My friend and I who are both ISU alums went to this bar. After paying cover and getting my ID checked I was checked by the bouncer. The bouncer stopped me and then yelled at me and said "oh you want to waste my time?" when I asked what he meant he said "answer the question". "I said no and he said right so why are you wasting my time." Again I asked him what he meant. A guy walks past who I assume is a manager, my friend tries to talk to him and the bouncer shoos the guy away. The bouncer proceeds to get in my face and asks me do I want to take this outside. I again ask him WHAT IS HE TALKING ABOUT. After about 15 minutes of being verbally assaulted I was finally let in. My friend who I brought with me is now in tears because she was so afraid. After waiting for her to go to the bathroom and settle down we decided to head to the bar and try to enjoy the rest of our night. Im not sure if it's because Im black, if it's because he wanted to create a line, or if he was fresh off doing a line. But I will not be coming back. This place is racist and has bad music. Don't come here. read more

Here is a well known ISU bar. It's been around quite a long time. Daddio's has to be doing something right to still be in business, or people here just don't care. Find some pretty okay drink specials and more. The atmosphere sucks at times but it can be okay. A good thing is it's near lots of other bars. If you don't like it here, there's many other places to go. Truthfully it's not all that bad though. It depends. Like all campus bars, its atmosphere changes throughout the year. It's very quiet in summer, and hardly open. They even have limited hours during the school year. Mostly just Friday and Saturday nights, if even. The drinks are the best thing. It's about $3 for the cheapest. The cheapest isn't good but it's cheap for sure. Games in here include cornhole. It's typical drunken fun. They also have live music but there's often a cover though. read more

Daddios - Whiskey - Bars Near Me - Bloomington, Illinois

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transitions are so bad in the music please fix. dj talks too much. play more gay music.

They play house music most nights, which is right up my alley, but the overall design of the place isn't good for people who want to go to the bar or bathroom. Bartenders are fine. Drinks are cheap enough that you can black out and nothing matters. read more

good music. they should make their machines apple payable to play the games. they'd make so much moneys

Best memories at Daddios while in college! Great music and by far my favorite bar downtown!

This is a townie bar for weird ISU students and even weirder people who live in Bloomington-Normal. As Theresa C. stated, let this serve as a warning for you in case you plan on coming here (for whatever reason). Our friend's band played here and that was about all this place had going for it. The bands get free drinks which is nice for them, but everything else here is unnecessarily expensive. We're in Bloomington, not in a Wrigleyville bar on a Cubs game night.... why are all the bottled domestics $4.50? That price is just unnecessary since this bar isn't that great. Heeled sororistitutes, nasty Chads with popped collars and good cover bands are about all you'll get at this bar. I'm not sure why you're hanging out in downtown Bloomington, but I guess this is as good a place to go as any since all of these bars have to be the same. At least Daddio's is across from the public parking garage so you can make a quick getaway when downtown Bloomington becomes too unbearable to stand. Also, the front doors to this bar open inward... isn't that a huge fire hazard? I don't want to be in this place when it bursts into flames and there's a horrifying stampede into the inward swinging door. I'm just saying. read more

Daddio's is what concerned parents see in their mind's eye when they warn their daughters to be careful at college bars. The entire establishment is painted black, inside and out. There are large bouncers who drink "muscle milk" while checking IDs under the glow of black-lights. The bartenders are mostly females who try to earn their tips by appearance more than service. You get the idea. It's the type of place where you feel drunk just by standing there. I don't mean to suggest that the patrons here are seedy characters because they're not. At least they're not any seedier than any other college bar. So, why should you go to Daddio's? Because they have cornered the live music market in Bloomington. Daddio's hosts some fun groups like "Two White Crew" and "Wedding Banned" and if you're up for dancing, I hear there's a great DJ on Thursday nights. Be prepared for a $5 cover charge when these bands are playing though. They typically go on stage around 10:30 but it won't get busy until after 11:00 PM. Other things to keep in mind: you have to buy water - they won't give you a cup, they don't have much (if any) draft beer, they don't take credit, if the main bar is busy, try the much smaller bars around the corner on either side, if the bathrooms are packed it might be worth stumbling to the opposite end of the bar (north) where there is rarely a line, be prepared to stand - there is very little room to sit and very few tables. Good luck! read more

Daddios - the entrance to a mitte club - Bars Near Me - Bloomington, Illinois

Great place if you want to get Covid and spread it to your family right before the holidays,

