I am visiting this establishment for the first time on New Years Eve and the are extremely under-staffed. One bartender and one waitress for what should be the busiest night of the year ! Service is slow to say the least !!!! We were also trying to order food. After waiting 20-30 minutes between orders being taken, we were told the kitchen was closed !!
Don't think I will be visiting them anytime in the near future !!!!!
Happy New Year's all - Ring in 2012 in high fashion.....
We visited The Curse on a Sunday afternoon to watch the FIFA Women's Championship. Â Thankfully, the game was on even though the Cubs were also in action. Â The bar was pretty empty, but a few other soccer fans made the atmosphere a fun one. Â
For our meal, we went with an order of 911 chicken wings and a pizza with ham and pineapple. Â The wings were OK, but not great. Â Wings not meant to be breaded then sauced in my opinion. Â The pizza was a solid thin crust pizza with ample cheese. Â
Our server was very prompt and friendly. Â Overall, a good experience.
Specials during cubs games - I'm there. Decent food too, not like Moe's. Pizza sauce was a little sweet but otherwise the pizza was great. They could use another server but Wrigley has been slower lately so I understand.
Overall - Better than your typical Wrigley Bar (at least before 11p - after that all bets could be off).
We went on a Wednesday. The weather was wet.
A burger and french fries, we wanted to get.
But there on the menu, a treat we did spot.
Beer-battered onions, served ring-shaped and hot.
To these we did add, for snacks weren't our goal,
A salad by Caesar, wrapped up in a roll,
One German sausage, topped with mushrooms
And french fries for all, our hunger consumes.
The only thing lacking, was good beers on tap,
But bottled abounded, good drinks under cap.
The food was quite good, the price was quite low
The service was snappy, again will we go.
"Would you like a free drink?" Why yes, I could use a beverage. That question is what lured me into this bar when it first opened last summer. It's located towards the end of a string of bars in wrigleyville. If I wasn't bribed by the nice girl giving out free drink tickets I would've walked right past this gem of a bar. I love this bar and go to it every time I'm in the area. While all the Ed hardy wearing, spiked hair, frat boy douchenozzles are standing outside of John barleycorn waiting to get in and pay to go upstairs to dance(or ya know, do some general creepin'), I'm sitting in a nice booth sipping on a fishbowl and dancing for free. The place is never really packed so there is room to move about freely. Â There is a main bar and another towards the back. Even when it gets semi busy they have a nice outdoor patio area you can escape to and there is also a beer pong table in the back. I've never seen it being used for beer pong (that's probably because all the douches aren't there) but it does make a nice table for larger groups to sit together. The waitresses and bartenders are super nice. The food is awesome!! I recommend the pretzel with the most amazing dipping cheese ever!!! Overall, this bar is a nice escape from the tourists, frat boys, douchenozzles and all the things that make going to wrigleyville bad.
Review Source:Went here for lunch a recent weekend. I read an article in the RedEye touting the sausages/brats. They were good, but nothing special. I don't think I would recommend the Thuringer, but the Gyros Brat was definitely good. However, it is a little pricey. For just as good of sausage (or better), I would rather go to Hot Dougs for less than half the price.
I am intrigued with the Coors Lite mug and will go back one day to watch the Cubs or other sports. If you're going to have a couple beers, that is definitely the best deal you are going to find in the neighborhood and the setting is nice for watching sports. I just don't think I will hurry back for the food.
Meh--is damn right! It was super MEH.
Luckily, we got a free drink. We were about to walk right pass this place but the door man, like those scantiily clad women on Ocean Drive in SOBE, came out with the offer for a free drink...a free domestic or well drink. We gave it a shot and it was all very clear why they were handing out free drinks...there was no one in there and the place lacked personality. However, the staff was very nice. I felt bad for them because we ended up at this place because the last 2 places we tried to go to had a line to get in (bummer)!
It was a bit odd in the place. The music was loud for all 20 of us in this huge place and they kept increasing the sound. I thought I was going deaf. Also the beer was luke warm--not a good way to keep customers. We promptly bounced after we finished our beers--actually, I didn't finish my beer. I left about a third of it at the table because it was making me nauseated.
Maybe they went wrong with the name of this spot. My friends and myself stumbled across The Curse last night while looking for a quick Wrigleyville bar to step into to grab a drink. There was a guy outside offering free drink tickets for us to come in. So we get inside and I could only get a complimentary Coors or Bud, I was cool with the Coors.
The things I liked about this place the door guy was cool. The server was very polite and made us feel comfortable. It looks like they have a awesome kitchen. They have a back private room or patio. Lots of big booth seating.
The things I did not like about this place were the placement of the speakers for the sound system. The volume was just out of control. I had to really speak up to talk to the person next to me. They have speakers over every booth and its sort of a headache. Now during a Cubs game I wouldn't mind the loud speakers.
The other thing was the complimentary Coors was sort of warm (Yuck). So we opted out on not buying the next one and leaving to find a new spot on Clark.
