The Pitch

The Pitch is now CLOSED. It was similar in style to every other bar that was located at this location, only The Pitch had a soccer theme. This location seems to have every bar that opens here eventually close due to its location.

As of 12/​22/​2010 The Pitch appears to be closed. No phone. No website. I’m thinking this place didn’t make it, much like the other bars that have chosen this location.
Oh well.

Oh no, this bar made me so sad. I’m always saying I hate super crowded bars. I truly do. I want to be able to find a seat, I want to hear my companions when they talk, and I want to get a drink in a timely manner. It’s like I dreamed up the bar, and someone went way extreme and created The Pitch. We went on a Friday night around 12:30 and there were about 6 people in the whole huge bar. Service was great, beers were cheap, and I got my beloved wish of a seat in a bar, but you want a place to have a few other patrons. It’s a bit off the beaten path for public transportation. So maybe the fact that it was 9 degrees kept people from trecking a few blocks. The people I was with said it used to be another bar that was always really crowded, so the location can’t be the only deterrent.

(Sidenote: Does anyone remember when this was a Barleycorn? Circa 2006? Anyone?)
The Pitch is… cool and amazingly huge. Empty on Friday, shockingly. It was a little sad because I heard from my friends that this place gets insanely packed during soccer games.
We took up one of the huge booths (easily fits 8) and had no problem finding tv’s to watch the Bulls game. Our server was insanely friendly and attitude-​free. The Friday specials are definitely noteworthy — $ 2 PBR drafts and free pizza from 7 – 10! If you’re on a budget, come here!
Food was kinda hit-​or-​miss to me. I ordered three mini pulled pork sandwiches ($ 9), but the pork was cut a little too thick and the pretzel bun was too much for the sandwich. One of my friends didn’t really enjoy his burger and refused to eat the other half of it. The deep fried Snickers, however, was reallllllly good. I probably should’ve just opted to order another one of those and forgo the pulled pork.
Note:
+Easy street parking
+Discover NOT accepted

Surprisingly, I’m digging it. I’m sure that I would hate this bar on Saturday night. I think that every place that goes in here is loaded with obnoxious college kids, maybe I’m wrong.
We came here on a Sunday afternoon, after the Bears game. I was surprised that there were only a few people in the bar. Okay, the game is over… but you think people would be lingering. Anyway, the guy behind the bar was very friendly and let us taste the two seasonal beers that were on special. We were meeting our crazy running club here and the group of us had the entire downstairs to ourselves. We had our own bartender down there which was awesome and he put up with our obnoxious singing for about an hour (with a smile!). We didn’t order food but others did and it looked good.
I’d go back to The Pitch again. There’s plenty of room and I think it would be a good place to watch a game. The beer is cold and the service is good, what more could you ask for?

I stopped by The Pitch recently for Thursday night Bears game against the Dolphins and was surprised to find a number of Dolphins fans. Despite the fact that The Pitch advertises itself as a Saints bar, it has a burgeoning group of Dolphins fans intent on turning it into the only Dolphins bar I’ve ever heard of in Chicago.
As for the fare: owned by the Rocks Bar group, you’ll get the same decent-​but-​not-​impressive burgers you would at Rocks Lincoln Park or Lakeview. Thursdays have a $ 5 burger deal, same as Wednesday nights at the Lincoln Park location. Their beer selection is decent, obviously including Carlsberg as any half-​decent soccer bar should.
The place is spacious with large booths and tables on the upper floor and a sizable party room on the lower level. They also seemed understaffed for both the size of the place and the number of people there for the Bears game. Overall it’s a decent bar that I’ll come back to anytime the Bears play the Dolphins for a great crowd.

I like soccer, I like the Pitch.
If for ever some reason you aren’t able to find a soccer bar early in the morning on a Saturday, head on over to the pitch. You’ll find TV’s all over the place and the management’s willing to turn on any of your favorite games and put on the audio. The manager was knowledgeable about soccer and actually interested in watching, so I felt better about being in the bar at 9 in the morning with Raul B. drinking some pop and watching the matches.
Inside, the bar is very swank with lots of room and a pool table. The TVs are all over the place along with soccer memorabilia from all over the world. The Chicago Fire and their fan group often have events here during the season and I resolve to make it out there more to see the bar when it’s full. The fact that the bar was open so early in the morning with food ready to go impressed me and it is a decent place to watch a match.

