Wednesday 3rd of September 2008 02:07:09 AM

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Time for me to report about this kitchy venue (which is oddly enough merely a few hundred feet from "Kitch'n on Chicago"). I have been here three times. I went here this time on Friday night, 4 July for its $1 beers and $1 hot dogs specials.
There is a patio on its east frontage where Motel Bar projects DVDs on a screen. It does this regularly each Monday night. It was unspooling three Tom Cruise movies on the 4th. But I do not usually sit outdoors on patios or in beer gardens. If I am out and about at a tavern during summer, it is because _there is no air conditioning_ in the domicile here, and I want to go sit somewhere slightly cooler (at least temperature-wise).
Motel Bar is a destination of itself. While it is plausible that you *could* wind up here, I submit most of its patrons determined to visit it. The venue tries to present itself as its nomenclature, but I've actually been in a few motel bars, and those were not this ritzy. Motel Bar exudes "cool" in the non-temperature sense. This is a venue which would work on a first or second (or third) date.
The $1 beer deal you will find at other venues in Chicago, most notably _Quenchers_ [but Quenchers doesn't always have this deal]. The way it is run at Motel Bar is that *you* visit a trash bin full of ice, ice water, and twelve-ounce cans of beer. *You* get to reach inside the trash bin and pull out a can. _You are allowed to look at what you're pulling._ So if you espy that you're about to jerk out something you really, really loathe, you can release your grip and try again. I did well here. I wound up pulling Busch Light, Old Style, Pabst Blue Ribbon (2), and _Olde English “800” Malt Liquor_. (!)
For the $1 hot dogs; I insist this was a *very good deal*. The hot dog itself was a quality sausage. It was topped with diced tomatoes, diced onions, a pickle slice, and mustard [no ketchup!]. The bun was plain. (I don't like poppy seed buns. The black seeds get stuck in my teeth.) (Oh dear. I just blasphemed.) It was served alongside pot-boiled potato chips. They were ok.
There are televisions inside Motel Bar. It wound up showing a Chicago @ Saint Louis b**eball game, but I think that was on terrestrial TV. So I don't know if it subscribes to cable or has a dbs connection.
The men's washroom at Motel Bar is *not* retro. In fact, I first saw its accoutrements in Japan. It has the "wall of air" hand dryer in which you fully insert your hands parallel to your body inside the slot. As the air blasts, you slowly pull your hands vertically out of the dryer.
There is a rotating rack just inside the front door with cards advertising its weekly specials. Seek the plain white card on which you can scribe your name and E-Mail Address and perhaps win a party there. (Give the completed card to a bartender.) DJs play on weekends. On the first Wednesday of each month, Michelle L'amour & her Fabulous Sugarbabies perform sexy burlesque.

Transit options: I keenly submit that you are too far to walk to either the Blue Line or Red Line "L". You're going to wind up on the #66 Chicago bus. It runs all the time here. When something is occurring on Chicago's lakefront, or there is a special attraction at Navy Pier, the #66 route gets extra service, sometimes utilizing the higher-capacity articulated buses, between Navy Pier and the Blue Line. [If you're riding transit to Navy Pier from the north or northwest side, the #66 Chicago is the route to which to transfer - not the #65 Grand.] The Red Line is six blocks east. The Blue Line is five blocks west.