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| - Bar 11 is a party house(dive bar) located a few blocks off of Carson Street. From the outside, it really looks like a nondescript building, save for a few drunk [birthdays,bachelorettes,frat-house-runoffs] entering and the muddy sound of Lady-Gaga-Through-Concrete on the sidewalk. Entering for your first time can cause a bit of sensory overload - It's tiny, dirty, and dark, with blacklights, lasers, and red spotlights providing most of the lighting.
The decor seems to be anything that could be found underneath something desirable in your least favorite thrift store - much of it hung from the ceiling. The walls and bar are plastered with "Hi My Name Is" stickers, which are usually passed out at the door. Early in the night you might be tempted to write your favorite fake name or movie character and wear it all night - later in the night a crude phallic outline will probably be a better fit. There are highlighters getting passed around - beware if you have an aversion to getting scribbled on. On the wall that holds the ATM hangs a large printed mat in the style of exposed brick, and in the corner there is a dart machine - not that there is any space to play darts, and even if there was you would hit the ATM before you stood far enough back to play. The bathrooms are dirty.
Behind the bar is a cooler of beer - there is a selection, but not an interesting one. I've seen a craft or two, but it's usually just an expanded selection of macros(think Franziskaners, Bass Ale, etc). The bartenders can be hard to flag down, they're almost always making drinks, sometimes for customers, sometimes for themselves. When they aren't making drinks - or even while they are - they often perform antics. There is a drumset hanging from the ceiling, and a few electronic pads hooked up to the sound system, and a microphone. They'll get a few beats played on them every song, but Thriller got a full drum overlay. Randomly, the bar might get lit on fire, shortly followed by blowing flaming whiskey into the air.
I don't particularly find this place to have the best drinks for a dirty dive bar. You're looking over $5 for most drinks, and while they are all served in pint glasses, I've usually found them to be weak. That being said, you do receive a handful of plastic trinkets or candy necklaces with each order. But let's be honest, if you're coming here, you should probably already be good on the alcohol and just have a drink to hold you over.
The best part of Bar 11 is the party - the playlist is eclectic, focusing mainly on the 90s with a splash of recent hits and songs from the 80s and earlier. Most of the people not sitting at the bar are dancing wherever there is enough space - which around midnight might be at a premium. People sing along to their favorites - Weezer's Say it Ain't So was a hit, Jackson's Billie Jean had its chorus sung over the sound system, and Bowie's Rebel Rebel was the high point of the night, if only in my mind. Around midnight, today's hot techno flavor came on(In 2012, that's a remix of Avicii's Levels) - The bartender puts down his bottles in a hurry and rushes over to the lights. The bar goes black, a couple seconds later the lazers come on. Soap(Or some other cloudy substance) shoots out of a machine in the ceiling, glittering in the red and green lights. Fog machines are in full effect, a detached police light(Again, on the ceiling) starts spinning. Over the next few songs, the house lights slowly return to normal, only to have it all happen again.
Bar 11 is certainly worth a stop, especially if you happen to already have parking in the South Side and a couple of drinks in you. They do take credit cards with a $10 minimum, and they do allow smoking, but I haven't found it to be overwhelming, even on my clothes when I leave - but it is definitely there, just not to say Belvedere's level, and the cover on weekends is usually about $3.
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