Soccer is a long season. For those of us who follow leagues on both sides of the Atlantic, it pretty much runs all year round. There are so many competitions, that going to the same bar for all of them, even for one team, would be exhausting (ly boring). A die-​hard fan, much like a good team competing in all these competitions, needs depth. They need to be able to depend on strong back-​ups to rest the starters for the most important games. My go-​to starter bar is Small Bar — Fullerton; but when I know I need a solid second choice that won’t let me down in a pinch, I’m all about The Pitch.
Why is The Pitch a great second choice for any Chicagoland soccerhead? It’s partially owned by Frank Klopas (a Chicago Fire legend and member of the technical staff) so they have connections. The bar is a makeshift Chicago Fire museum and they hold the unofficial Section 8 (crazy supporter section) parties no matter where the official one is. So it’s virtually impossible to watch a Fire match there alone even if you don’t bring anyone.
Also, there are seriously as many televisions there as a Las Vegas sports book and the ability to individually control a lot of these television. So they can show more individual games than the soccer bars around it. And they use these to their fullest extent, being open early morning, noon, or night if there’s soccer on. They’re also the only bar I’ve been to that has MLS Direct Kick. And on a Saturday night, they will actually show all the MLS games in-​market or out. Similarly with Sunday ticket, they’re a NFL fan’s eye candy dream. If you’re into that sort of thing, that is.
And if you’re into obnoxious fans, they’re the official New Orleans Saints bar for Chicago. Who dat? Who cares! Shut up and drink your loss!
So why is this seemingly talented bar only a backup? First of all, their beer selection is sort of iffy. Unlike my first choice which goes out of its way to differentiate itself from a Lincoln Park bar, this one sticks to the script. If you want BudMillerCoors though, you’ll be in luck. Otherwise, your palate will not be happy. But if you want these libations or anything else, you’ll pay Lincoln Park bar prices.
Secondly, this place is all flash and no substance when it comes to soccer. Like an up-​and-​coming young player, its skills are not yet honed even if it shows flashes of brilliance. The staff, seemingly, is there to look good in low cut shirts and high cut skirts. They don’t know much about soccer. And they often won’t have the sound on for all but the biggest matches. They’ll sometimes even put soccer to the side even in important circumstances. For example, the Fire’s final home game of the season fell on the night of a big MMA fight. They moved the Fire supporters to the basement to show the fight upstairs. Not cool.
If they could concentrate on the game, this place has the potential to be great and be the starter for a lot of Chicago soccer fans. But in their race to be all things to everybody and blend into their location, they’re missing out. I’m sure they’ll get it together eventually though. After all, they have a lot of games to practice with.

The Pitch is the newcomer in the Chicago Soccer Bar scene, and its service might just be able to muscle its way in among the other bars. It also brings some star power, as it is owned in part by Chicago Fire Technical Director Frank Klopas (former player for Chicago, the US National Team, and Greek superclub AEK Athens).
The full review will have to wait till next season, when I experience The Pitch’s atmosphere for a Chicago Fire road or USA gamewatch (The Globe and SmallBar on Fullerton are the clear leaders in that department). I went in the offseason for C.J. Brown’s retirement party, along with 400 Fire fans and half the team (How often can you say you met two footballers who scored in the World Cup in the same night?).
The Pitch’s layout is really nice. Three levels with bars on each ensures that it never really gets TOO crowded, and also as a result, service is prompt, quick, attentive, and with a smile. The bartenders were eager to make recommendations, and were able to check my laptop bag after I came straight from work. While at other bars in the city I may be sitting at the bar for 10 minutes waiting for a bartender, here, despite the crowd, I was always served within 30 seconds. The beer selection has the same staples as the other soccer bars (Newcastle, Carlsberg, etc.), but appears to be less voluminous than Globe. The pizza is pretty good but SUPER GARLICKY. You don’t really notice it at the time, but even after brushing your teeth and waking up the next day, you may still want to be packing gum when in public.
The bathrooms are clean, as is the rest of the bar, still waiting to acquire its bit of grit that you really need from a soccer/​neighborhood bar to get the full effect. I’m certain that with service like this, I will be back, even if it is a bit off the beaten path (10/​15-​minute walk from Armitage Brown Line stop).

I Love The Pitch… Tuesday nights at 9pm they have an amazing Bootleg Comedy Show.

