Great for a "rainy day", but probably not the best choice if you're feeling "under the weather" .
Who's got a trunk full of puns? I do. And I've got plenty more where that came from, so stick around, people!
Seeking a bite and a beer after obtaining a hundred bucks worth of free steaks from the nearby Hofherr Meat Co, I was on the fence about coming here or The Happ Inn Bar & Grill. I liked the name of this place better, so they got my business and for the most part I'm glad I made the choice (although I've no idea what I missed out on at The Happ. Maybe tons of single, local hotties and free beer, alas I'll never know.)
Walking in to Stormy's Tavern & Grille, I immediately noticed an overabundance of TV's inside. Like all freaking over. The only places on the walls where there weren't flatscreens had signed Blackhawks sweaters and other Chicago sports memorabilia. I plopped down at the bar and got a pint of Goose Island Green Line as I ordered wings & crispy green beans.
Meanwhile, I felt my spidey sense tingling.....sure enough, I spotted a lone pinball table out of the corner of my eye. A-ha! A Game of Thrones machine was wedged into their cramped gameroom, in between a wall and one of those hydroboat racing thingies.
I had to kick aside a tiny kid's chair as well as a tiny kid (just kidding) to get my pinball fix on, yet I made it happen. It was $1.00 per play, and walking back to my seat at the bar afterwards I got some quizzical "what was he doing in there??" looks from the various soccer mommies sipping their pinot grigios and checking their Twitter accounts.
When I returned, lo and behold a plate of 'ghost' wings [$10] and breaded green beans [$8] awaited me. Ten bucks gets you something like a dozen wings in a sauce of your choosing, so obviously I went with their hottest option. Two wings in and that scorching ghost pepper heat hit me like a "tornado" of fire. They explicitly warned me on the menu, so Stormy's has some truth in advertising, yuh huh. Four wings in and I began producing a veritable "monsoon" of sweat, but I persisted.
The crispy green beans came with a buffalo mayo dipping sauce and tasted as good as you'd imagine. Clientele was a mixture of families and locals, but it was the townies that made 95% of the eye-rolling racket. One table in the back was throwing out f-bombs as loud as "thunder" and seemed like a damn rowdy bunch of yokels.
Bread = 4
Circuses = 3.5
While the bartenders didn't ignore me completely, my daytime soap opera-like good looks garnered very little attention (which rarely happens, I swear). On a few occasions, I had trouble "hailing" a server to request a glass of ice water. Otherwise they were fine, if a tad brusque.
FYI, those ghost wings went thru my system like "lightning", as I found out early the next morning. It was painful to even break "wind" at times. But I suppose that's my punishment for calling their bluff. Kudos to the kitchen for having remarkably hot wings.
Sure, I'd recommend Stormy's. read more