You say dive, I say hell yeah!
Saturday at 11pm we wanted to avoid the typical UIUC bar scene and opted to head to the Illini, as it is notoriously tame and fairly unique in that regard, not to mention none of us were members of the mug club yet.
There were surprisingly not that many people there on a weekend night. The ones that were didn't really seem too obnoxious.
Inside is really old, decorated accordingly, and will put you in a time capsule to a time when the generation before us was slamming Old Style and signing their names in the club book.
We enjoyed being able to sit at the bar and have some quality conversation, with decent music being played at a reasonable volume. I personally like the whole club type of vibe that most campus bars go for, but this was an unusually pleasant change of pace.
The mug club was a must for everybody. We happily joined and were able to recite our numbers at the end to get our membership cards back.
Solid place on campus that lets you experience a hidden nook of UIUC to avoid the obnoxious people, deafening music and super high drink prices.
You will see me here again for sure.