This is one of the dirtiest places I've ever been! Floor was literally rotting, two women's bathrooms - in one none of the doors latched and the second had 3 stalls (one with shit on the toilet, one with pee on the seat and one locked up). In one of the men's bathroom there was a literal stream of water by one of the urinals coming from the ceiling. Water was leaking from the ceiling in SO many places in the actual bar area. I'm fully convinced they had the fog machines going at full speed to have plausible deniability of where the weed smoke was coming from. The floor was uneven in several places. The bar was obviously just painted over the chipped and gauged surface previous layers. The sound for the band was horrible and the whole atmosphere matched the condition of the "night club". I'm amazed this place hasn't been shut down my the health department. read more

The bar setup here makes it hard to get a drink without a fight on a busy night, I recommend the back bar for quicker drinking. The idiot who made this place has all sorts of different levels on the floor that are about 6 inch inclines ... if you want to talk about the worst idea for a bar with drunk girls in heels ... this is right up there. Thursday nights and weekends this place can get packed ... dancing happens and usually it is in the form of drunken floundering, but once again this is a college environment so take it for what it is. Every once and a while they have really good bands here too. read more

It will never cease to amaze me how Daddio's can go from dead to packed in a matter of minutes. We were there on Saturday night (10/6) for ISU homecoming/Wedding Banned. Cover was $5, and the bouncers were being very strict with carding people. I don't mind, I'm 28 at a college bar, and would rather not see a bunch of 19 year olds get sloppy, especially since with my luck, one of them would end up blowing chunks right on me. Daddio's is a CASH ONLY establishment. Drinks are CHEAP. A Jack Daniels shot or mixed drink was $3.00, and a Miller Lite $3.25. You cannot drink that cheap on a daily basis in the 'burbs. Like I said, it got VERY crowded VERY fast. The band was good, but we ended up leaving mid-way through the second set because it was just TOO crowded. I couldn't move or breathe. I guess that's what happens when I'm a 28 year old at a college party. read more

Great place to see live music and DJs. Flat out. If you want to have a good time and dance and drink, than Thursday night at Daddios is THE place to be in BloNo. DJ Brainstorm is tearing up the music and guaranteed to heat it up. $2.00 everythings? C'mon, what else do you need. The crowd rolls in at 11:00, but it bumps from 11:00-1:00. Friday night, you can catch a changing lineup of DJs and $6 32oz drinks. Again, I don't know what you're looking for, but if that's not it.... Saturday night, they have live music. It is the best place to catch some of your favorite cover bands from Chicago as well as local cover bands. read more

uuuuuhhhh ok, I graduated ISU years ago and now it is time to review. You will see some towny reviews on this place, just ignore those posts, I have to ask, if you are a towny what are you doing at this place during a school year if you can't stand ISU kids? Go elsewhere, don't come here and have a bad time then leave a crappy review, c'mon you know this place is for ISU kids from late Aug til early May. This review is mainly for ISU students, this place is a blast with cheap drink but only on a Thursday night. If you come here Friday or Saturday it is full price and not worth it, come here Thursday. I hope it has not changed since I last went here, and if it has not, this is the Thursday night bar. Great music, cheap drinks, and lots of good times! read more

I think I am officially too old for Daddios! LOL I was here for ISU HC '17 and was dying to visit the old stomping crowds and Bloomington's only "club". I used to have a blast at this place in college, they always played great music that catered to everyone. I was here on homecoming saturday and it was packed, like sardine packed. They had some college kid as a DJ- spinning a bunch of dubstep, techno sounding stuff. He would start playing a good song from 7 years ago and then would spin it into some crazy techno. It felt like an EDM concert. The place was a mess, dirtier than I remember it. It smelled like pee the minute you walked in through the side door. It was way too hot in there like sweaty, musty, hot. I just do not think I will be coming back here on my visits. Sad...I used to love Daddios. read more

"This bar has zero taste in music. Please let us hop on aux" - this quote was written at exactly this time last year and nothing has changed. read more

Being 35, this so isn't my scene anymore, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a blast every time I came here. This time, we wound up going because A coworker's daughter is a server, and lo and behold, the Wedding Band is playing. Hilarious. So, we order a pitcher (all of $3 ... which all the college kids should be thankful for, because you know what that would get you in Chicago? Nothing. At least not in a bar where you have to pay cover to get into), and rocked out. Pretty fun ... as long as you go early. read more

