When it is 70s in Spring, you head to the nearest patio. On this occasion, we were back-and-forth if we were gonna go out on a Friday night for happy hour, but eventually decided to just go to one of the patio bars near us. We were lucky because we got a parking spot right off of Milwaukee so it must've been destiny for us to be going to this location on a Friday evening. We got to this location. We arrived right when happy hour was over so unable to take advantage of the specials, but the patio was pretty live in the bar area. There was two separate bar areas. The patio area was open and packed but not at capacity. We had a few drafts and eventually there was live music up at the front of the bar. The band was very good and had the crowd going. Will be back to grab more drinks chill on the patio. Tip: late night parking on Milwaukee is prohibited after 12am on Friday. They tow not ticket so be careful. read more

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Cool spot with a great vibe, nice bartender, and affordable drinks. Got a Chicago handshake, and it was chill. Lots of beers on tap. Only downside was the TouchTunes not working read more

We stopped in here for a couple of hours our first night in town and had a great time. Both bartenders were very accommodating and friendly. The bathrooms were clean, and the outdoor area was very nice even if it was a little noisy from the L. We would definitely visit again. read more

Nick's Beer Garden - Beer Gardens Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Had a great time here! Service was so friendly and super friendly atmosphere! Good beer selection that is fairly priced. Totally chill place worth check out! read more

Beer and nothing but beer, and liquor, but mostly beer. It's the bar open the latest in Wicker Park, so the late night yuppies have somewhere to go. If you like harder to find beers, or just beer in general, this is worth a visit. Also, if you like loudly cackling wannabe professional working women, that helps. There's also a cool garden in the back that's even better if not too many people are back there. After coming here a few times, I feel the best thing about it is that it's open later than everything around it. It makes a good nightcap. That's not to say it's not good for an afternoon visit. It has a lot of the big company beers. Then there's the many crafts, including many that are local. A few formerly common beers from the past are here. It's about $4 a pint. They have Schlitz. For real. It's the good version. Also they have lots of specials not only on beer but for cocktails. They have these on shots including Jameson. Better eat before going. It doesn't have any food, but maybe you can bring some in. They also have events including some live music. read more

Nick's Beer Garden - Schlitz - Beer Gardens Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Service can be slow but they have a great selection of draft beers and the back patio is such a gift to have in the neighborhood! I would come here with a group of friends on a nice day to take advantage of the outdoor space! read more

My friend invited me out to Nick's Beer Garden to listen to Gerald McClendon rock the room. I haven't been to a corner bar type place in ages so I wasn't expecting much. I was so impressed when I arrived. This small pub had obviously been recently updated and it looks fantastic. With a pineapple theme, the whimsy is real. It sets the stage for a fun relaxed evening. Dark and vintage, but super clean and fresh, I found Nick's to be very stylish and comfortable. The small stage is set up at the front. It offers great sight lines and welcomes everyone that enters. I literally saw people out on the sidewalk dancing to the incredible show that Gerald McClendon offered. We loved the show which makes me think Nick's hires some great bands. I will definitely be back if this same band plays again. My friend and I enjoyed a couple of beers that were served ice cold. The bartenders were efficient but not overly friendly. That's ok, we still had a great time. Bus and train stops are nearby which is great since parking is very limited. read more

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DJ on Fridays sucks. Music sucks and he won't play requests keep sucking homeboy your out is lame af too btw capt.plays trash music

Super fun bar with a great selection of beers and live music! The crowd is pretty chill which is nice so it's not always too loud or hectic. Overall a really cool place to check out! read more

Nick's Beer Garden - people sitting at the bar - Beer Gardens Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Over-the-top loud music, overpriced drinks and poor service. I suppose this review could also be given to some of the other bars in the neighborhood. What has become of the Wicker Park bar scene in general? read more

Great place with rotating beer selection - attentive staff and great bartenders, you won't be left without a drink in your hand. Or two. Bonus - get the 312 Shandy while it lasts read more

