The Meadowlark
Abe Vucekovich came off the bar at The Violet Hour and rewrites this list several times a year, so the drinks you read about are gone. Thirty seats, 825 square feet, behind an unmarked door round the back with a bird on it.
Why go
Steve Lewis and Chris Thompson had already put Lardon at 2200 N California and Union next door at 2202 when they opened this in the back of the same 100-year-old building in October 2022.1 Lewis said the point was three separate rooms under one roof. The opening list ran 16 cocktails, all named after birds: a Snowy Owl of Quebranta pisco, crème de cacao, orgeat and egg white, and a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird of Bolivian brandy, Amontillado sherry, amaro and house-smoked orange bitters.1 Vucekovich changes the theme several times a year, and the bar has named CBGB, 1920s Paris and Chicago architecture as ones it wants to do.1 The room is exposed brick and rafters, leather chesterfields and old books, fourteen of its thirty seats at the bar.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: whatever the current list is built around. Ask what the theme is; the whole menu turns over several times a year.1
- Order: the grilled jerk chicken hearts, or the turkey empanadas, which come in a bacon-fat pastry.3
- Avoid: turning up with a big group. There are thirty seats and the lounge only books parties of four to six.2
What locals & experts say
- The Infatuation Chicago (John Ringor, 12 October 2022):
This Logan Square spot is great if you want to hang at a bar that feels like a secret clubhouse.
3 - Steve Lewis, co-owner (Block Club Chicago, 30 September 2022):
Three years ago, when we found this beautiful building in our neighborhood, we knew we wanted to create three fundamentally distinct experiences under one roof that somehow managed to complement one other in a very special way.
1
Good to know
- Hours: 5pm to 1am, seven days.2
- Getting in: walk-ins only at the bar, every day. Reservations run through Resy and only for parties of four to six in the lounge.2 Opening-week coverage said to book, and that has changed.
- The door: unmarked, near the back alley, with a bird silhouette on it.3
Verdict
could-visit — Abe Vucekovich came from The Violet Hour and rewrites the whole list several times a year, which is a working method and not a seasonal tidy-up, and the opening menu shows the range: pisco, crème de cacao and orgeat in one glass, Bolivian brandy with Amontillado and house-smoked orange bitters in the next. Thirty seats in 825 square feet behind an unmarked door is the honest limit on it. The rung is mid-ladder because nothing published since October 2022 has judged what he is pouring now.