Phyllis’ Musical Inn

Open letter to the asshat owner of Phyllis’s Musical Inn last night:
Hello. I’m writing in regards to my rude and unacceptable treatment as a musician and a human being at your club last night. For the record, I was a last-​minute add-​on, I haven’t palyed your club in a while and I was a little under-​practiced. I have felt and performed better on many, many other days, and I’ll admit I wasn’t on my game.
That being said, and I say this on behalf of ALL performers ANYWHERE, however or wherever you decided that it was ok to heckle anyone while onstage and berate them about tuning too much or not having an amp (which you didn’t bother to say until I was onstage, yelling it in front of everyone), your actions are CLEARLY UNACCEPTABLE.I. have.never. Been so completely humiliated. There were better ways to address any issues I was having, but you chose instead to publicly castigate me like a child. My girlfriend Vicky and I are still shaking our heads that ANYONE would behave this way. I feel bad for her and for Richard Flabby Hoffman, who I was representing. Maybe I didn’t need to leave the stage, but nobody should have to take that kind of abuse. I really did try to make the most of it, but when you just kept going and made it clear that you didn’t want me there, I took the hint.
Your place is a dive with a crappy sound system. It’s not all that; if you want it to be, change your attitude, get off whatever you’re on, and actually invest in your musicians and your sound. You don’t get a pass just because your place is a hipster hole-​in-​the-​wall with «atmosphere» and overpriced PBR’s. I will make it a point to make it known to all my musician friends EXACTLY how much of a douchebag you are and to boycott your club indefinitely.
Until something seriously changes, don’t expect to see either I or my friends in there ever again.
Chilly regards,
Mark (e) Lester

Not saying I don’t like the place, just saying its a gross, one star dive bar. Bad DJ, broken 80s arcade games, gross bar, and cash only. Just about everything in here is nasty, and it’s still $ 4 for a high life, ha! There was a cover band that played later that was ok, lots o Stevie Ray Vaughn covers.

Place is horrible. Owner is an a$&hole who gets high and yells at his employees for no reason in front of customers. smells like pee and their basketballs are deflated. I dont know how this place stays in business. and I dont think it should. taking up a great space on division.

Cheap drinks and great live music! Beer garden is probably also amazing, but didn’t check it out since it was too rainy.

Very nice patio.

I’ve been here a number of times and have seen it consistently decline. Unfortunately the staff has no regard for its patrons. The manager, Clem, sits at the bar obviously intoxicated and refuses to offer services of the basketball court in the back. It is a very sad picture here, unfortunately. There is no good time or sanitary time to be had here.

This place was a cool dive. I wish they had more german brews. I will come back when the patio opens. It has a good crowd of like minded souls.

HORRIBLE!!! For people behind the bar and couldn’t get one to help us. They were to busy drinking there own productto serve any one

One of my favorite bars.
The is a very cool old school bar that is left over from when Division street had Polish Polka Bars up and down the street decades ago. Hang in a bar that Nelson Algren would want to drink at.
If you are tired of Division street D-​bag bro bars with tons of TV’s that make you feel like you are drinking in the TV section of Best Buy, check this place out.
Clem the Owner is a great guy and the patrons are very friendly and will make you feel welcome.

This is the mecca of cool dive bars in Wicker Park. From the mural on the wall of Phyllis herself playing her squeezebox to the originaltin ceiling and Apothecaries backlight bar from the 30s… just cool. Phyllis’ son Chet still runs the place and and can be found amongst the colorful locals who make it an experience. great local bands play almost every night and the drinks are cheap! A Place to lay back & chill with friends with an outdoor smoking patio.

Very divey place. Makes you feel like its the place youd sadly drown yourself in alcohol at after a breakup, or a lost job. The first band we saw was not good, a couple of very old dudes wailing about heartbreak, but it was a Tuesday night-​so whatever. I was there for a very talented friend of mine who went on after. The drinks were fine, not overpriced. the bartender was very strange and slow-​moving. He «tripped» & walked into my shoulder in the most uncrowded area of the bar and proceeded to apologize by rubbing, patting, & rubbing again my shoulder and the area above my breast. My bf and I shared a «wtf was that??» Glance but I brushed it off. If you LOVE dives you will adore this place. But there are way better places in the city that are more charming, less creepy looking, and also have great original acts.