Nick's Beer Garden - Strongbow cider and 312 lemonade shandy - Beer Gardens Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

The bouncers said I looked like a bad person and would not let me join my friends. I was wearing a polo amd jeans but suffer from cerebral terrors. Last time I ever go here or tell my friends this is a good spot.​ read more

The Bar Staff and Security Team is awesome!!! Tasty drinks and Friendly people. A great place for people of all ages, even Old Gen Xers like me. read more

Went during a Saturday around 1:45pm during 75 degree weather. So it was nice out. Crowd street area but this place was a nice day drinking vibe area. They do not have food (or at least not that I know of) they however have a snack drawer probably for emergencies! GREAT bartender. She made one mistake but recovered very well. Friendly and outgoing. We got lucky, there weren't idiots or obnoxious people in the environment. The security guard kind of approaches you aggressively before you can enter about seeing ID but he was just doing his job! I don't do the club scenery so I would do this again! Bought 2 IPAs, a Hard cider & Strawberry Guava for $26 total to give you a price range. read more

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They clearly do not look after their female customers. "Regular" male customer was trying to take upskirt and unwelcomed pictures of females during the Halloween bar crawl and was asked to stop and then continued. The owner/manager said he was a regular so did NOTHING. Will not ever visit again. PLENTY of cuter options in the area so please do not support if you think that someone taking inappropriate photos of female customers is not right... read more

Paid for a 100$ tab last week. Got charged twice. A total of 200$. No one answers the phone or emails. Great way to do to business. Seriously what the hell. How does one even charge someone twice using toast read more

Fucking bullshit bar. I'm sitting @ the bar for more then 30 min and NO ONE CAME TO TAKE MY ODER. Most ridiculous bar in chicago. read more

Nick's Beer Garden - a man working behind the bar - Beer Gardens Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

From the outside, doesn't look much but when we walked it it was surprising to see how big this place was. Drinks are super cheap here and they have drink deals everyday. This place was very lively as well. Staff was super busy getting drinks for everyone and very accomudating. Im taking out 1 star is because walking into the restroom is kind of wierd and they have only 2 stalls so, can expect to wait in long lines. read more

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Both waitresses in back of the bar were completely rude. I was trying to order a beer but the bar is loud and the bartender was incredibly rude when repeating herself. There was another bartender at the same bar who was also rude to a friend of mine. I proudly left a zero dollar tip. Great atmosphere, terrible service. read more

It's a decent place to hang out but the drinks are way overpriced and I hate that they serve every single thing in plastic. Imagine how much they go through in just a night. It's lazy and the city should really be stepping up and penalizing businesses for this sort of wastefulness. read more

It is one of the many bars In wicker park but what sets it apart is the liveusic on Saturdays at 10 PM. The band was cool, but hard to understand. Overall a nice bar to get some drinks and get ready for a next spot int he city. Love the paintings in the bar. Also had a pool area where you can play pool and enjoy music and a loud atmosphere read more

Nick's Beer Garden - Beer Gardens Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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Solid college town type bar. Reminds me of one I used to go to all the time. Not necessarily a place I will go all the time, but it was definitely a fun time. Fairly priced drinks, and great atmosphere. Always has good music going, and doors open during the summer. Now a rare find that I did enjoy - they had Zombie dust, Apex Predator and Oberon all on tap!!! Definitely good beer choices! read more

It's always nice to randomly try a place and discover it's cool. We wandered in and there was a great live bluesy rock band and no cover (Fridays) Though very busy we got the only open table next to the band! They were really good. The crowd was big and quite diverse (I liked seeing various ages and backgrounds) and people were dancing. Everyone seemed to be in a great mood. Apparently there's a beer garden in back and a room with pool tables. There's a pinball machine in the front by the door. It gets busier later since it's a bar open later than most. When we drove past leaving there was a line and crowd and it already packed on our last round. read more

