Ardmore Lounge

This is a dive bar with lots of wonderful regulars and great bartenders. Early evenings and weekend afternoons you’ll see the regulars; lots of older folks and retirees. Friday and Saturday nights you’ll see only the people next to you cause the place is wall-​to-​wall people as the crowd changes. Good place to watch the Hawks and the Bears. Cheap drinks and now video slots and poker. There is a funeral home next door so sometimes you get the post funeral home visitation crowd. Cheap drinks but only frozen pizza to eat (people do bring in food from the outside). Gina, Tessa or Kierry behind the bar will make you feel at home.

Good little dive bar. Reminds me of little corner dive bars in Chicago with the ubiquitous Schlitz sign above the door.
Check it out, have a beer and hear people slur their words :-)

My favorite dive bar! I love it! And it is even better when it’s not crowded. You definitely have to sit at the bar. Love going with my boyfriend. We talk, have drinks, laugh, and just have a great time! We always enjoy ourselves. :-)

Very small bar, if crowded it can get uncomfortable. the Long Island Iced Tea they made me was super strong though, which is good. Nice neighborhood bar, never had a problem with anyone here. Went with a date last night and had a good time even though we only stayed about 30 min.

My first stop on my Villa Park Birthday Bar Crawl. My goal was to hit up the local VP bars because I knew they would be divey as hell, and that is exactly what I got at the Ardmore Lounge.
Our group walked in and it was like a funeral. (Funny enough, there is a funeral home next door. Not that funerals are funny, just to clarify.) There were about 5 people in there, sitting at the bar, looking like they were in deep depression. Yikes. Not enough to scare us away, though. We set ourselves up at two tables and bought the cheapest beers known to man. $ 2 for Hamms, Blatz, and Shlitz. Honestly, I don’t even know if they had other beers there but hey, $ 2. Can’t beat that.
It is very dark inside. It seemed the only light was coming from the dart boards and maybe a lamp overhead, and the two TVs. Walking into this bar is like walking into the 70s. I can guarantee nothing has changed in terms of décor. Old signs hanging n the walls, wood paneling, carpet. There was an ad for Hamms that promoted it as «the beer refreshing.» The sentence order out of.
It’s fun to play darts and chill and drink, but I don’t think I’ll be coming back. I love dive bars, but this was a little too sad for me. Though if I ever don’t want to be bothered, this bar would be perfect.

Dive bar in the heart of Villa Park located right next to the funeral home. This isn’t a trendy place by no means, but it is a cozy little hole in the wall which I love. This is the perfect place to go after you have been out drinking and are looking for one last nightcap before heading home.
Anything seems to go here. Just sayin’. Another thing I love.
They have darts. Drunk sport central. =]
We will meet again, Ardmore Lounge.

The place has not been changed since the 1960’s and has too many biker types. Super old and unfriendly people.

This is place is the anti-​Cheers. Nobody wants to know your name.
I’m a big fan of dive bars. I actually prefer them. The Ardmore has all the typical dive qualities… cheap beer and drinks, dim lighting, odd regulars, and that one strange at thing that you haven’t seen anywhere else (at the Ardmore there’s actually 2: carpeting on the wall, and the bar’s proximity to a funeral home).
That being said this place doesn’t qualify a «fun» dive for me. It’s more of a «have a few drinks & move on to somewhere else» kind of dive. My last visit to the Ardmore was about a year ago on a Saturday night. After our group of 8 ordered beers and shots we were deemed «OK» by the regulars, as some of them started openly smoking cigarettes in the bar. Strange. Not sure if this usually happens here, or if they were just trying to get rid of us. The bar is small enough that you can’t avoid the secondhand.
The final nail in the Ardmore coffin? The owner of the place doesn’t even hang out there. I met him around the corner at Stulgin’s a few years ago and have seen him many times over there since.
1 star for diveyness
1 star for being open at 7am

we had the best time here on our bar crawl

Six of us went in there for a little bit. 4 beers & 2 cocktails for a total of $ 20!!! WOWWW Including tip! Amazeballs.
Your typical hole in the wall bar. Very laid back and CASH ONLY!!!

This is a solid joint for a place that shares a wall with a funeral home… so I hope you’ll just draw inferences from it’s proximity to the dead, that this is a dive bar and you should prolly avoid taking your mother here on Mother’s Day… unless of course she’s one bad Mutha, then she might really enjoy Olé A.L.
Cheap beer, nothing of great brewing quality, dimly lit, non-​threatening environment, the kind of place you could take 4 friends and really «own» the bar, and it looks like you’re in a cave when you get inside since it was literally built by plastering a roof in an alleyway… but that just makes it fun because you can pretend you’re dancin’ your cares away, down in Fraggle rock.
If you’re in the mood for a fun slum bar, this is a great place to go. I approve. :)

Great place to hang out!!!
My friend and I have gone here a couple of times after work to relax and have some fun, and this bar doesn’t disappoint! The bartender is friendly, makes great drink suggestions (sometimes calling upon the help of his «regulars», which makes it feel like it’s a nice community bar), and the prices are AMAZING! The bartender doesn’t skimp on the free drinks. Last time my friend and I were there, we had at least five shots a piece, two mixed drinks a piece, a pack of cigarettes, six songs on the jukebox, and a $ 4 tip, and we’d only spent $ 25 total!
The décor isn’t fancy (pretty basic bar décor), there’s no thumping music or dance floor (though there is room to dance if you’re drunk enough for it, and there’s a digital jukebox with a pretty good selection), it’s not «trendy», and it’s a little hard to find… but that’s alright by me! Ardmore Lounge is a great community bar that serves up great drinks and good fun for a very affordable price and throws in a friendly bartender for good measure, all in a clean and inviting atmosphere. Bring a friend and you won’t be disappointed!
Update: My friends and I took out a younger pal for his 21^st birthday last night, and we went to Ardmore Lounge. There was a total of six of us, and we shared dozens of shots and mixed drinks, and a pack of cigarettes, and the bartender only charged us $ 35 for everything! We had such a blast… the game was on and the clientele was already stoked from a good game… and the employees there were so funny and entertaining! Everyone was so nice and really treated the birthday boy like a prince. Everytime we come here, perfect strangers seem like close friends and we always have a great time.