{"id":23983,"date":"2025-07-07T10:24:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T15:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/2025\/07\/07\/strange-bar-sunday-has-tracked-chicagos-weirdest-watering-holes-for-more-than-a-decade\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T10:24:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T15:24:11","slug":"strange-bar-sunday-has-tracked-chicagos-weirdest-watering-holes-for-more-than-a-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/2025\/07\/07\/strange-bar-sunday-has-tracked-chicagos-weirdest-watering-holes-for-more-than-a-decade\/","title":{"rendered":"Strange Bar Sunday Has Tracked Chicago’s Weirdest Watering Holes For More Than A Decade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction to Strange Bar Sunday<\/h2>\n

CHICAGO \u2014 While out running errands on a Sunday afternoon in 2014, two longtime friends took a detour after a red and white neon sign caught their eye. It was the Podlasie Club in Avondale. Drinking buddies since before it was legal for them to drink, the men took a chance on the Polish dive bar, 2918 N. Central Park Ave., and had a great time, they said.<\/p>\n

The Birth of a New Tradition<\/h2>\n

\u201cWe left and saw the Podhale one block north and decided, what the hell, let\u2019s check that out, too,\u201d they told Block Club in a joint email interview. The scene inside the Podhale with its \u201cwild cast of characters\u201d is seared in their minds. \u201cThe bartender was having a heated argument on a landline telephone while pouring our beers,\u201d the friends said. There were \u201cold Polish guys in suits just having a good time.\u201d The pair never did finish their errands that day, but their escapades resulted in a new Sunday tradition: checking out Chicago\u2019s off-the-beaten-path bars and documenting their adventures online.<\/p>\n

The Strange Bar Sunday Instagram Account<\/h2>\n

The pair\u2019s Strange Bar Sunday Instagram account follows them as they explore dives, clubs, bars and everything in between. At first, the men only had each other as followers. They now have tens of thousands of fans, but their approach, presented in \u201cfly-on-the-wall,\u201d documentary-style posts, hasn\u2019t changed, they said. It\u2019s for this reason the two 30-something longtime friends prefer to stay anonymous. One is a teacher on the South Side, while the other is a bartender on the North Side. \u201cWe want to meet people in their natural habitats, behaving how they normally would to get a true sense of the bar and its clientele,\u201d they said, adding that any special treatment would sour the experience.<\/p>\n

A 2014 visit to the Podlasie Club in Avondale sparked the idea for the Strange Bar Sunday Instagram account. The pair who run it also visited the Podhale bar next door (now Central Park Bar) that same day. Credit:<\/span> Colin Boyle\/Block Club Chicago<\/span><\/p>\n

Finding The \u2018Forgotten Taverns\u2019<\/h2>\n

The two became enamored with bars that \u201chave been around longer than we\u2019ve been alive.\u201d \u201cThey\u2019re time capsules,\u201d they said. \u201cGoing to a bar is a social experiment, one of the last bastions of the physical location in an increasingly digital world.\u201d It has also allowed them to explore more of Chicago. Going on a Strange Bar trip has offered them opportunities to find \u201cthe forgotten taverns that have still hung on,\u201d they said. \u201cThose places are the last of a dying breed,\u201d they said. \u201cAnd every time we think we\u2019ve been everywhere, we keep finding new gems. Chicago is the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"An unnamed man at the old Podhale Tavern, also known as Mr. ZJ\u2019s, 2924 N. Central Park Ave., photographed by two friends who run the Strange Bar Sunday Instagram account. \u201cJust a cool-ass, old motherf\u2014-r,\u201d they said. Credit:<\/span> Provided<\/span><\/p>\n

What is a Strange Bar?<\/h2>\n

So what exactly is a strange bar? \u201cA dive bar is not always a strange bar, and a strange bar doesn\u2019t have to be a dive bar,\u201d they said. \u201cThere are more elements than just being a dive \u2014 it could be the bartender, could be the clientele, could be the location, could be what happens at the bar. It depends on the vibe. It\u2019s about \u2026 [the] spectrum of strange. And strange things are fun.\u201d People-watching, hearing stories you might not otherwise and soaking in the charm, or lack thereof, have been the biggest rewards, they said. To put it plainly: \u201cStrange Bars are nooks in which Chicago secrets [lie].\u201d<\/p>\n

The Unique Aspects of Chicago Bar Life<\/h2>\n

Their experiences have also highlighted the unique aspects of Chicago bar life, such as its preponderance of Old Style signs. The signs were beacons of light when the men started their Strange Bar excursions because they knew it was indicative of a long-established pub, they said. Chicago\u2019s people are also incomparable because they will actually talk to you \u2014 and \u201cit\u2019s not like that in every big city,\u201d they said. \u201cWhat we\u2019ve learned is that you never know what you\u2019re gonna walk into,\u201d they said. \u201cOnce you get out of your bubble, it\u2019s not always fun \u2014 but at the same time, we are surprised by how welcoming and hospitable some dives are. We\u2019ve come to realize they are the backbone of [the] community \u2014 real people living in the neighborhood.\u201d And with real people in the mix, you never know what you\u2019re going to get. The pair said they\u2019ve seen a man spill a bag of sex toys on the floor, been invited to a \u201chillbilly sex party,\u201d wound up at \u201cweird houses\u201d and sang \u201cWooly Bully\u201d in Spanish with everyone in the bar. \u201cWe appreciate the tiny moments,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

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Introduction to Strange Bar Sunday CHICAGO \u2014 While out running errands on a Sunday afternoon in 2014, two longtime friends took a detour after a red and white neon sign caught their eye. It was the Podlasie Club in Avondale. Drinking buddies since before it was legal for them to drink, the men took a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23983","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dining"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Blank-2000-x-1300-47.jpg?w=1920&resize=1920,1248&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23983"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23986,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23983\/revisions\/23986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}