Big Basin Saloon

Oh, Frank, if only you knew how many bars out in the sticks are open for 6 am drinking!!  You can have the city... this country girl will take the sticks any day!! ;)

I have spent alot of time at the Basin, morning, noon and night.  Their Bloody Mary's are out of this world.  It is the best hangover cure I know of.  The place is nothing fancy, only a few steps above a dive really, but the crowd is fun, the drinks are cheap and you can sit on the deck and watch the boats go by.

Not sure if they still do it (it has been years since I have been back home) but if they do, you must see the New Year's Day Polar Bear Run.  Nothing funnier than hungover old guys jumping into freezing water, clad in wetsuits that makes their legs look scrawnier and their beer bellies look larger, all while you are drinking a heart warming Bloody Mary and recovering from your own sins of the night before.

Ah... home!

"A few cold ones" after a hard days work is almost prerequisute in my profession.  Last October, I found this hard to find joint while doing some work over at the nearby refineries.  Best part is it is the, unheard -of -in chicago, A.M. bar!  That's right folks.  You see I pulled the night shift over near there for almos six weeks.  Leaving me with little  options to have a beer and scotch after work.  This place was great. Right on the marina, under the interstate.  You could slowly calm the voices in yer head after ash!tty day of boilermaking whilst taking the great view and friendly atmosphere of this establishment.  Big Basin holds a special place in my heart, for if nothing making the drive back the south side every morning in traffic on north bound I-55,  much more interesting.  Sigh, if only most of the general public knew the upsides of morning drinking, they would agree.