Sparrow

Very cute and classic bar with vintage music. Daiquiri Mondays and happy hour M-​F 4 – 7. A must try spot when looking for a quiet evening out.

A gloriously bearded bartender, with an equally dignified mustache, made me a divine off the menu drink. I’m here often, but I’ll continue coming back like a hipsters to BlogSpot.

Love the mid century style and ambience. Quiet, thoughtful and great custom cocktails. Tenders were thoughtful and prompt. The signature drinks were a great diversion from the ordinary. Seems like a great evening hang out too. I will be back.

My Favorite Lounge in Chicago. Great place to chill with friends and enjoy great drinks. I do wish it was a little bigger inside, but that is part of its charm. Bartenders all great at making drinks and Super nice!

Nice small bar that is not totally overwhelmed by 21 year old students. Rum cocktails are the specialty. Place has a mature, hipster vibe, whatever that might mean. Only downside is that the canned music is too loud for a room this small.

I’ll keep it short & sweet.
Nice place to have drinks before or after dinner in the Triangle.
The crowd was a mix of local & tourist, and the cocktails were perfect.
Décor was nicely done… doesn’t resemble the old space «12 West» at all.

Horrible service tonight. Waited at table for 20 min with no activity. Totally pathetic and the music was horrible. Seriously customer service needs to be addressed.

I went here after dinner last Saturday after we tried to go to The Drifter, which is the speakeasy bar below the Green Door Tavern. Honestly, we should have just gone straight to Sparrow. It was 11PM so we waited about 5 – 10 minutes but it was well worth it. We went in and there was the perfect amount patrons in terms of crowd control. Tables were mostly full but there were a few that were open or some groups coming and going so we didn’t have to wait long for seating. Drinks are on the pricey side of things but that doesn’t impact this review because you should know that before going here. Between the four of us we tried most of the drinks on the menu as we had two rounds. Most of the drinks were very tasty, however, if you’re a bit scared, which you might be as some of the drinks are pretty strong, you can ask the bartender to make you something to your liking. I did this as I was looking for more of a sour taste and the guy knocked it out of the park. They also have about 8 – 10 craft beers on draft, which is an option for those who aren’t in the mood for a cocktail.
I think there were three bartenders and they were very busy as it was a Saturday night so no surprise there but I still thought they were fairly accessible.
People are certainly more dressed up here, which is a nice touch so be aware that it’s not the Hangee-​Uppe crowd.
Overall, I think this is a good place for 2 – 4 people as it’s a very intimate setting. I think going with a group of 6 – 8 would be somewhat of a challenge on weekend due to the limited seating but there are larger tables in the back. However, if you go a bit early or before dinner, I don’t think you’d have a problem. I would highly recommend this as a date spot. This is a fairly new place and I hope it doesn’t get too popular that make it impossible to get into on a Friday or Saturday night. Can’t wait to go back!

Awesome new cocktail lounge in Gold Coast. A bit hidden from the street but inside is a trendy and expertly designed space with a number of couches and tables tucked into nooks and corners. The bartenders all have their respective hipster beards and the waitresses provide table service with just a slight air of acting like they couldn’t care less about being there.
Overall, great experience. Was packed on a Friday night but found seats without a problem. Menu has a page of cocktails followed by pages of liquor (mostly rum), beer and wine per usual. Definitely a welcome addition to the neighborhood!

Struggling to find a good bar in Chicago where you don’t have to stare at a TV? Like bearded mixologists and great décor? Then This is your place!
(Don’t get me wrong I like sports, but TVs are distracting and ruin the atmosphere in my opinion. Use your phone to keep up or go to the game if you really can’t take missing out!).
The Sparrow is a quaint bar with a focus on cocktails, and particularly rum but with a great selection of craft ale too. It’s situated in an old hotel lobby and its discreet exterior means it’s tucked away so you might not even notice it if you walked past but it’s definitely worth checking out.
Superb interior tastefully done with numerous throwbacks to the lobby’s heritage plus knowledgeable and skillful staff all make this a great place. Monday to Friday 4 – 7 half price on draft and bubbles went down well with us too!
Hopefully my review won’t bring too many people to my semi-​secret local haunt. Inside was a pretty strong mix of hipsters, locals, couples, groups and regulars, with a pretty broad age range from 20’s-60’s.

Sparrow was fantastic. We had dinner at Maple + Ash and they suggested Sparrow for a drink. We went on a Thursday night. I got a Last Word and the bartender was nice enough to suggest a different Gin than what I usually order and it was delicious. I forget what my boyfriend got but he also loved it. The ambiance was super fun and chill. Also, the bartenders were all super friendly. 5 stars!

Thank you Sparrow for making my Friday night great. We only tried the old fashioned here but that’s all we needed to try, it was that good. Small, intimate, and with that speakeasy vibe, we had a great time here.

Found this by accident — very discreet entrance but very cool bar. Just went in for a cocktail at the bar. Door man very friendly — bar tender very friendly. I would go back.

