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Chicago has 4am closing sunday through friday, and 5am closing on saturdays. Those 5am closings really trip you up.
Don't most bars close at 2a or 3a though? And only some stay open till 4a/5a? I don't remember last call being that late at most bars but just a few select ones stayed open past 2/3a.
I would say NEW ORLEANS is one of the best bar cities/drinking cultures in the nation.
It is CHEAP as hell to drink in NOLA, I haven't been to a city where the booze was so cheap. I don't think I've ever paid more than $4/5 for a nice draft beer there, if that. This one bar I always go to when I visit, Ms Mae's in Uptown, has the cheapest drinks I've seen; $1.25 cocktails and beer.
Alcohol is available anywhere and anytime pretty much, there is no last call in Louisiana and they serve 24/7. And it's one of the few cities in America that allow open containers on the street. You can get a drink at a bar and as long as it's not in a glass bottle or cup, take it with you as you walk to the next bar.
NOLA has some of the best cuisine in the nation, it truly is an amazing city to eat, drink, and have a good time. It has a strong drinking culture and that is just what people do there, hang out at bars. There is even a laundromat there that doubles as a bar.
Chicago has 4am closing sunday through friday, and 5am closing on saturdays. Those 5am closings really trip you up. I remember one of my first Saturday's going out after I moved to the city, I walked out when the lights came on and the sun was coming up outside. People on their way to work, walking dogs, jogging. Here I was wasted waiting for the bus thinking "wtf?!? why are all you people up at 530am already starting your day - and why haven't I ended mine yet!". The public transit and thousands of cabs aspect really helps in the city. Once you're out there's rarely the "well I'd better stop, I need to drive home" crowd who calls it quits or shuts the party down early.
Beer prices and drink prices are about average from what I can tell. The one thing I like is that at least on the north side there are always about a dozen bars each night of the week where you can get beers or other mixed drinks for between $1 and $3. Lots of places do "dollar you call it", or have happy hours. I kinda like that, because friends will usually just look up new places and check them out for cheap drinks. Lets you get out and explore your area a little more.
That's about the best list I've seen of true Bars and Pubs in Chicago as opposed to places that are more oriented towards food, or are restaurants. There are around 1,800 bars listed as of the most recent count. Not sure if EVERY bar in the city is listed, it's more a list put together by a group of guys. I don't know if they squeaked out every dive bar in the city - that would be pretty hard.
Metromix lists 3,464 bars/pubs in the city, although I wonder if some of those are crossovers and include restaurants that also have bars in them.
Either way, the city is definitely defined as having a very solid bar/pub atmosphere. It's lacking in a huge club scene, but bars seem to be on every corner. Some huge 3 story bars and massive sports bars with 30 TVs, other hole in the wall neighborhood places you could walk by and now even notice.
It's worth mentioning that there are two types of tavern licenses in Chicago: 2am licenses and 4am licenses. The substantial majority are 2am licenses, so only a handful of bars are open until 4am. The rest close at 2am, except of course on Saturdays when the 2am bars close at 3 and the 4am bars close at 5.
Also, Chicago used to have far more of a "tavern" culture than it does today. More specifically, there were a lot more corner neighborhood tavern type places, where you'd see a few crusty old plumbers and stuff hanging around drinking Old Style. There are fewer bars today, but they seem to have a bigger capacity and draw crowds in from a wider area -- that is, it's less localized. Obviously not all bars are like that; you can still find remnants of the old "corner tavern" culture, mostly in the bedroom-community neighborhoods toward the outskirts of town. They've basically been priced/chased out of the inner neighborhoods and nightlife districts.
Anyway, as to the OP: while it's not a "city," I have never been anywhere that comes close to the tavern culture in Wisconsin. Drinking is an Olympic sport up there. In every town big enough to have at least one controlled intersection, chances are there's a tavern on that corner. Maybe two.
So maybe the best candidate for this thread is Milwaukee.
Cliff, can you still go to little no-name joints in Chinatown to get a late night sip?
That was the case the last time I was up there.
Yea you can go to some places down in Chinatown and get some "Tea" which has a little more than just tea leaves in it
The fact that we can't have happy hours does suck...but I don't think the people of Boston need any deals to help them drink more. There are plenty of blacked-out people wandering the streets getting into fist fights, etc as it is. We don't need a special hour to accelerate the drinking of our citizens haha.
Yea you can go to some places down in Chinatown and get some "Tea" which has a little more than just tea leaves in it
The fact that we can't have happy hours does suck...but I don't think the people of Boston need any deals to help them drink more. There are plenty of blacked-out people wandering the streets getting into fist fights, etc as it is. We don't need a special hour to accelerate the drinking of our citizens haha.
Happy Hour has been banned here for years - no drink specials allowed.
Of course, if you're friends with your bartender, that certainly doesn't stop them from pouring as freely as they like!
I was shocked the last time I was in Orlando, and stumbled into "Animal Hour" at a place I used to frequent when I lived there. FOUR FOR ONE, from 5:00 to 8:00!!!!!!
Austin has got to be up there. 6th Street is two miles of nothing but bars, clubs, restaurants, and music venues. You also have SoCo which is pretty cool. Downtown in general is has a great night life.
The Boston bar scene gives me a hard-off. The unapproachable character comes inside and the bars close at 2am. I think it's a lot more fun at college parties.
Cliff, can you still go to little no-name joints in Chinatown to get a late night sip?
That was the case the last time I was up there.
To be honest, I'm not sure anymore. We used to go to the Dynasty every now and then, but they closed a few years ago.
There are a few back ally spots that serve after 2pm. Went to one over in Cambridge a few months ago. It was in the basement of a triple decker, but was a well stocked, fully functioning bar. Problem is you need to know someone to get you in.
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