Bascule Wine Bar

Closed??? NO!!!
My friend and I were looking for a cozy wine bar to chill at and we found Bascule. We did not try the food although it did sound delicious and we had planned on coming back.
I’m not a wine connosieur by any means so I really never know what you pick. So I go with my safety picks: Riesling and Moscato. Our bartender, whose name I forgot and really wish I didn’t because we had a great conversation with him, recommended a Prosecco. I had never had a Prosecco and my friend and I ended up finishing off his bottle. He actually had to go get another one!
I’m really bummed out to find out this place closed. I really enjoyed our bartender, he made the place feel welcoming and we felt like regulars on our first visit.

Bascule is a great place for a quiet but innovative meal. I was here for an event and was able to try a couple of their appetizer-​like dishes. The two different flatbreads were super delicious. All the ingredients tasted fresh and there was a small zing to each bite. Arugula salad was really tasty as well; I think I could eat so much of this! And the mac & cheese!!! SO GOOD! I loved the type of curly macaroni they used. Not sure what type of cheese it was but it was a sharper type/​mix of cheese. The top was also baked until perfectly golden brown and crispy! I’m not sure what the last appetizer was but it was something that tasted like a fried rice ball and obviously way better than what I’m making it sound like.
The only thing was that everything was really, really salty, especially the mac & cheese and one of the flatbreads. I felt like I needed to constantly drink water to quench my thirst!

Always a solid place to enjoy a nice dinner and numerous excellent libations.
Owner Jason is a really nice hospitable guy and always knows your name when you come in.
Highly recommended.

Wow what a great time surrounded by great people drinking great wine by knowledgeable wine enthusiasts eating amazing food (the chicken is a MUST, the octopus is savvy, the fish and chips are delicious and the peach dessert is awesome.

Took my cousins here who were visiting from New Orleans. They wanted pizza. I made them go to Bascule. It was a wise choice! I followed the highly skilled and entirely awesome bartender Ian here from Acadia and I’m so, so glad. This is a great space and wonderful new addition to Taylor Street. The octopus appetizer is an entire winner. The wine (I had a great Pinot Noir) was outstanding, and the service was great, but I would go back any day of the week for that octopus. The «po boy» appetizer left a lot to be desired. My NOLA cousins definitely didn’t enjoy and, honestly, I didn’t either. It didn’t taste awful, but definitely «off.» It’s not even like a «deconstructed» po’ boy. They just need to scrap that from the menu or revamp it – and I say that in love as a fan of the establishment and its concept. The burger is a winner. Maybe a scootch overpriced but definitely good.
Bascule is everything I imagined it would be – tasteful, innovative, unpretentious, welcoming and really, really good. Highly recommend and will be back soon.

Wow great restaurant!!! Bartender Dani is so knowledgable and friendly! Great food, wine, service, ambiance and happy hour till 6:30!!! Wish we lived closer so we could come back.

I’m not much into wine, but Bascule is a great spot for a ladies evening of fun and food. There are cocktail options which I tried out. The name escapes me, but it was delicious. The servers are knowledgeable and super helpful when looking for drink recommendations.
The food is wonderful here. My friends and I started with the sausage and mushroom flatbread. The ingredients are fresh and the crust is nice and crispy. For my entrée I got the fish and chips with homemade tartar sauce. I love that sauce! Unlike most tartar sauces, this one has a touch of dill, a pleasant surprise.
Don’t forget the dessert. The brownie is divine!

Not just about the wine– the cocktails are really good and creative. It’s a wine bar but offers great cocktails and beer for non wine drinkers. Definitely recommend for date night.

This is a new gem in Little Italy! You really should try especially if you are tired of all the old establishments around there.
They have selected wine and beers on tap, and a pretty extensive list. But the food and atmosphere is what won us over. The daily special flat bread, tuna/​hamachi (?) tartare, burger, scallops were all amazing!
The service is warm and easy going. And we particularly like the seats near the open glass doors near the street. We have been there twice in the last month and would be game to go again!

