Ski's

This place is definetly an original!  The non Polish guest sure does get looked over twice, no problem here.  

Glad to have the place in the neighborhood, always great to have a bar in walking distance.

At first I thought I saw a realtor in a bright red coat with dark sunglasses chatting on her cell phone in front of a quaint house on a back street in Avondale.  Then I noticed the Old Style sign, and the sign "Ski's," which somehow called to mind a quaint Nordic lodge for cross-country sportsmen.

Then I stepped inside, to what still looked like someone's house- low ceilings, small doors, and a fake shingle roof over the bar.  Hearing a familiar but still incomprehensible language, I realized:  "Oh, THAT kind of Ski."

The red-coated "realtor" took her place behind the bar and gave me an Okocim; my neighbors at the bar drank a dark and mysterious liquor (currant?) followed by shots of vodka, and laughed heartily at whatever it was they were talking about.  They looked over at me as they were laughing, and seemed disappointed that I didn't get their humor.  The main issue is that I don't know Polish.  But , I could guess from their tone that their discussion was intellectual and not bawdy in nature; in retrospect, I should've laughed with them.

There's a pool table here and a jukebox, which makes this just as functional if not warmer than most other bars in the area.