Delilah's - Chicago

To call Delilah's an enigma is as inadequate as saying that the Beatles were a pretty good band. This is a bar of contrasts and extremes. It’s a full assault on the senses. You’ll find a lavishly inked coed with enough piercing metal to short circuit a magnetometer seated next to a tax attorney. Only at Delilah's could you expect to see a famous rock guitarist spinning discs or Julian Van Winkle pouring drinks from behind the bar. A half hour spent here will have you feeling as if you are in a Stanley Kubrick film while in reality Delilah’s eccentric owner, Mike Miller, is carefully directing you. On any given evening Miller proceeds over the Greatest Show on Earth, with all due respect to Messers Barnum & Bailey, who would likely be both green with envy while blushing red.

I once called Delilah's "the most sophisticated dive bar on the planet" which Miller wears on his lapel as a badge of honor. This little dive bar may be low on frills but it is just short of heaven for beer and whisky lovers. Miller offers a staggering 400 plus labels of whiskies from around the globe (including labels that have long disappeared from the marketplace). Miller has assembled a virtual whisky museum. Whisky is drunk and appreciated here and the patron enjoying the $2 Old Crow on special is treated just as well as the guy sipping a 25 year-old Speyside. When serving whisky Miller is always fond of saying, "The best thing to mix with Whisky is a glass."