I thought this place was very well established over the last year. Even since Urban Union closed out with very unpleasant fashion (on themselves), this place has been empty up until I graduated. Then the minute I took off to the East coast these two somms opened this wine bar. Luckily I had time to come back to the Windy city a couple of time so was able to try this place. My bottom line is that this is a perfect local joint to chill out after work with small dishes and a glass of wine. This place also set the concept as small dish, farm to table with wine kinda thing.
We went here first time for my wife’s graduation with in laws and a couple of other guests. We ordered about 5 dishes. I thought bone marrow was a bit too much fatty (well I guess I would not be one that enjoys bone marrow), but other dishes were great. Rabbit dish was great, and flatbread with seasonal ingredient was great. We went back the second time in about a month, and had similar selections (sans bm), and we were very satisfied.
Staff were very nice. The restaurant was on a slower side (went there about 10pm on a week day both times), but still was vibrant enough to sit by the window, enjoy the food while watching Taylor street with people walking around. I hope this place, along with other new places, becomes the ignition of revival of little italy.

I made the bonehead move of going out to dinner with my wife and forgetting my wallet. We live north of Wrigley and drove 25 minutes to get to Bascule so going home would’ve been a bummer. I spoke to the manager Jason who totally rocked. He allowed us to have dinner and drinks with a handshake agreement that I call him today with my credit card info, which I’m going to do as soon as I finish this review.
The food and drink rocked as well. We had scallops, barley salad, flatbread, salmon, tuna and halibut tartar and it was all great. We sat at the bar and the bartender was super informative and actually came up with the drink program.
Nice ambience, nice tunes and super staff.
Thank you all for trusting that we would call today and actually pay and trust me again when I say we will definitely be back… with my wallet this time.

Nice little gem with wine on tap.

Came here on a Friday after work for a girls’ wine night. It started off great: love that you can make reservations and the space is very cute! Dimly lit and intimate, it’s right on trend.
From there, things went downhill. Our server was kind of spacey, despite a rezo for 3, she brought out one glass of water, waiting til each person arrived to get some water. She asked if we wanted to hear the specials before the third person arrived (umm, no, you’ll just have to tell her them again in 2 minutes) and she only brought two menus for three people. She gave some good recommendations, so that was nice, but overall I felt rushed, like she was trying to turn over the table.
We loved the wines, the selection is great, and the gentleman at the door doubled as sommelier and made suggestions when we couldn’t choose. The cremant rose sparkler was very crisp, my friend enjoyed her French white wine flight and we all LOVED his suggestion for a dessert rose: Schlossmuhlenhof (I took a picture of the label, it was so good!)
The food was a different story. We ordered the beet salad (which was more like a goat cheese plate with 6 pieces of diced beets scattered around the edge of the plate), the truffled cavateppi (which was tasty, but had a strangely burnt tasting cheese cracker on top) and the scallops (the lemonade foam intrigued me, but it didn’t taste like anything and the scallops were fine, but certainly not the best I’ve had). They ended by giving us a parting gift: bags of bacon fat popcorn, but again, only gave us two for three people… It’s like my friend wasn’t even there!
Overall, it’s cute but I don’t know that I’d make another trip to Little Italy just for Bascule. We went a couple years ago when it was Urban Union and that was excellent, I wish it could have stayed the same.

Great place to go. Has the mussels and short ribs. Everything was perfect. Definitely a must go to place.
Simply this is how it should be. Looking forward to returning on my next trip to Chicago.

I don’t know what the fuss about Bascule is all about.
It’s a cute spot. They were super nice, helpful and present and not intrusive or annoying.
Three of us spent a long evening here, and it was all good. A few observations:
The cheese and charcuterie were a near miss. All good, but totally bland and uninteresting for $ 25. Beginner charcuterie perhaps.
The tuna entrée is not an entrée. It is an appetizer. 5 bite sized pieces of tuna, no matter how artfully arranged, is too little to be considered an entrée.
Lamb Shank: with a squirt of purée something and one piece of veg: again… measl or an ala carte food picks? I want to be fed for $ 29, not teased.
Drinks are a strong point. Wine, beer and cocktails. Competent and friendly bar staff.
I don’t need to go again, but wouldn’t complain if I was invited. I just wouldn’t go out of my way to eat at Bascule. Nice but not that nice.

Amazing even if we only went for drinks.
Our server was super nice and knowledgeable. The drink list is very unique using creative ingredients — jalapeño soda anyone? We really enjoyed our cocktails even though I can’t remember the names but try the one with chocolate and another with jalapeño soda.
The wine list is quite large for the size of the restaurant so that is impressive.
My only complaint is the music. For such a charming and unique and somewhat exotic business, the music was cheesy. They were playing something similar to Squeeze. Bleh! How about something more exotic or classy?
Can’t wait to go back or dinner.

