Drunken heresy: Four North Side Sox bars

Maybe you’re clairvoyant. Maybe you knew that the Cubs and the Sox would both be in the playoffs this year. If so, bravo.

The rest of us? We think this is a surprising turn of events. And one surprising event deserves another. It’s in that vein that we present four North Side Sox bars where you can drink and watch the game in peace (or drown your sorrows if things continue the way today's 6-4 loss to the Rays did).

You read that right. At Pier 5736 (5736 N Elston Ave, 773-774-3663), owner/chef Peter McCarthy says “we’re heavy Sox up here. I’m originally from the South Side but I migrated up here in the late-80s. But I didn’t leave my roots behind. I was in Boston for the final of the World Series. My place is littered with White Sox stuff.”

Turns out McCarthy isn’t the only North Side bar owner rooting for the Sox. John DiPrima, a bartender at Lizzie McNeil’s (400 N McClurg Ct, 312-467-1992), told us that “owner John Wrenn is a huge Sox fan,” and the bar always fills up after a Sox win.

At Logan dive Bob Inn (2555 W Fullerton Ave), the Sox pride runs deeper than the signs on the wall and behind the bar—just try walking in with a Cubs hat on once the old fogies are a couple dozen into their bender and you might just be met by a craggly “Get that Cubs shit outta here.”

A bit closer to enemy territory (are we showing our allegiance here?) is Finley Dunne’s (3458 N Lincoln Ave, 773-477-7311), which manager Mike Murray describes as “Sox-friendly.”

Apparently a former manager started the trend of showing every Sox game on the tube, and now regulars who are Sox fans know the bar is a safe zone. “They know if they walk over to other spots on Clark and ask them to turn on the Sox game they’ll get made fun of and denied,” Murray says. “Not here.”

Special thanks to senior Eat Out writer David Tamarkin and intern Stephanie Dolan, who contributed reporting to this post.