Goodness, this bar location changes names so often, I am beginning to think it is a leeeetle slutty! From Jack Sullivan’s to Barleycorn-​something to Cagney’s and now The Pitch!
I stopped by here for a beer and a bite on a Saturday night. I was pleased to see The Pitch is owned by the same people who own Rock’s because I do like Rock’s and the food there is good. Mike and I ordered the mini pulled pork sammies and the GRILLED (yay for this) chicken strips. Both were tasty. We split a few mini pitcher of Miller Light (on special). Good pour for the price. Service was pretty good too.
I will be back. I am a little skeptical based on location reputation but you never know! Maybe it’s time to settle down.. .

I am not really sure how I feel about this place yet. the staff is overwhelmingly rude, and while I really try to focus on the food/​drinks I have been here 2 times and both times the service was awful. Especially when I had the bartender and not a server. Good from far but far from good.

I came here for a UFC viewing party and had a great time. I found the Pitch to be very clean, and had a nice soccer décor. They have plenty of flat screen tvs to view sports, and the menu had some very diverse options. I ordered the pulled pork sandwich trio appetizer on pretzel buns. I found them very good and not terribly expensive. I stuck to the Goose Island Green Line, but my friends took advantage of the $ 5 bud light pitchers. Not a bad deal. It did get pretty crowded, and we were hailing our waitress quit a bit. Service was friendly and helpful with both food and drink suggestions. Not sure if I’ll go back given the location… but worth checking out if you live in the area, or are a New Orleans Saints fan.

Man oh man do I love the idea of a kick ass soccer bar however on a Monday night with a moderate crowd the service was horrible. I can’t recommend this place regardless of the cool soccer stuff the wait staff just needs to be replaced before I consider coming back ever!

I am so happy that Chicago finally has an official New Orleans’ Saints Bar.
This place was great I checked their menu before I came and saw that they had great specials every day of the week. When I arrived they had even more specials, themed to go with the season opener against the Vikings.
I asked the blonde waitress about their Thursday Vodka specials and she told me, there weren’t any (even though I had seen it on the website). I ordered a hurricane instead. When I finished the bartender I believe his name is Josh (wearing a #12 Colston jersey) came over and asked if I wanted another I asked if they had a vodka special and he knew exactly what I was talking about. It was only a dollar cheaper than the hurricane, but still just a little annoying, the hurricane was okay but I am a vodka and cranberry girl.
On to the great things about the bar. Packed with black and gold fans, good food special (guys what you were serving was Shrimp Creole not etoufee but it was still amazing for bar food outside of the NO!) The basement is filled with front page covers after the Superbowl win, I got teary-​eyed down there. Josh was a great bartender. I will definitely be back for more games. Who Dat!?! Geaux Saints!

Home to Who Dat Nation Chicago!
The Pitch is officially my new favorite sports bar/​pub in Chicago.
First off, the atmosphere is great. The bar is clean and well maintained. The service was very friendly and efficient. They even had someone walking around to refill water glasses. I have never seen that kind of service at a sports bar.
The food is excellent. The Bourbon St. Burger was delicious, the fries were hand-​cut, and the Abita Cheese appetizer was amazing. The Pitch did a great job in catering to the Who Dat Nation with great food and drink specials.
While I was there for a New Orleans Saints game on this occasion, I would love to stop in to watch one of the futbol games on throughout the week.
Overall, a wonderful experience. I look forward to returning for the next Saints game. Who Dat!

Got soccer fever? Head on down to The Pitch!
This new bar on Clybourn is a real gem for futbol lovers and sports fans in general. I recently checked it out on a weekend following a Fire match at Toyota Park. There were surprisingly few Fire fans at the bar but it did fill up as the evening progressed.
As stated in other reviews, the burgers are freaking amazing. I tried The «Rock» which is topped with fried onion strings. Best pretzel bun I’ve had in a long time. Fries were pretty good, but could have been more abundant.
The space is interesting. There are three levels, and three full bars. You can either chill in the basement, or sit by the open windows at street level, or head upstairs to a wide open area where the kitchen is. Booths are plentiful and seating is comfortable.
TVs cover every square inch of unused wall space so there is always a screen nearby. However, their choice of sports left me scratching my head. In addition to showing MLS and the Mex vs. Honduras match, they also broadcast college football, MLB, and Nascar (?). Wish they’d just stick to soccer.
I want to give this place 5 stars but it’s missing one key element. A staff that actually cares about soccer. Not that the service was bad. Quite the opposite in fact; our server was competent and adorable. But unless you are going with a group of friends, I’d head over to Smallbar, Globe or Gingers instead.

