12 Bars of Christmas (Abridged Version)

There was a trend last night in Chicago, and that trend was pub crawls. I think I've indentified at least 5 different pub crawls that occured last night, all calling themselves "The 12 Bars of Christmas". That may be the reason for the inordinate amount of "Walks of Shame" that I saw this morning when I went to get a coffee.

Anyways, I made it out for one of these pub crawls (don't ask me which one) but I was a bit late getting going since I got a last minute phone call from my friend James telling me which one we were going on. This year would truely be a "crawl" for me since the day before I stubbed my baby toe on my coffee table, and it may be in fact broken (very purple and facing the wrong direction. The toe is actually facing sideways). But I figured the best cure for that problem would be inexpensive drinks, and headed on out

The premise is very simple, 12 bars in one night. The only drawback I found was that you had to keep moving so fast to get to them all in one night. Every half hour we were at a new bar, and if you were straggling at one you probably missed the next....I guess that's why some of these pub crawls started at 11 a.m.

Bar #1 (for me at least) was Finley Dunnes. It seemed like a good pub, typical of most of the bars in Chicago, more about sitting down, having a pint and making friends. Most of the places on the pub crawl were smaller, but that made it pretty cool for meeting people. The best part of this bar might have been the Harlem Globetrotters game on TV. Now that I'm not a little kid I've realized that the other team fakes being fooled by the Globetrotters tricks, including one big white guy pretending he didn't know there was a basketball up his shirt....Oh Globetrotters!


Bar#2 was the Waterhouse. I actually walked by this place on my way to the first bar, and was pretty scared by it. It looked so dark and they were playing Dance Mix '97 type music outside. Really trippy (maybe that's why it can't be photographed properly???). When we got there it was better than I gave it credit for. Still dark, but cool atmosphere, and a pretty sweet interior with mini waterfalls behind the bar. James thought it looked like a goth hangout...


Bar#3 was Tavern 33, my favourite of the night. The bartender at this place looked like Don Johnson from Miami Vice in jeans and sportcoat. He had also overserved himself!! Watching him trying to add up the cost of drinks in his head and then stuttering it back out was awesome. This was also where we met the first random , Marquis, who threw himself into pictures and was taking pictures of all the ladies (James' girlfriend Lisa in particular).....Way to go Marquis, I hope you picked up


Bar#4 was Fizz. We had the downstairs to ourselves and it seemed like a cool bar, especially since they were showing English Premier League soccer on TV. James and I decided to check out the upstairs. At the top of the stairs there was a guy collecting tickets andbehind him was a room of only guys, mostly wearing cowboy hats....It may or may not have been a gay cowboy party, but it certainly had all the symptoms.


Bar #5 we missed because it was far, and I am gimpy...so we decided to head to the 6th and final bar of our shortened version of 12 Bars. On the way I saw this sign for Old Style. It's a beer brewed in Chicago. One time I talked to my Dad about trying it, and he referred to it as "Panther Piss". I still haven't tried it


Bar# 6 was the Skylight. It was the worst pick for a final bar ever. They were showing some movie that they made at the bar itself. Basically it was three guys we didn't know, talking about other people we didn't know, and eating weird things....That's about all I got out of it. Also, it was like a smaller version of the Loop (Windsor bar) which scares me everytime I go there.

All in all it was a good night. Cheap drinks made me forget my toe which is even more purple now after walking on it all night.

Listening to - "Dynamite Walls" by Hayden
Reading - "Island" by Alistair MacLeod