Tom's Place

On a tip from fellow Yelpster Toni F. who seems to have one of the same affinities that I do,  i.e. old neighborhood taverns, I headed out from the southside of Chicago to Joe & Josie's in Lemont. Unfortunately I forgot everything that I'd ever learned about going to an unfamiliar place such as writing down the address &/or phone # and how to read a map. So I wound up at Tom's.
Also have discovered, accidentally and to my eternal delight, how to make paragraphs here. And it only took 60 years.
Tom's was an old furniture store at one time which accounts for the neat display windows up front. It also has a Blatz sign outside and Blatz on tap which harken back to a bygone era.
Speaking of bygone eras that is exactly what you walk into. Nice long weathered dark wood bar and back bar with origional (albeit painted over) cieling tiles and trim and textured walls that have an old wooden picket fence painted on them. Pics of patrons present and past in the main room and side room along with a memorial t-shirt and photo of the patron who wore it before passing away over the door between rooms. The second room has an old beat up leather couch and chair, a couple high tables, a rail with several chairs facing the window, a piano, and a two tap wet bar for private parties I would assume.
They also have Jameson's Gold Reserve for $5.50 a shot. Thank you Tom's.
Mike the bartender was pleasant and answered all my questions which quite frankly was probably something he wasn't used to. Little did he know that he was under Yelpscrutiny.
They would get a four star for comfort and good company except for the fact that for me they would have to serve food and have a couple bells and whistles. This is a very high three star ranking.

I have been here quite a few times. I tried to give this place another chance considering the horrible time we had during our last visit, but apparently it wasn't enough.

So Tom's is old and full of old stuff like old wood and old patrons, myself included. The prices are about the same as everywhere else in town and the location is central. Unfortunately, the staff is kind of mean.

I was here with a small group of late twenty-early thirty somethings a few months ago to grab a few drinks and were treated like crap. The place was almost empty and we were paying customers, yet the bartender made it a point to come in to the little room we were sitting in and tell us not to touch anything and that he would call the cops if we stole anything.

We are all mature, working adults. We don't go to bars and break and steal things. The only reason I come here yearly is to get the discount mugs they have made for festivals. Otherwise, I always take my business elsewhere.

Lemont.  Who knew?  I never knew!!  Came to the little town of Lemont with a few pals to check out the new home of a friend.  What better way to check it out than visit a few local pubs on a friday night?!  Ended up doing the bar crawl (Tom's was the second and last bar on our crawl, lol).  The patrons all seemed to have very friendly, smalltown personalities.  Very small and enjoyable group.  

Now, what will make Tom's Place so memorable is Casey.  LOL.  Casey was our wonderful, funny, attentive, playful and very customer service oriented bartender.  I mean, she was great!  An absolute riot!!  Can we have a yelp page just for her???  Every local bar needs a Casey filling your pint glass about 85% full.  lol

Oh, they have Green Line on tap, a huuuge plus for me.  ($3-3.50?)

A night i will never forget, thanks Casey.  

Careful, you might get a little wet!!