Czar

The atmosphere is pretty cool. Most of the live acts are awesome. They're not exactly setup as a restaurant so ordering and receiving food takes awhile. The burgers are top notch.
When it comes to the bar the drinks sucks and I'd stick to beer. I ordered a top shelf mix drink and a well drink on special. They tasted the same and were both small and overpriced.

II really wish I could give Czar more than 3 stars, but a couple things happened during the visit that can't be ignored.

I had never been to Czar before, and a friend invited me out for the Midwest Takeover benefit they had last Friday. I thought it would be an awesome time to check out some local music, and a bar I had never been to. We got there a little too early for the benefit and ended up drinking and chatting. I loved the layout of the bar. Kind of divey, but it was clean enough, they had a decent beer selection, and the food menu looked reasonable. The decor was odd; I had a painting above my head that had some weird toxic waste symbols on it.

It took the server about 30 minutes to get to our table. I would have gone to the bar, but I showed up to my group later, and they assured me that we did have a server. Once he took our order he came back pretty quickly. For the next hour we had decent service from this guy, and then the benefit started. We only saw a guy who kept trying to take our half filled beers and half eaten food at that point.

We watched the first band, and they were pretty amazing. (Check out Eyelit and support local music!) The second "filler" band was so horrible I had to leave. They sounded like every garage band I listened to in high school that somehow was heavily influenced by Primus and smooth jazz. I imagined titles of their songs to be something like "my roommate walked into my room unannounced" or "Whoops my landlord forgot I didn't pay this months rent". In-between songs they kept asking the sound guy to turn them up, and I kept begging for the sound guy to turn them down!

When it came time to leave I realized waiting for my tab would never happen so I went up to the bar, and realized that my server was now the only bartender/server with the help of someone doing dishes and picking up glasses. Sorry guys on a night like this you really need WAY more help. If I wouldn't have felt horrible about it I could have easily walked out without paying. Knowing that I could have done this means that at least one person in the bar that evening probably did. Not a good way to make money.

All and all I would really like to go back to Czar during a time they don't have a benefit planned. If they managed to staff properly for the benefits it would have been 4-5 stars all the way.

I've been here a couple times now for Sway shows and I have always had a great time, met really awesome people and their drinks are inexpensive and strong. I have one complaint and that is there is only 1 bathroom for the women. Can't wait for the next show!