J&M Tap

957 N. Leavitt St.

Chicago, IL 60622

773.235.0499

Parking: Limited Street Parking

Days: Daily

Times: All Night

Drink Deals: $1.75-$3.50 Beers, $3.50-$4.50 Mixed Drinks

Food Deals: Free Pretzels & Candy Bowls!

Since I’ve moved back to the Chicago suburbs, I haven’t spent too much time in the city of Chicago itself so I was excited when The Minty told me that she would be coming for a visit with fellow blogger friend, Carina.  Although people always say that they want to check out new bars with me, it’s rare to find someone who is as adventurous as The Minty.  For our Chicago adventure, we decided to bar crawl to dive bars in the Ukrainian Village.  We went to Mr. Brown’s Lounge, Bar Deville, Ola’s Liquor Room (no site as it is a bar-slash-liquor store), and ended our night at my favorite, J & M Tap.

Bar crawl buddies!

J & M Tap had the true makings of a dive bar – no fancy signage, regulars camped out at the bar, jukebox, pool table, old school cigarette machine, wood paneled walls, and none of it was hipster.

We were able to score seats at the bar and a friendly, older red headed lady bartender, who has probably been with the bar for a long time, immediately greeted us.  I decided to go with Jameson and coke (night’s special for $3.50) since I knew not to ask for wine at a dive bar.  Carina ordered the same, Minty ordered a gin & tonic, and all three drinks totaled $11 and some odd change! Like many IL bars, there’s no set Happy Hour at J & M Tap, but they do have drink specials every night.

There’s no kitchen at the bar, but there is snacks.  Fresh, pretzel rods are served in beer mugs at the bar that are replenished throughout the night.  Even better than pretzels, there are huge bowls of candy passed around for free.  Around 1am, a man came into the bar peddling tamales, 6 for $5.  It seems weird at first, then a good idea so Minty purchased a bag of chicken tamales. They were warm, tiny, and tasty. Take note, they are sold packaged together so no individual tamales for sale.

Free Candy!

I have no idea when I would return to J & M Tap, but it’s definitely a bar that I would be happy to return so I could just sit and drink with my friends.

-JG

Ratings: 4 Martinis