It is pretty divey and folky feeling here, but if you walk in and head to the left there is a lovely backyard! Nice and relaxing out there-​until someone starts playing basketball and all you can think about is how painful and humiliating it will be once you get hit in the head.

This is the kinda hole-​in-​the-​wall place that is truly a hidden gem. The staff is super-​friendly and there’s a great beer garden in the back. Head to Phyllis’ for some good local music without the typical Wicker Park crowd. It definitely looks a bit dive-​y on the inside, but the tin ceiling, vintage refrigerators and relaxed vibe will mean a nice evening. They don’t have a lot of beer on tap (i think only 1), but have at least 20 types in their bottle selection.

I’ve actually been to this place a couple times and really only the second time for convenience sake. It’s a dark dank smelly old dive bar and they only accept cash here. The one redeeming quality is that the drinks are cheap and they have a fairly nice patio. Only problem is the last time I was here the back patio looked like a frat house had descended upon it with a vengeance. That is, there were empty beer cans all over the place and the two guys working the front bar, at the speed of molasses, didn’t seem in too much of a hurry to clean the place up. Granted they had maybe half a dozen patrons sitting at the bar which I’m sure can get pretty taxing /​sarcasm… Anyways, if you are in the neighborhood and already smashed this is probably a good place to stop in at. Otherwise, check out any of the other bars close by that doesn’t smell like mold.

Awesome outdoor patio. Basketball hoop but no basketball after 1:00a.

When we walked in at 6pm on a Sunday night, they were out of ice.
The bartender would take 15 minute smoke breaks, and ask you to wait.
The arcade games lining the walls are dusty, non-​functional, and hold old records instead.
But they were grilling back near the horseshoe pit in the back patio and offered free food.
And they have a basketball hoop which makes for an excellent drinking game of Horse.
Based on all of this, I’d say they have NO interest whatsoever in being a bar or turning a profit.
And I love it.
pssst — like all true dives, cash only. No ATM on site.

Holy hole in the wall batman! This is a legit dive bar with some of the coolest characters working there that I’ve encountered to date. The door guy would get up and just be gone for like 10 – 15 minutes at a time. I found that comical actually. Beyond that this bar has your staple beers for the area (Old Style, etc) and the nicest part of the place is the outdoor patio which is odd because when we were there nearly no one was taking advantage of it. Strange.
Don’t come here looking for fancy, just come here looking for laid back, come as you are type attitude. You will enjoy.

After enduring the frat-​like party that was going on at Boundary, we escaped to the glorious Phyllis’. I like this joint… kitschy décor, friendly bartender, non-​pretentious people. They were out of Jamison which might normally have me raising my eyebrow but not to worry, they had a substitute. Granted, this house whiskey was not good, but they were enthusiastic about it and flexible and made me happy about it. Maybe I was drunk but I found this all totally satisfactory. If it Bucktown, I’ll be back. It’s a welcome escape from the douchebaggery that abounds in this neighborhood.

Walked into this place after 11pm on a Friday or Saturday a while back and it was deserted; one guy talking to the lone bartender. I guess we must have interrupted something because the bartender treated our presence as a nuisance and was unfriendly.
Needless to say, empty dive bar, no music playing, and hostile looks from the bartender convinced my group that we were better off giving our money to another bar. Oh, and who are you kidding charging $ 3.25 for a bottle of PBR? What a joke.

Maybe we got there too early. Although at 11:00 on a Friday night, the place ought to be getting into it’s groove for the night. Phyllis’ came highly recommended to me by a friend who doesn’t toss reccos out lightly, so when I found myself in the neighborhood the other night– I thought I’d stop in.
We were stopped at the door to pay the $ 5 cover. No problem, or so I thought. I guess I should have asked what time the «real» band started, for what was playing in the front of the bar when we walked in had to be an opening act, right?
I stopped at the bar to get a drink and was totally ignored by the bartender. Funny.. .he had time to chat up the girl next to me who had arrived after me and I’m quite sure if she had not said something to him about me being «next», I’d still be standing there waiting to buy a beer.
We made our way through the bar and out the side door to a very nice beer garden, whose distance from the stage made the music actually bearable. We sat at a small table sipping our beers in this secluded setting for awhile waiting for the band to change. When it didn’t, we looked at each other and decided we had had enough of this place for one night.
I love dive bars. I love music. I love beer gardens. So why didn’t I love Phyllis’? Not sure. But on this night something just wasn’t working.