The Bar

I have lived 4 blocks from the Concourse for 6 years. When I heard they remodeled, me and a friend decided to check out The Bar for happy hour. WOW! The space is lovely… intimate, low key, soft music, variety of seating. I’ve gotten so tired of the packed, loud, average service, and pretentious food of lot of restaurants downtown. Walking into this place was like discovering an oasis from all that. Absolutely cannot say enough about the two servers. Attentive, knowledgeable, and were willing to get our questions answered if they didn’t know. They pay attention to the little things here, which in any dining experience is so important. I have a huge pet peeve with bars writing their beer menu on a board with no menu for customers who are not seated at the bar. It’s lazy and thoughtless. So when I realized there was no menu and asked what was on tap, the server did a little thing that I was so impressed with… instead of rattling off a bunch beer names, half of which I wouldn’t know about, she said what type they were so it made my decision quick and easy. Beer selection is well represented but not extensive. But does anyone really need every bar to offer 100 beers? No.
Now, to the food. Again, WOW! Great menu and great prices. We had the artichoke dip and it was fantastic! Creamy, hot, and cheesy with big chunks of artichokes. Served with toasted pita bread, which was a nice touch because it made dipping and eating worry free that I was going to drip globs on the way to my mouth. At $ 10 it seemed a little pricey but the serving was huge and more then plenty to share with 2 – 3 people. We also had the chicken chili for $ 6. When they brought out the bowls we were shocked! It was a meal. Both of us were stuffed and I even took some of the soup home. The chili was hearty with good size chunks of chicken and plenty of beans. It had a little heat but nothing to deter sensitive palates. My friend, who is very picky about food quality, loved it all. We were so impressed with the whole experience we asked for the manager to tell him how great the service, food, and ambience was and that we will be coming back for many more visits. I’ve been telling all my friends. Way to go, Concourse!

Ah, The Bar. I really liked you when I first discovered you when invited to a meeting here and was excited to come back. You have so much potential. You need to have more than one person working the entire room, though.
The bartender/​server was great from the little we interacted with her, but her visits were few and far between because she was running through the bar all night. Literally. Occasionally someone else would run food out for her, but she was waiting on 40 or so people by herself. Bonkers.
I ordered a hot toddy — dark rum, vanilla, honey, and mulled spices. My table mates were served long before me — in all it took over 30 minutes to get my drink. At one point the bartender did check back in with me to let me know they might be out of one of the ingredients, but it eventually appeared. It was delicious, so I’m glad for that, but 30 – 40 minutes to get a pretty simple drink is outrageous.
It took about 45 minutes to an hour after arriving for us to be able to put in a food order. We ordered from the woman who was occasionally popping in to order food. She was nice, but didn’t know the menu. We were curious what the white sauce was on the chicken wings, and she had no clue, but at least offered to go back to the kitchen to ask (if you’re curious — mayo and miso). We ended up passing on that and getting the mini meatballs with romanesco sauce, artichoke and spinach dip, and the assorted Wisconsin cheeses with pickled vegetables and mustards.
After we finally put in our order, the food came out in a reasonable amount of time after. The food runner gave us our cheese plate with no explanation of what anything was — I was able to catch the bartender and she was able to tell us what cheeses were on the plate — a blue cheese whose name I forget, a butter kaese, and a five-​year cheddar. The pickled vegetables were just one variety — I believe it may have been zucchini? They had a strong, spicy kick that was delicious. The mentioned mustards ended up also being singular — all I can say is there was some sort of sweet element to it. Not my thing.
The meatballs were indeed mini, but tasty. The bread served with it was really delicious. I don’t know if the five tiny meatballs were worth $ 9, though — the quality didn’t equal out to two dollars a bite.
The artichoke and spinach dip came out bubbling hot, and was good — it tasted like it may have had a beer base, but there’s no mention of that on the menu. The chunks of artichoke were hearty and there was a good amount of spinach. It was nice because it didn’t have an overly cheesy/​greasy/​heavy feel that many such dips do.
I love the colors of The Bar, and the booth-​like chairs were really comfy. We had a TV in our area that was set to a good volume on a music channel until the World Series came on.
I’ll be back to give it another go, possibly before a show at Overture, but I have all my fingers crossed that service will improve. At the rate we went tonight, there’s no way we would have made showtime despite arriving at 5:30 if that was our goal.

Great out-​of-​the-​way bar. Happy hour from 4 – 6 with $ 3 beer specials. Order a specialty drink or wine and you can get an appetizer for $ 6. It’s a one-​for $ 6 deal but if you’re with a group, you can each get a drink/​wine and order something to share.
The artichoke dip is good and has a bit of a bite, although my palette is very susceptible to heat. So most people will probably not even notice. The cheese plate is awesome! A 10 year cheddar, a Bleu, and a gouda (?), with small crostini and a small ramekin of sweeter, spicy mustard. (that I didn’t try but I’m taking the word of one brave member of our party) The meatballs were very good, not too much spice. Tasty, and not over-​cooked, with excellent crusted bread slices to help clean up the sauce.
The wine list is not extensive (at least by the glass), and a bit unassuming, but there’s at least something for everyone. I had a decent Cabernet Sauvignon but probably would have enjoyed the Male more.
Not very far from Overture Center, we were here on a week-​night when Wicked was playing and the bar was not crowded at all. Just the way you expect a quintessential hotel bar to be. I know where I’m going before my next Overture event.

This place is great. Sliders. Fried pickles. Deviled eggs. Really really good for a hotel bar.