Brendan's Too

Being a retiree and living in Chicago I rode a bicycle a lot unless I needed to cart a bunch of stuff around. I found a lot of little early A.M. locals to help counteract the healthful benefits of cycling.
   I can't remember what Brendan's was prior to this but I do know it was a dump. But it was an EARLY MORNING dump. The only things left from it's previous life are the battered wooden bar, the equally battered doors to the restrooms, and the enameled reach in beer coolers on the south wall.
   The back bar has been redone with generic but nice art deco lights with hardwood frames, a nice wooden slatted footrest, light hardwood floors (which previously were crappy tiles that had a rolling earthquakelike quality), darker wooden wainscotting, small paned front windows that actually open with plush green drapery tied up on the sides, and dark brown cieling tiles. The bathrrom floors have also been retiled as well as the walls being redone. There are four high topped tables, two at the front windows and two in the middle of the room with high stools. The walls are finished exposed brick with a wooden frame supporting one hi def TV on the west wall. There are two other TVs behind the bar and one at the south end as well, all hi-def.
   Not a huge bar stock but comfortable enough for a small local tap. And like many neighborhood bars that the Daley regime didn't manage to get closed, their prices are extremely kind to your wallet.The bartenders are friendly and the patrons are a mixed bag of Yups and neighborhood kids at night and generally Eastern Europeans and Latinos earlier in the day.
   Even though a sign says that whiskey is the soup of the day they don't serve food. For the gecmastrs among you however there is a neat little Mexican place next door called La Brasa Roja which is pretty good and there's nothing preventing you from bringing your own. I watched this place gradually morph over a year or so from a dump into a nice, clean, and comfortable bar. If they served food I'd give 'em a four star rating.
   From what I'm told the owner has a place in Lincoln Park that's probably worth a look-see also.

(I wrote this review a few weeks ago and just logged on to Yelp to find a zipper repair place and see I have a message. It's from the bartender calling me names and using profanity. All of my impressions about the place have now been proved to be true.)

Ok I've been going to this place since it was Mike's. When a new guy bought the place a few years ago he cleaned it up real nice. It looks a lot better but it's filled with the same kind of trashy regulars just a little younger. I've been to his other place over on Broadway a little south and that place I like. This place sucks.

I'd haven't caught the name of the bartender any of the times I've been there lately but if "Tommy" is the big kid with the Ed O'bradovich crew cut then he must have had all his friends write those reviews mentioning him by name because I'm just a regular middle age guy and I think he's a  bully. You know kind of young man who thinks being a bartender makes him some kind of big shot. He's served me a dozen times I I guess I don't rate a name. Now the older black guy named Emmit is solid but I haven't run into him in awhile. He gave me his name. I heard "Tommy" say things I know where wrong like it was the gospel truth, checked my phone to be sure and was right when I thought he was full of it.  

I've never liked someone serving me that was more messed up than me and this guy is messed up. Maybe not as drunk but more teeth grinding messed up. That seems to be a theme with some of the regulars. I don't like that kind of place at all. He also talks bad about every other bar in 30 blocks. I like plenty of bars. When I hear you telling people lies about places I've been to fifty times it rubs me the wrong way sometimes. I guess I really went after the one guy but that sums up the whole place to.

One thing I'll say it doesn't really smell like it used to. Mike's used to really smell something awful. Now it just smells like a regular bar with a bunch of loud mouth regulars running back and forth to the bathroom and talking fast. Not for me. No sir. I'll walk a few blocks east or a few blocks south for better people and better places. Every place is just as cheap.

Too bad. Mike's wasn't great but it was better than this place is now. At least the bartenders knew how to treat people.

We don't judge here