Mr. ZJ's Inc.

This has to be the most dangerous bar on the north side.  I live across the street and see the carnage.  There is a prostitute that works out of the bar every day from open to close.  There are gunshots from behind the bar at least once a month in the winter and once a week in the summer.  Every day the fire department takes a customer away in an ambulance.  Customers not leaving via ambulance usually leave in the back of a police car.  Sometimes CPD brings a paddy wagon when there are multiple arrests.  The reasons are obvious.  The bar is open at 7am every day.  The clientele is below low class.  I hope the city revokes Mr. Zj's liquor license.

(A.K.A. Podhale) Like most bars in Avondale, it's hard to see any profit motive in this true neighborhood hangout.  But unlike most of the rest, this place seems to be doing good business and is consistently pretty busy.  The Polish bartenders here are welcoming and friendly to the eclectic mix of Polish, Latinos, and English-speaking whites (who are most certainly not part of the neighborhood's new 'gentry'), all of whom are vaguely tri-lingual at least when it comes to tavern vocabulary.  Polish movies, colorful decorations, a map of Poland, and a pool table provide a setting for practicing your Polish, your Spanish, or your Spanish-to-Polish translation skills if you happen to sit between the two groups.  There are some real characters who frequent this place; a man living out of a suitcase which he wheels inside; a senior who proudly recalls having infected his entire 2nd grade class with measles.

The bar opens at 7 AM, and supposedly some people spend the whole day here.  Not that I've tried this, but the logistics are good: Old Style drafts are $1 and the tastier Okocim (always cold on tap) at $2.  That might explain why it's not uncommon to see someone fall out of a chair or come crashing over your table in a drunken stupor.