I like bands and Daddio's. Daddio's has good bands. I like drinks Daddio's has bartenders that can make a good drink and do it quickly. Daddio's has bouncers that realize their job is not to beat people up, but to help the people who want to have fun have a good time. It's a college bar, but there is a pretty wide mix of people who come to the club to see bands. It's cheap and it's fun. Someone made a comment in their review that said, "We're in Bloomington, not in a Wrigleyville bar on a Cubs game night." This person has never been to Wrigleyville and if they were they were very drunk. A can of Miller Lite cost $6 in Wrigleyville. A bomb is $9-10. When I was at Daddio's pitchers of Lite were $3. . read more

This bar gets an "A-ok" instead of a "oh my god, this must be one of the circles of hell, what is happening?" because it is in downtown Bloomington and everything in downtown Bloomington is disgusting, so I'm grading on a curve. The place has live music, good sound and a nice stage. The physical layout is kind of annoying, with uneven footing and the main bar across from the stage (where is gets super crowded). The bathrooms were clean, all night, which is amazing considering I was there on Senior Bar Crawl weekend and the amount of dirty vagina managed to make outside, Central Illinois smell like the ocean. The drinks are expensive for Bloomington and weak as all get out. I would stick to beer. They have decent shows, but there is a cover (usually just $5). It's definitely not the worst option, but it's still gross and if you're not used to college town scenes, be warned, it is terrifying. read more

Every time I look at my credit card receipts from Chicago, I miss Daddios. I used to go out with $50 and see a live band, buy rounds of shots and drinks all night, and still have the $6 left to get a cab home to Normal. Half the time I walk into a Chicago bar with a cover, I ask who's playing as I pay the $10 or $20, and there's a DJ or nothing.... $5 to see a band = awesome, $20 to see idiots wearing blazers and $300 t-shirts run up their parent's credit card bill while paying $10 for a vodka and 7 up = crappy. When I was still going to ISU, Cheese Pizza, King Solomon's Grave, Bottle of Justus and Mike and Joe were my fav's, I still like check out 16 Candles, Wedding Banned, Too White Crew, if I happen down there and they are playing. And at least when I was down there, bands used to rave that they had the hottest bartenders in the mid-west. The only reason I ever got slow service there was because the guy in front of me was too busy staring at the bartenders to order. read more

This place is terrible. It's expensive, the bands suck and the bartenders are worthless. The drinks options are eh... there's no place to sit and the bouncers are jerks. Unless you just turned 21 and go to ISU...forget about this place. it blows. read more

I went to Daddio's on Saturday while visiting my friends at ISU. The drinks were decently priced but the staff is very shitty. The bar closed at 2AM and it was about -15 degrees out that night. It was approximately 1:53 and I was waiting for an Uber to get home when a female worker approached very aggressively and told me to get the **** out. I had my hands in my pockets and calmly told her that the bar is still open and I am just waiting for Uber because of the cold. She then began to shove, push, curse, and yell as I had my hands in my pockets trying to be a bigger person and not get in a shouting match. She must have been under the influence while on the job. I brought the matter to the manager when I saw him standing there but he didn't seem to care and just wanted everybody to leave. If this is how Daddio's treats its customers then I have no respect for them at all. I would reconsider what type of people you are hiring and do a better job serving your customer. What an awful way to end the night. read more

Kind of the douchy bar on campus when I was there. They do have great live bands from time to time and drinks are reasonable

As a student this was one of my favorite bars to go to on the weekends. Thursdays were awesome for cheap drinks and the weekends were great to see bands like Hairbangers Ball, and it was always a good time. Only complaint then was the huge amount of fraternity bros with a chip on their shoulders that would frequently attend. But then again the best way to beat that crowd is going when they have a live band, for some reason it repels that type of crowd. Then again that was a few years ago. But it was a good place then.. read more

This past Saturday (4-20-13) I ( male) along with my girlfriend and several female friends went to Daddios to enjoy some live entertainment (Hair-bangers Ball) and beverages. Once inside ordering from the main bar, we were harassed by an intoxicated patron who kept trying to touch and put his arm around the girls. After complaining to both bartenders and security, the individual was still there. Security informed me that the individual knew the owner and he would not let him be removed from the bar. I can't believe that an establishment would condone the actions that the drunk individual. They would rather accompany one person and risk having six paying customers leave the bar. I will never come back to Daddios after that experience, I will take my business elsewhere as well as tell all my friends of my horrible time there. On a good note, I would like to add that the staff was more than sympathetic with the situation and wanted the individual gone just as bad as we did. In the end, if you wish to be violated, go to Daddios. read more