The Aviary/The Office
Near West Side • West Loop
You know that comfy old bar where the bartender knows your name? That is not The Aviary, a bar from the future in a spaceport where, behind the cocktail equivalent of a rood screen, bartenders transubstantiate your drink into an imaginative high tech, or at least weird tech experience. If it sounds too precious, the drinks are superbly well-made and in general, it's a show everybody in or visiting Chicago should see at least once. Meanwhile, comfort is the key to the downstairs, invitation-only The Office, done up in dark old leather and with a personal level of attention and drink-making just for your tastes that any bar anywhere else could envy; you'll drop a wad and then some, but be treated like a king or, even better, a railroad baron. Each serves its version of rich drinking food to nosh along the way, though you're not really meant to eat dinner here.