I go to a ton of Cubs games so I will give this spot another chance during the season. There's a lot of competition on the block for places to go. Maybe I'll bump my stars up after my next visit.
Wrigleyville during the offseason...on a Thursday afternoon is a ghost town. Â Nevertheless I was fortunate to have a great drinking companion with me...
So, the establishment was unique compared to other establishments I frequently visit in this area.
Technically I am considered a "beer snob"...so I was delighted when the bar tender beamed with excitement when I ordered a New Holland Brewing "Ichabod" since she is orginally from New Holland, MI (at least she claimed to be from New Holland, MI).
One interesting piece of information I gained from my visit to Wrigleyville...certain bars will have a Big Ten and an AFC flag hosted behind the bar area. Â During football season, certain bars will display every game of that team. Â For instance, The Curse will show every game of Minnesota Golden Gophers and Cincinnati Bengals (don't worry, they also have Bears games on...if you really want to watch this team).
I plan on visiting The Curse during baseball season in order to compare and contrast this visit.
It's hard to get a good feel for a place when you, your friend, the bartender, something that looked like a manager, and a couple kitchen staff guys are the only people in there..but I kind of liked this bar. Wrigleyville can be a cesspool of douchebaggery, but The Curse had a respectable vibe. Rather cozy, in fact. The bartender was friendly and poured a good drink. However, the old bag in me thought the music was too loud. I visited on a late Thursday afternoon....but it sounded like Saturday night in there. Aside from the loud music, my only other gripe is that the sink in the ladies' room was out of order. There was a parade of antibacterial gel, which is better than nothing, but given that there were several bottles of the stuff on the sink, and a couple were more empty than full, Â it made me wonder if it had been out of commission for awhile. I think "plumbers" is under "P" in the phone book........
Anywho, for a Wrigleyville joint, I liked it alright.
I WANT TO WRITE MY REVIEW IN CAPS SINCE I FEEL LIKE I WAS YELLING THE ENTIRE TIME AT THIS BAR.
THE BAR WAS MOSTLY EMPTY, AND THE MUSIC WAS ABOUT 94,000 DECIBELS. THE MUSIC WAS LOUD. DID YOU HEAR ME? THE MUSIC WAS FUCKING LOUD. (maybe I'm getting old).
TWO OF THE BARTENDERS LOOKED GOOD ENOUGH THAT I WANTED TO PRACTICE MAKING BABIES.
LARGE FLIPCUP TABLE IN THE BACK. OUTDOOR SEATING. ONLY COORS LITE ON DRAFT (f that).
Seems like a place that's a little more pretentious than it's neighboring bars, which might attract a different crowd. That's just conjecture, though, as I left since the music WAS WAY TOO LOUD CURSE. I KNOW THE CUBS ARE TERRIBLE AND WILL NEVER WIN ANOTHER WORLD SERIES, BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO PUNISH CHICAGO BY BLOWING OUT THEIR EARDRUMS TOO! ALL OF THE CHICAGO SPORTS TEAMS ARE PUNISHMENT ENOUGH, M I RITE?
Man, I feel better.
Went here for the UofI SIU game this weekend, and have to say it was one of the best bars I have ever been too. Â We came in with 14 guys to root for SIU. Â It is a U of I bar, so there was plenty of good hearted ribbing going on. Â The bar tenders were super attentive, excellent at mixing drinks. The drink prices weren't to bad. Â The hung goats were cute, and all in all was a great time. Â Highlight of the bachelor party
Review Source:I had so much fun here! I got to Wrigleyville early and was headed to Red Ivy to meet up with some friends when a girl at the door of The Curse asked me if I would like a free drink... I had time to spare so I figured why not. My boyfriend and I got free drink tickets and one of the bartenders said if I brought the birthday party here they would throw in a fish bowl... so I did. They gave us a fishbowl consisting mostly of hypnotic and lemonade Vitamin Water. Then when my group of friends arrived they gave us all drink tickets. So obviously we tipped well. I am definitely a fan! Who an complain with free drinks?!
The set up of the bar is also really cool. they have a glass garage door in the front that was open when I arrived but as it started to get chilly they closed. The bar wasn't as packed as Red Ivy so we hung out here for a while. Friendly staff :)
So far, so good! This Red Ivy-ran bar has several things working for it that give it a nice one-up to a lot of it's Wrigley competitors. I'm almost hesitant to write this, lest the rest of Wrigley catch on and take up all the seats but....
1. Plenty of seating. Long and thin, this bar has cozy booths of various sizes lining the entire wall of the right side, with an equally long bar running the left side, and a surprise back room with long tables. No more aching feet for the sacrifice of fabulous shoes!
2. Outdoor patio. Love this! Pretty dark and cozy setting, several tables and set back from the hussle and flow of Clark.
3. Weekly food and drink specials. Pretty standard menu with a few stand out selections.