Every quarter, College Drinker, an online magazine run by Northwestern students, writes a column for our print magazine.
It’s warm again, mini-skirts and flip-flops are back, and you can finally venture outdoors for your nights of drunken debauchery. Thanks to the more than 225 registered beer gardens in Chicago, you can now enjoy good weather and good booze right here in the city.
While open-container laws prevent us from enjoying our sweet alcohol at other locations, beer gardens are outside areas, normally a patio attached to a bar, where drinking is not only allowed but encouraged.
The beer garden originated in 19th-century Germany. Dark lagers brewed by German beer-makers needed to ferment at cool temperatures, so breweries dug cellars during the summer and planted trees to keep their beer cool in the shade. Not wanting to waste time transporting beer to customers, they set up some tables under the trees, and bam — the first beer garden!
When spring begins, Northwestern students typically flood the beer gardens at The 1800 Club in Evanston, and The Union Tavern at 2858 N. Halsted, where there they can take advantage of a $10 open bar from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday. Avoid the sad excuse of a beer garden at The Keg — it’s really just a fenced-in side area that feels more like a dog run than a beer garden. But, hey, at least there’s free popcorn.
The more adventurous might want to try Joe’s, located at 94 W. Weed St., which was not only voted the “Best Sports Bar” in the Citysearch “Chicago’s Audience Poll,” but it boasts an impressive 200-person-plus beer garden that’s an oasis of white, plastic chairs through the summer. The beer garden is Chicago’s biggest, says Katelyn Lobascio, an event planner at Joe’s, and even has a full-service bar. She added that there’s “always a good crowd” too. Just make sure that you get to Joe’s early, because after 8 p.m. on weekends there will certainly be a line.
Get out there yourself and you might even find me enjoying the great outdoors the way they were meant to be: drunk.