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One thing divides real Chicago drinkers from the posers: the ability to put down a shot of Jepson's Malort, Chi-Town's medicinal, locally made booze. (The Old Style, a local beer, is there to cleanse the palate.)
The bittersweet reality of great little dives is that they often lose charm when overrun by masses of clingers-on. Somehow, this Ukrainian Village spot has managed to escape that fate. The Rainbo remains populated by the same mix of art-school students, art-school alums, art-school professors and, um, art-school wannabes, all of whom are in at least one band, and all of whom hold on to terra firma with cans of beer in one hand and a shot in the other, nodding along to everything from Aesop Rock to Black Sabbath.
Of course, sometimes posers do meander in to take a few turns in the photobooth (the pictures can serve as proof later that, no, really, they’re cool!). Here’s an easy way to suss them out: if they can take down a shot of Malort, they’re Chicago enough to stick around. If they can’t, well, there’s a sports bar down the street waiting to serve them a cosmo. Amy Carr, executive editor, Time Out Chicago
Rainbo Club, 1150 N Damen Ave, Ukrainian Village, Chicago, USA. +1 773 489 5999
Discover Chicago's hottest bars with Time Out Chicago’s weekly 'bar chart'
Picture by Martha Williams
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