I came here as a belated birthday dinner with two friends. We all ordered a glass of wine.
The wine was a nice size pour (although I wish the draft wine was chilled), maine mussels (good flavor, preferred this dish over the manila clams), manila clams (broth was a bit salty), burger (very sweet burger. I don’t know if that was the intention), olive oil cake (decent), peach cobbler (very sweet). We asked for a lot of bread to mop up the clam juices. Service was solid.
Overall, I liked my experience. If I lived in the area, I would probably make this my neighborhood spot since the prices and ambiance is decent. Good spot for a low-​key dinner.

Stopped in last night for a few drinks and ending up staying and ordering food. The ambience is really great and intimate. They have wine on tap which is a pretty cool concept that I haven’t seen too many other places. They also have great mixed drinks including a great jalapeño drink (so I’ll definitely be coming back). We ordered the duck duck goose, flatbread and cavatappi and they were all delicious. I definitely wanna come back and try out the mussels, clams and scallops because they all looked great!
Update: I did come back for the scallops, short-​ribs and the shrimp. The short ribs literally melted in your mouth and were delicious! The portions are a little smaller so I would recommend ordering a few different dishes and splitting them all. The scallops were cooked great, but as a stand alone meal were not filling.

I had never been to its predecessor so could not speak to how similar the décor is but I really like the ambiance. It is exactly what you expect a wine bar to be: smaller tables, open kitchen, casual atmosphere. The front space is more of the casual bar and visual kitchen, which I love. It is set up sort of similar to Au Cheval in that respect with the tables on the right and small bar and kitchen on the left. There is a dividing area that has a fence where patrons can add locks (think Paris) and faux bricks with graffiti on them. It’s very original. Then the back is set up more restaurant-​like with smaller tables and a private dining area that overlooks both the front area and the back area. It is larger on the inside than it looks from the outside.
I started with one of their cocktails. I can’t remember the name but it had grape soda (house made, of course) and jalapeño. Grape sode and jalapeño? Yes, and it was awesome. Very balanced. I had to then have a red and a white (of course). Both of them were very good. I had a Carignan blanc, which I didn’t even know existed. It was yummy. Then I had a Chinon. Another grape I wasn’t familiar with. This was outstanding. For food we only tried the bone marrow but I am quite excited to try some of the other dishes. I plan to frequent here often!

I checked out Bascule last night during their pre-​liquor license days, so it was BYO. They did a nice job with the old Urban Union spot – not a massive overhaul, but they added decorations and little touches that make the place feel warm and personal. I like the bridge theme and, not being too knowledgable about bridges, learned that bascule is a type of bridge that’s counter weighted. My favorite feature is a huge backlit print of a view of the Chicago skyline from the 18^th St. bridge with – you guessed it – a bascule bridge in the foreground.
Our party of 4 ordered the mussels, bone marrow, chicken, seared yellowfin tuna, seared scallops, truffle cavatelli, and short rib dishes to share. Prices may seem a little high, but I think the dishes are generously portioned so I felt they were reasonable. I’m pescatarian so I can’t comment on the meat dishes, but I will say that the others really enjoyed them all. In particular, they were impressed with the chicken because it’s the thigh, leg and breast all attached and cooked together, and both meat types were cooked perfectly. That’s impressive! The scallops and tuna were cooked perfectly also, and I thought their accompaniments complemented the fish well. The mussels were a huge dish and tender. And small – I like that, because I don’t care for massive shellfish. They definitely buy quality ingredients here. The truffle cavatelli with cheddar crisp was their take on mac and cheese and was done very well. The truffle oil made it decadent, but the sauce was actually pretty light in texture – this is not an ooey gooey dish. Very tasty.
I do wish they would’ve had some more substantial, creative vegetarian dishes, but the menu is quite meat-​heavy (as many seem to be these days). I also wish they would make some of their dishes (scallops, tuna) a little less salty, but that is certainly not a complaint that’s unique to them – I find that restaurant food in Chicago is often on the salty side for me, relative to food I get in other cities and countries. Guess we just like our food aggressively seasoned here.
The service was very friendly, though for full disclosure I should mention that we were there with a friend who is friends with the owners. But their stated mission is to make Bascule a warm, approachable, friendly wine bar with no pretension. I have confidence that they’ll accomplish that. Though they couldn’t sell any wine that night, I looked at their wine list and it is indeed very accessible – it’s filled with reasonably priced bottles and interesting selections. I’m looking forward to going back and trying some of them (as well as dessert, which sounded excellent). They’ll also have 6 wines on tap.
So this was a great first visit, and I highly recommend trying them out. They should have their liquor license by this coming weekend, so stop in and try them out!