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Great bar with the coolest back beer garden area. A friend and I planned a birthday bar crawl and Nick's was one of the stops--they were super kind and consummate professionals through the whole process! Got us in and out quickly and had a great time will absolutely be back and highly recommend! read more

Was here the other night. I've been here and had great times, and boring times. It's a slightly run down bar in the middle of painfully hip Wicker Park. You can still see the ghosts of Dreamerz in this place if you look - the back bar, for one. It is useful if you just want a relaxing, non-pretentious Wicker Park evening with friends, and there is definitely room in my world for that. On that - Nick's wins. read more

We had great time last Saturday with my deaf friends there. Because of our flying hands when talking in sign languages it can be dangerous and accidents do happen when in crowded bar. The bar patrons thought one of us threw up ( none of us didn't do that at all) one of our friends lipreading caught on what the patroon said about clean up and more the floor. They put chemical and powder and mopped the floor. None of us, we did NOT threw up none at all. One of our flying hands in sign language accidentally knocked over the filled plastic cup. I thought it would clarify for you. read more

Last night was my birthday outing, and because of some inclement weather, we popped into Nick's to stay dry. It was still before 2am, so we easily found a table in the back near the cheesy palm trees. After a few beers, I started noticing how loud and packed it was getting. Aw Damn... I had lost track of time and now it was "after-hours." What a shame that the only thing that makes Nick's worth it- the after hours- is the same reason not to ever go. All the chads, todds, chotches, whichever term you prefer, migrate here after 2am. It became a pool of button-down shirts and cargo shorts hovering over us to grab our table like vultures if one of us got up to use the restroom. Speaking of which, the already cramped toilets were no longer worth the wait, so we left right away. I added another star because I ran into a belligerent yelper on my way out who made me laugh, and then I got to ride home in the candy-cab. read more

Nick's Beer Garden - Beer Gardens Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

For years I have walked by and never had a chance to go in. Rodan closed and we were looking for another spot to hit up before we called it a night. Pretty cool spot! They had pool tables and televisions which was nice and the music was cool as well. Not sure about cost of drinks because someone paid for my drinks. The crowd was pretty chill. I got into a crazy discussion with a Cardinals fan, that loves going to Wrigley to watch the Cubs. The bathroom line was mad crazy, but luckily I was able to get in there before the line got out of control. We didn't stay long, but no reflection of the place, my entourage was just tired. Wouldn't mind showing up again read more

I've lived by this place for a while and always skipped it because I thought it was a dive bar. It WAS but now they've completely remodeled and it's actually quite nice! Drinks are pretty reasonably priced and they're working on getting food read more

Been a minute but.....and not opposed to a cleaner version of a Wicker Park staple but, reminded me of an airport bar trying hard to be an edgy bar. No character. No draughts. Out of a bunch of staples. Plenty of quintessential tattooed employees talking amongst themselves but...... read more

Went looking for a fun bar to go to with a friend and as we walked up to give our IDs to the bouncer he was extremely rude to us out of nowhere. He made a few extremely rude comments about our appearances and then we instantly left the bar and didn't spend a dime in there. We will not be returning and none of our friends will be either. If I could give this bar less than 1 star, I would. read more

Props to this place for offering good specials. Great big dive with nice cold drinks. Saturday specials include select $5 drinks and shots alone with $5 per and we'll shot. Thursday is $5 per and a shot of jamo, well worth it. Inside is super big!! read more

Total.Dive.Bar. First of all - I will say - the service at Nick's is FANTASTIC. I say this because, as they were closing (yes, at 4am) one cold winter evening, one of the bartender/bouncers let me hide out in the bar to wait and watch a terrific scene unfold with some friends...Ok - I didn't get to watch the whole thing as I was sort of hiding out in back, but when I explained my situation to the bartender/bouncer (that I had to wait while they 'worked this out'...), he laughed and insisted I wait until things were 'cool'. So, if nothing else, the service is great and I will forever laugh about this evening. So, other than that, this bar is a total dive...I'm pretty sure they have the worst bathroom ever. However, this doesn't stop patrons from visiting...and lots of them. So, I'm sure I'll be back as this is one of the few spots where you might find a table late on a weekend, but I have to say that the bar is sort of gross. Making up for this (aside from my compliment above) are the cheap beers and lots of places to sit. I've never been here in the summer, so I'm not sure how the actual beer garden is. Perhaps I'll be back to check it out (but really Nick's - you might want to think about updating the ladies bathroom...seriously.) read more

