|
2005-02-03 - 7:30 a.m.
Bridgeport vs. Lincoln Park (drinking establishments edition) -Lincoln Park: Yes. I�m fairly thin with blond hair. I don�t, however, see any need to dress like a hooker when I go to a bar. I don�t shop at Wet Seal , and I shudder when I walk by it. If I can�t look attractive without showing strangers my goodies, then I (and they) are just going to have to deal with it. I hate loud places. This may sound odd coming from someone whose husband is pretty sure she has hearing loss (�Did you just say �ickle wall�?� �No, I said �little ball.�), but I go out to be with friends. Not to further lose my ability to hear. I carry around earplugs in my purse, but because I have itty-bitty ear canals, they end up making my ears hurt and then popping out anyway. To be honest, I could do without going to bars at all if my friends would come over to my house and drink with me. But the official back-up plan of hanging out with friends is going to a bar. Okay, so I deal with this pretty well,* but I can�t help feeling like I�m getting ripped off. There are NO parking spots! I can only drive around aimlessly for so long before I have a fit. And yes, I�m Mrs. Pro-public-transit, but the Orange Line shuts down after midnight or so and even I draw the line at riding the Red Line in the wee hours of the morning. *I�m a hard core beer snob. I can recognize the different types of hops and if they�re not European I often won�t buy the beer again, so I make my own beer instead (best hobby ever, by the way � cheap drinking and an outlet for creativity). That being said though, I�m perfectly willing to drink Old Style or other watery American beers as long as its cheap ($2 or under) and on draft.
In order of preference:
1. Old Style � an aura of Cub-ness. They advertise and sponsor so much surrounding the Cubs I end up feeling like I�m supporting the team by drinking it. Also, it�s too watery to taste bad.
2. MGD/Miller High Life/Miller Lite � I seriously can�t taste the differences here. It tries a little harder to taste like beer than the Old Style, but it also doesn�t succeed particularly well. It�s fine though. No major complaints other than my associating them with the Milwaukee Brewers.
3. Budweiser/Bud Light � Too involved with the Cardinals organization. I can�t drink it based on principle. (I refuse to drink Pepsi products based on their affiliation with the Colorado Avalanche also.) There are a few in my refrigerator left from a party a few months ago, so they get used in cooking. Or when other, less-principled people come over. -Bridgeport: No one dresses like a hooker unless it�s directly before or after a Sox game. Bridgeport makes a lot of sense to me most of the time (working class, gruff-but-friendly, fairly quiet). However, around Sox games it�s inundated with drunk men between 20 and 50 years old who leer at women (this is very amusing when I�m in my usual bar and the regulars start keeping an eye out for me), yell half-garbled statements about how they hate the other team or the Cubs**, and stumble across large streets nearly getting hit by cars. Anyway. Sidetracked much? Yes. Normally, there are no prostitute outfits.
**I�ve come to the conclusion that yelling about the Cubs is a stand-in for when they forget (or never knew in the first place?) what team the Sox are actually playing that day. It does get loud sometimes, but usually when it�s loud a kick-ass blues band is playing and I actually want to hear them. I don�t feel quite as much of a need to ignore the music around me when I like it � and it also justifies not talking to others there with me because they�re also listening. The rest of the time, it�s a jukebox that is at an acceptable volume and perfectly good selection. It�s nothing compared to the selection at Schuba�s , of course, but I can only be so picky. One of the bars in Bridgeport has a bust of Richard J. Daley behind the bar. This is vastly cooler than any disco ball or strobe light. Don�t know why? Read Boss, by Mike Royko � he doesn�t sugarcoat anything and some parts can be upsetting to read (for instance, the part when to tells police to shoot to kill during the 1968 riots), but Chicago makes a lot more sense after reading it.
previous - next
|