The coolest thing about Sparrow is its uniqueness. While it does have its fair share of Bearded Hipsters (which are obviously not unique), the music is straight-​up 30s and 40s jazz, the interior is very cozy and quirky, and the cocktail program is focused and delicious. I went off-​menu and drank dark and stormies all night, since rum in the spirit of choice — they were excellent.
This is definitely a bar for a particular mood or situation, but when you find yourself in that mood or situation (in need of a bar with a dark, old-​timey feel that allows for conversation over spectacular drinks of the rum persuasion), get thee to Sparrow!

Take a step back in Cuba in the 50’s and you have Sparrow. The décor was amazing, you felt like you were in Scofflaw for Cuba. Really cool furniture, nice set up, the wall paper was amazing, specifically the stuff on the ceilings.
The cocktails were pretty classic and nothing outside of the box but nicely executed and well priced. Service was slow, at times totally disappeared. I asked for some drinks not on the menu and that was met with a stare as if I were an alien.
Very cool vibe would have me come back. I wish the drinks were more varied, and service more attentive.

A warm cozy feel along with some nice drinks is what you will feel if you venture out to this spot.
Yes there are some hipsters who hangout here. Guys with overalls and tie die shirts who may own some Neil Young Albums but really this is a nice new spot in the area. I went with my black sport jacket but the bartender with a long beard was pouring me my wine and I forgot about most of my problems… which was an added bonus.
Yes they are known for their run flavored drinks but run is not my thing since I had too many rum flavored drinks at The Bacardi Factory in Puerto Rico like 4 years ago. Ah yes, the memories.
This is a different watering hole then most gold coast spots. One with personality.
Come here for some time off or if its too crowded at The Hang Uppe or if you decided you were too old for the hang uppe in middle of you freezing to death or if you dont like lines (shock)

This is a cute place! We went here on a Tuesday night to celebrate a friend’s engagement. Drink prices are on par with the area. There $ 12.00 and tiny, but made well. I would recommend the Hotel Nacional if you like sweet drinks.
Only thing I didn’t like is the space at the table. If you go to the booths (and your tall) the leg room is limited. I sort of felt confined even when we sat at the round table as well. Cute neighborhood spot though and since I live down the street I see myself stopping by again in the near future.

Love the décor. Wasn’t crazy about the level of service. Was there any service?
We went on a Friday night. It wasn’t as busy as I thought it was going to be and we snagged a great table right across from the bar. A server came up promptly but only to tell us that the area we had sat in was «self serve» and we would need to get our drinks from the bar.
Sounded simple, right? Well not so much. We stood at the bar with the two bartenders running around making all these specialty cocktails for everyone else so it was a long wait. So we waited. And waited, And waited.
And just about the time we had decided to move on to another place in the area, our drinks showed up.
I guess the good side of that story was we had plenty of time to look at this new space. It is a bar that hearkens back to why people went to bars to begin with. Not to watch TV (I didn’t see one) but to enjoy a drink or two with friends with the people being the entertainment.
It looks like 1940 again but in a modern way that has me wanting to go back but maybe with a better acceptance that «Craft drinks» take time and I should sit where someone other than me needs to do the standing at the bar. I was told there is even a «rotary phone» which I never did see but maybe it had a crowd of people around it wondering what it was? Ha!
And if you are looking for food, there is none. This is a place that is focused on what it does and that is craft cocktails. And craft cocktails with rum as there is a ton of that on the menu.
My advice? Go. Just pass on the tables by the bar and find yourself an area where a server can do what they do best. .. serve. Oh and try the Pisco Punch. It’s got quite the punch!

I was excited for this place to open as someone who lives in the neighborhood. It’s right next to Hangge Uppe which is quite possibly the worst bar in the entire city/​universe, so a place next to it that’s kind of a real lounge with no TVs is really welcome around here. Thanks for that Sparrow.
This place is completely open seating which is usually either a disaster or goes over well. This time it went over well as our server saw us within a few minutes. The drink menu is nice with a handful of nice cocktails and a good semi-​large list of rums/​sugar cane liquors from central and south America (and some from the Caribbean proper). They also have some craft beer, wine, and sparking wine. I had the Pisco Punch cocktail which was not bad, though nothing to write home about. It was well balanced though.
As far as the interior and vibe goes — I had read that they were going for a retro 1940s in Havana feel where you won’t feel like you’re in Chicago and the reviews on here stated that as well. Well, I don’t agree with that at all. I still felt like I was in Chicago. They may want to take cues from the 2^nd floor bar/​lounge at Le Colonial down the street on how to execute that if that’s what they were going with. If they are actually going for that (after all, I just read it in a few articles), they could start by playing actual Cuban music. I heard «I’m a Man» by Spencer Davis Group which is from 1967. Good song? Yes. Reminiscent of Cuba/​Caribbean from a handful of decades ago? Not even close. Needless to say, the vibe was decent and the drinks were not bad either.
It’s a nice welcome spot in the city and neighborhood, but they could really kick it up a notch if they changed the music and did a few small things like get more vegetation in there. I’ll be back soon.

Ohhh my. My my my.
It’s dark, romantic, inviting. I will echo the first-​to-​review-​person (damn it! A day late!) and say it is an escape to Havana. Their staff lives up to their slogan «enjoy your stay». Their drinks also live up to their slogan «enjoy your stay».
Want to get away? Well look no further. Sparrow.
Remember how much you love rum.
Rum away to Sparrow.
Just like the phoenix the sparrow has risen from the ashes.
Love.