. The bar has a Texas theme and friendly bartenders. There are many small, flat screens throughout the restaurant and bar, and the back room has a large projection screen.
Prairie Moon
Type: Bar in front, full-service restaurant in back
Location: 1502 Sherman
On Sherman Avenue, half a block north of the Best Western. The front room has a bar and some tables, as well as a large projection screen. The dining room is in back, along with a multiple separate rooms for special events. They serve mostly stylish American dishes, but not pricey. They occasionally have live music, too.
Chili's
Type: Chain restaurant with a bar
Location: 1765 Maple Ave.
This restaurant is on Maple Avenue, a half block north of the Century 12 movie theaters (and across the street from the large parking garage). This is one of the Chili's chain and it seems to have done well in Evanston. The menu is diverse and inexpensive. The bar area is separate from the dining area and it several small screens. This establishment has a nice location in that it is across the street from the massive Maple street parking garage.
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