Rating Chief O'Neill's Pub's outdoor eating space

3471 N Elston Ave (773-583-3066)

You’re supposed to eat fish and chips in a musty pub for ultimate authenticity, right? Not come summer, and not when this Irish mainstay has a patio that’s a dead ringer for your rich friend’s parents’ place in the ’burbs. Big, fat, blooming flowers ring the high privacy fence, wrought-iron tables and chairs get shade from stylish umbrellas, and landscaped patches of grass just beg for crawling babies, your own toes or, on Sundays, an acoustic trio serenading with traditional Irish folk tunes while the crowd gets lit on Scotch.

FOOD 6 Irish pub grub and continental classics
DRINKS 7 Solid beer and Scotch lists, limited cocktails and wine
CROWD 6 Mostly dudes who look like Old Town School of Folk Music strummers
VIEW 7 Can’t see much beyond the fence, and that’s just fine
SPACE 7 Flowers, grass, deck, umbrellas…what more could you want?
TOTAL 33