SPACE

Whoopsie. I made the mistake of leading my date to believe that we would be eating at the show. Except that's a lot more complicated than I expected. Suffice it to say, you should plan to eat ahead of time.

First of all, you need to divide and compartmentalize Union Pizzeria and SPACE (music venue). There are two listening rooms in Space, one is referred to just as "SPACE" and the other is "The Studios @ Space" (though there's just one, as far as I can tell).

To visit the music venues, you'll proceed through the front door, down a corridor that opens into a large, beautiful room with tables, chairs and a dedicated bar - everything about this room is gorgeous, including the acoustics. The only food allowed in this room is pizza.  

If you're here for a "studio" show, you keep walking through a door on the other side of this room, into another small corridor, and through a series of three VERY HEAVY doors to the left. This room (well, two conjoined rooms, one with the console, one with the mics) looks like the exact opposite of every dark, musty, hole-in-the-wall recording studio I've ever been in. It's super posh and extra-carpety -- in hindsight, I totally get why it's a no-food-allowed scene back there.

Aside from the extra roars produced by a pair of empty stomachs, this is a great place to catch a show. The Studio shows are very intimate while the larger room is cavernous with a wide stage. Sound in both rooms is great - my main complaint at most venues (I'm looking at you Beat Kitchen, Metro...) is when the crank the speakers up beyond the point of clarity, and that wasn't a problem here.

We stopped at the dedicated bar and got a pair of G&Ts. That was when we discovered that the house gin is the locally distilled Letherbee Gin, which we agreed is out of this world. And just $7. You know you've lived in Chicago for over a decade when you start saying things like, "...and my cocktail was only $8!" - this city has screwed my sense of bargain drinking.

The Union kitchen starts to shut down at 10pm, leaving the pizza menu available until 11pm so you can grab a quick bite in the lounge/bar area of the restaurant afterwards. When we looked a little forlorn about our options, a nice guy recommended Prairie Moon which is just three blocks away and has a full, delicious menu until midnight, and a killer beer list.

I saw Mason Jennings here on 4/13 and loved the venue.  It was intimate but classy and the sound was great.  I believe every seat in the house was a good one and the bar alongside one wall was a nice touch.  The only downside was when I walked in on some dude peeing in the unisex bathrooms but I blame the guy who never learned to lock a door rather than the people at Space.  Can't wait to go back!

Really intimate place to hear music.   Great service-they escort you to your seat and they have waitress service for drinks.   Seats are comfortable, too!