Fathom

TL;DR: A long-overdue queer dive bar for the northwest side. Charming yet subtle nautical vibes, well-crafted cocktails ($12–20), solid N/A options that don’t feel overpriced, and owners are a queer couple who clearly poured their hearts into it. An instant neighborhood gem! — I’ve been keeping an eye on this place since I heard of its inception, so you best believe we came opening night… And we were very impressed! We live in Avondale so having a queer bar so much closer to us than Boystown is SUUHCHHHH a welcome addition. Plus the owners are a couple of badass women who put so much professionalism and love into everything they do, so supporting them feels like such a win too! Despite being busy for a Thursday, it didn’t feel like a long wait to get drinks, it wasn’t overly crowded, and the service was prompt and very friendly. The atmosphere is lively, yet chill enough to easily have a conversation. The interior and decor elements are sooooo freakin’ cute too. It has this modern nautical theme, but without being overdone or too “on the nose”. They really leaned into the bar being a queer DIVE bar. Subtle, yet so charming. The drinks were perfectly balanced with great presentation. Prices are very reasonable for such well-crafted cocktails (ranging from $12-20). And! They even have spirit-free options that don’t cost $40, which is very much the moment (I know we all hate when the N/A menu is the same pricing as the boozy drinks). My spirit-free mojito was $8. Perfect. No food offerings, just as an FYI. This spot is everything you want in a contemporary dive bar: Relaxed yet fun, warm and welcoming, and thoughtfully designed with lots of space and multiple gender-neutral restrooms… And lest we forget: QUEER! Look for the drunken seagull and you know you’re in the right place! (Not me… the adorable sign outside). :) Edit: When speaking to it being for the “northwest side”, I guess I really just mean how easily it can be accessed from there via Belmont bus because it’s obviously not west.

Excellent new place! Slammed but bartenders are keeping up and getting through the line. The two bar lines also help! Great classic drinks, I look forward to what cocktail program they end up implementing and hope it's here for years to come!

Went for a Vietnamese popup and enjoyed my time! Cannot wait to come back to try to the weekend happy hour.

positives: - nice big space with a lot of room and nooks - generally nice design and comfortable seats/booths - good lighting, even with the open garage-door style front - area for darts - always great to see a queer bar pop up outside of the usual neighbourhoods negatives: - possibly the worst martini i've ever had: ordered the dirty martini (with gin, because it came with vodka) -- it was mostly olive brine with maybe a hint of gin. for an $18 cocktail, this is pretty not great. not only is this basically an unbalanced mixed drink, there's a reason why vermouth is usually in a martini. - service: a little too stand-offish and impersonal. and then you order at the bar (which is fine), but for an largely empty bar, it would have been nice to have our drinks brought to our table. so ultimately, don't really know where the 20% service fee went. - limited menu: 9 cocktails is okay, but about half of these are just fairly standard classics, so it would have been nice to have a wider selection unique to this spot. mostly i was disappointed in both drinks we ordered (the other was the daiquiri, as a Cuban, one of my fav. cocktails, so i have pretty high standards for this). ultimately, i'd rather make the trip up to Victor Bar in North Center, or hit up nicer spots with greater service and definitley better drinks (Meadowlark, Quality Time, etc.) i saw someone review this as a "dive bar" -- and this is definitely not something i would describe as a typical Chicago dive bar at all, for better or worse. just pointing that out.

Hung out with a group of friends. Had a good time. Drinks were good. They let us bring in food from next door so that made it easier to stay longer. Nice sitting in the booth with the big roll up door open. Was bummed when they closed it but rules be rules.