We went to Nick's two nights in a row, and should have heeded the lingering reservations we had after the first night. I was excited to find a bar with a divey, low-key character, good activities (pool and shuttle board, plus weekly events), and well-priced drinks. However, both nights we encountered outright rudeness from several staff members, as well as poor service. The bouncer is on a bit of a power trip, and was a bit condescending the first night. The second night a totally separate bouncer was downright rude, scoffing at my out of state ID. Both nights we had difficulty getting service at the bar and were repeatedly ignored by bartenders. One of them hassled my boyfriend for a larger tip when he was paying for two drinks. On the second night we were continuously herded around by staff as we were told at least three times that we were not allowed to sit in particular seats or to stand on an area on the floor. These were not kind reminders (reminders is the wrong word anyways, as there was absolutely no way to tell that we were sitting somewhere "off limits")- they were passive aggressive, affronted, and snotty. Ultimately, I'm disappointed. We won't be returning or recommending. read more

All I have to say is that they ruined the soul of this place over the pandemic. No live music on Friday night. Looks like any other basic bar on Division now. What a disappointment as this was one of my favorite consistent staples in the city before pandemic. Truly a shame. read more

Never been around for the Live music, but let me tell you what I LOVE about this place: -$3 draught pours on Sundays - killer deal -Sunroom in the back of the bar, open air smoking patio -You can bring your own food; lit The patio has the added benefit of shutting down conversations every 5-7 minutes as the Blue Line passes overhead and drowns out everyone with its deafening commotion, which I love and hate. Plus, there's pool, a photo booth, and ample seating. Into it! read more

Love this spot! Great garden area, friendly staff, very reasonable prices. Definitely add this spot as part of your weekend bar crawl!

This bar sucks. The bouncer judges people upon looks and doesn't allow people in because they are better looking than him. I hope that makes him feel better about himself. He appeared to be on drugs. I didn't want to associate myself with him. This bar made me and all of my friends feel UNSAFE. read more

Sometimes I don't know if I should give Nick's a one or a five. Seriously, it's so bad it's good. This place is ridiculous on steroids. I'll set the scene for you: Saturday night. 2:15 a.m. Inside Nick's with a few friends. Enter: creepy, male 30something douchebags. Some of them are balding, some of them are wearing blue button up shirts with blue jeans and dress shoes and all of them smell like a high school gym locker room full of Axe body spray. Their hair will stun you (what's left of it anyway) - it looks like they've just come from some kind of rave - you know, the kind of hair stand stands up straight because there's 65lbs of DEP styling gel in it. They never leave you alone. They'll buy you shots, they'll ask you all sorts of inane questions and they will propose an "evening at my place" several dozen times even though you've repeatedly laughed in their faces and said no. This is how 4 a.m. bars work, people. The creepy predatory douches come in to prey on all of the really drunk ladies from the bars in the area. The worst part: sometimes they actually get someone to go home with them. I shudder at the thought. I have never, ever had an experience different than the one I previously described at Nick's. Seriously - ask all of the people who have gone out with me to Nick's. We were surrounded by weird, fat, old douches who just wanted to relentlessly and shamelessly hit on some "pretty ladies." This place is so awesome. read more

I've been here more times than I can drunkenly remember, but I've never had an amazing time (until we leave). The bartenders aren't very knowledgeable of cocktails. I believe anyone who tends bar should have knowledge on a wide array of cocktails, even if they do not particularly fancy the drink themselves. If you love getting macked on by old skeazy men, this is your joint. Get some! read more