I went for the Fire v Houston game 8÷21÷10… It was packed! Drinks were good (well mixed) and average priced. (would love some drink specials!) I had The Pitch burger. Overall it was a decent burger ($ 5 on special, $ 10 normally), but I have 2 critiques (maybe they will take the tips to help improve!) The prosciutto was sliced way too thick. Prosciutto should be sliced on the thinner side, not thick like regular ham. I had to take mine off the burger. The only other critique is that the fries were a bit mushy instead of crispy, although I liked the meal overall. The bread was a pretzel bread and it was awesome! My friends had the pizza and said it was REALLY good.
The place was packed and the atmosphere was great. Food was pretty good overall… I really like this place and will be back as much as possible!!!
Go Fire!

So, I decided to go for the Fire watch party (August 21^st) yesterday. I didn’t go with a huge group of friends, just my wife and I. We showed up roughly an hour before the game started, and the place wasn’t too incredibly packed. We grabbed ourselves a small table back near the kitchen, between two larger tables.
At the start, everything was pretty good. Our waitress snagged our beers rather quickly, and we ordered a pizza. Pizza was pretty good, with a great thin crust. Really, most everything before the game was about to start, and the tables on either side of us filled up, was pretty good… When that happened though, things started down hill fast.
The waitress came over around the 6^th minute of the game to check on us, and I opted for a jack and coke tall. I finally got that drink around the 15^th minute, which was rushly dropped off before we had a chance to order my wife a drink. No biggy, I figured she’d be back in a few minutes. That few minutes turned into a half hour! To make matters worse, I’m not sure there was any Jack in my drink at all. It was mostly water, with a dash of coke. If there was Jack in there, you could have fooled me.
So anyways, we watched her make numerous trips to the large tables on either side of us, while my wife was drinkless for about half an hour. Then given that I basically paid $ 8 for a water, we were pretty much done, and left at the half. Thankfully I was able to snag our waitress down long enough to grab our check.
I know what you’re thinking: «Why didn’t you flag her down earlier?». Totally agree, I should have, because otherwise I was never getting service. The annoying part of this is how our waitress seemed so *eager* to check on the larger tables on the sides of us, because obviously there was more money for her there. Then when she would look at my empty glass, and then scurry away, that was just icing on the cake.
One last note: Do NOT sit near the back where the kitchen is. They have pretty terrible ventalation in their kitchen, and the smoke really builds up back there. That smoke from the kitchen eventually ends up on the restaurant floor. By the time we left the cloud of smoke from the kitchen was rather noticeable.
I really wanted to like this place, and I think I’ll give it another shot sometime they’re not so busy. For now though, The Globe’s just plain better, and closer to me.

Okay. Having been there in a large party atmosphere of an official Chicago Fire watch party, some of my opinions soften up a bit. For one, the beer selection, though limited, is a decent selection (I tried the ABITA and the Green Line.) The specialty burgers are good. The fries, hand made. Love that. I will corroborate the observation that the area opposite the bar was swathed with grill smoke from meat a-​cookin’ (the place was packed, at least 200+ people.)
I was able to grab a seat at the bar before it got too packed. The bartenders easily met my needs even though they were pretty busy.
My sole complaint to date is that the clarity on several of the TVs were not set at the same clarity as most of the others.
Since I’m a Fire fan, I’ll probably end up there in the future and if there is anything to update, will do so.
EDIT 2 — For all you meat lovers out there — the Irish bangers, black pudding and English bacon comes from THE PAULINA MEAT MARKET.
EDIT 3 — The more time I spend here watching Chicago Fire games, the more details I take in.
1) the $ 5 pitchers, are about equal to (2) $ 2.50 glasses, so you’re really not getting much of a special (sorry guys, gotta call it as I see it.)
2) the place has got good atmosphere. The expansiveness of the main upper level takes away the cozy factor, but décor and the voluptuous qty of TVs counter that some. Beats smallbar-​Fullerton, but is edged out by the Globe. Ginger’s Ale is not admitted into the comparison.