 |
| Outside The Red Room. |
The Fourth of July weekend is a celebration of this amazing country, yes, but it’s also a celebration of the American backyard; meat-stacked grills, elongated games of horseshoes and lawn-darts (shh, I have the illegally-tipped ones) and of course the beer filled coolers and chilled cocktails that grace the hands of America’s best: the drinker.
We booze-hounds, beer-huggers and whiskey-nippers always look forward to a long weekend. We especially look forward to those long weekends in the summer months when having a cold beverage in your hand doesn’t require mittens.
At this point in the summer, the local tavern has its door propped open, the dive bar down the way has a table and a few mismatched chairs placed outside for smokers and the hipster-friendly establishments aerate the area with sounds of indie-rich iPods and DJs filleting records into absorbing jams.
The Redroom, on North Humboldt Avenue and East Kane Place, in all actuality, is a patchwork quilt of the aforementioned establishments in that it contains elements for all pungencies of the drinking world.
The beer selection definitely hones in on the Midwest microbrewing community with many Lakefront Brewery, Bells, Ale Asylum and Furthermore, beers on tap and in bottle. Also, there are the “outside” brews that have tickled the palate of bar perusers for many a year: Newcastle, Sierra Nevada and Hacker-Pschorr.
When asked if there was a happy hour or any specials on cocktails, the bartender, a tattooed, tank-top sporting chap named Tyler, said, “No, but we can always make a deal.” Those embracing words are code for, “If you aren’t an asshole, I’ll probably buy you a drink/shot/beer/glass/pitcher if you hang out for a bit.” Being everything short of an asshole, I looked forward to resting my weary mind near the taps at Tyler’s hands.
 |
| Microbrews aplenty. |
After my gal and I had polished off a Lakefront Fixed Gear, an Ale Asylum Hopalicious and a Framboise (bets on which I drank), I was served a shot of John Powers whiskey – a move that made my few visits to the Redroom feel like a few years of constant bar time and a old pal of Tyler’s.
Basically, Tyler knows how to tend the bar and more importantly, tend to the customers and their yearning for a banter-filled glass of grog.
The bar is engulfed in a cinnamon candle tone of red paint, one that isn’t too spicy with the sun shining on it and doesn’t turn into muck when the lights are dimmed and dusk gives way to darkness. The walls are covered in local art and strings of red lights that regularly remind you of the name of the establishment you are constructing this beer buzz in.
The bar top itself is a uniformed arrangement of white circular tiles and black grout that the bar owners had created themselves. In the back, beyond the bar and congregation of booths is a small DJ area where most nights of the week a musical mastermind will spin records or digital files that melt your face quicker than a Robert Plant scat solo from 1969.
The shelved alcohol behind the bar is surrounded in an oxidized copper that hums quietly against the entirety of the Redroom walls. In fact, the entire building sits murmuring on the busy corner with its small fold-out sign on the sidewalk. There’s no hanging signage on any side of the buildings façade and only the traffic through the doors and the music that welcomes them in or follows them out to prove it isn’t a residential home.
Tyler and I finished our conversation about a few Wisconsin musicians that we both enjoyed and I took the last sip from my glass when thought to myself, “I should move closer to this place.”
Although the holiday weekend had come and gone, and although Tyler didn’t have the ability to whip up a burger, he and the Redroom created an atmosphere and a home for the American drinker. It’s not your backyard and it doesn’t have deadly yard games available, but it is a consolidation of your bar, and your bar and even your bar.
There’s no need for the blue or the white, you can get that at (insert bar name that requires hair gel), for here is the Redroom. Come in and enjoy your bartender.
