Scotland Yard

its closed for violations

I went to this bar looking for a good beer selection, but did not really find much. Perhaps I was thrown off by a listing I read which called it a «beer bar».
I did find a couple of pleasant surprises among the usual macro brews. Longhammer IPA and Bell’s Two-​Hearted pale ale made our visit worthwhile.
The general décor was nice and open with a long wooden bar that I liked. The bartender was friendly and took good care of us.
There were pool tables and even a foosball table to entertain us.
Scotland Yard does not serve food, but they did not mind when people ordered food to be delivered to the bar.
Overall, I enjoyed my time at The Scotland Yard. I don’t know if it would be a destination for me, but I would stop in again if I happened to be in St. Charles.

When did I turn 400 years old? Sheesh it was super loud and not a tolerable loud.
Stopped in here with our friend who thought we might appreciate the upstairs dance area. The thought was nice. After being carded by the surly looking bouncer who turned out to be a STC alumni, we retreated to the upstairs part of the bar.
There was a DJ upstairs and about 4 people total dancing and grinding with each other. After a few minutes upstairs and tiring of yelling at each other we headed downstairs.
Plucked a nice sized booth. The bar area was pretty dead. A few people at the pool tables, people in security shirts walking around. It was pretty scarce, but still annoyingly loud with the dance music upstairs and the horrible selection of music playing downstairs. We all got tired of trying to talk over each other and finally left.
The place is alright. Typical bar. The upstairs dance floor just seemed a bit out of place and the atmosphere just reminded me of one big STC reunion. Had I gone to school there, I probably would have run into some people I knew. Once the place filled up a bit, it seemed like a streaming reunion of groups that all went to HS with each other.

I have been going to this bar off and on for years. It is a staple on STC’s strip. Personally I liked it better in its old location by the Arcada theater, but the location for the bar (easier to see) is better where it is (right on Rt. 64). It is a typical bar, nothing special. They have decent draught beers and patrons are able to obtain the elusive «Schooner» (really really huge beer). Upstairs they have a place called «NV». I heard that they actually charge people to go up there. This is where it goes down hill. Charging people to go upstairs to a podunk joke of a nightclub is a little far. I know we are in a recession and all, but come on. You have half assed dj’s, a half assed bar, and cheap furniture, and you are going to charge people? Even at Rizzos and 2 – 9 in Naperville they don’t charge you to get in and those places are by far much better than Scotland Yard. Save your money and stay downstairs, have a beer and go to the next bar.

Am I the only one that thinks this is the Mos Eisely cantina from Star Wars? My wife and I tried this place out a while back and felt like we were going to have to break out the handguns… just seemed seedy.

I know I’m past the point of wise decision making any night that I end up here. The downstairs is no great shakes, just your average suburban bar with a less than average staff in respect to both promptness in service and attractiveness. They have a dart board and two pool tables, one nice thing about this place is that there is a decent size washroom that is usually fairly clean. Wow, did I just paint the bright side of this place with the perks of the bathrooms? Yeah.
The upstairs of the bar is like a mini club, but not like a club you’d pay to get into, hell it’s not even at Cadillac Ranch standards (see my review of Caddy for details on that). It’s cramped, the floor is a disgusting mess from all the drunken fools spilling their drinks and sweating all over it as they grind all kinds of inappropriately on one another to some lame ass music they play on kiss fm. Sometimes they have a good DJ (like on Wednesday) but the sad thing is, there is no one there to listen or dance to his music. The weekends bring the crowd, but the crowd is the kind of crowd you don’t want to find yourself in the middle of, for fear of catching something.
The bar upstairs is small and offers a limited selection of alcohol but the bartenders are relatively quick with their pours. The décor leaves much to be desired, a scuffed up wooden floor, a Cubs «W» flag on the wall, and some cruddy furniture (think office reject faux leather rolling chairs). Have I been to the yard one too many times? Oh yes. Have I taken a tumble down the stairs? Once. Do yourself a favor and keep it downstairs if you are ever unfortunate enough to roll in here all crunk one night. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Another great bar hopping bar. The only bad thing is not enough TV sets. i watched a bears game and everyone watched from the one main TV screen in the middle of the bar. The busty bartender on weekends is very nice but very busy and they should get more people attending bar when it gets busy.

Nothing says the holidays like running into your entire high school graduating class at the bars, right? I do just that once or twice a year in the lovely downtown St. Charles (STC for those in the know).
Scotland Yard moved locations a couple of years back and the new location is larger and sadly, less dive-​y. Allegedly there is also an upstairs ‘dance party’ area that I have yet to see.
Christmas night the bar was surprisingly full and one of the bartenders was especially friendly. He remembered my name after I opened my tab and went out of his way to thank me at the end of the evening.
We all noted that the heat was turned up way too high and couldn’t imagine how hot it would be if the place were more packed.
We didn’t have a chance to play pool on this particular night, but I have done so in the past and there is lots of room back there for pool and socializing. They should have the dart boards back there, too, rather than in the middle of the bar. It made it nearly impossible to get from the front of the bar to the back while people were playing darts.
And for all you men out there, let me warn you that this place is a total sausage fest every time. At one point I went to visit the ladies room and there was a line five guys deep for the men’s room. I walked into the women’s bathroom and I was the only one in there. Whaaaat!
Nothing special, but they have a decent selection of beers on tap and lots of seating.