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Happy Village
Sunday Jun 19, 2005.
By Pete Beatty
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Dress: I would recommend a Cubs T-shirt, but that might be regarded as too flashy. One guy had a banjo, but one doesn't wear a banjo, per se.
Best way to get there: The Divison Blue Line (O'Hare branch) stop is the closest L; walk down Division and make a left, heading south on Ashland. The Chicago or Division bus to Wolcott is the best approach via wheels.
Vibe: Piecemeal construction and pack-rat decor give off a pretty strong old-time vibe, which isn't faked: There's been a bar here for a good half-century. The staff (usually just a doorman and a bartender) is friendly, as are most patrons. No one's going to make time with your date here, though that might depend on your date to a certain extent.
Quick tour: The main room of the Happy Village isn't much to look at: a bar, a juke and some runaway patio furniture. There's a back room, with banquet tables for parties, and nothing much else remarkable, save for the beer garden, which holds close to 100 additional patrons.
Crowd: Mostly Ukrainian Village locals on school/work nights, with a slightly younger and whiter crowd on the weekends. The big beer garden can handle almost any crowd, but when the outside closes at midnight, there will invariably be far, far too many people for the meager number of seats inside, so be ready to throw elbows.
Night to go: Sunday features 5 PBRs for $10, along with a rental bucket for storing the beer in ice. Regular-price PBR is only 50 cents more but you have to figure in opportunity costs of getting to use the bucket.
Claim to fame: Happy Village has a faux-gold wall clock with inset pictures of both RFK *and* JFK hanging over the bar, which is one graven image of Mayor Daley away from being a distinct religious philosophy.
You'll feel like you're in: The rec room at your hometown church, except beer has replaced bug juice or whatever kids drink now.
Music genre: Certainly not the only bar jukebox with Pavement's "Date With Ikea" available, but probably the only one where you might hear it three times in a night. Mostly indie rock, some hip-hop and older fare plus country.
Beyond the barstool: There are TVs. One recent visit took place during a TBS showing of the 1999 Shaquille O'Neal classic "Steel."
On the shelves: Not the kind of place for impressing people with what you order; no one's listening except the bartender. Still, not a bad selection. The beer prices are cheap: PBR runs $2.50 on a normal day, and everything else isn't much more. Well drinks are served in plastic picnic cups, which adds to the family-gathering air. And I imagine if drinks weren't free at family reunions, they'd cost about as much as they do at the Happy Village, which is to say, not very much.
Happy Village at 1059 N. Wolcott; (773) 486-1512. Open 4 p.m.-2.am. Monday-Friday; noon-2 a.m. Saturday-Sunday. The beer garden closes no later than midnight, and the management occasionally closes up shop earlier than posted if no one's around. You weren't missing much, in that case. For the 21+ crowd. Never a cover.
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