Is it possible for a bar to feel like “a secret” when it operates just steps from one of Chicago’s biggest tourist destinations and one of the most well-attended parks in baseball? Somehow, Lucky Dorr does — at least for me. Sitting in the literal shadow of Wrigley Field, Lucky Dorr has poured a vast array of exclusive beers made in collaboration with local breweries for years, and somehow manages to also survive a months-long annual seasonal closure that most other bars could not withstand.
It is, in my estimation, one of the best yet least-discussed beer bars in Chicago, and as a White Sox fan, that’s not coming from someone with any Cubs-based bias. To dedicate this many taplines (nearly two dozen) to craft beer, most of which are one-offs, that are not available anywhere else in the ballpark or immediate area, and to work with dozens of breweries to make that happen while still maintaining a friendly, neighborhood feel in an admittedly awkward space? That’s a fine tightrope to walk.
Which is why today, the day of the Cubs home opener, I wanted to tell you more about them. And that’s why I recently chatted with Amy Biller, the Director of Operations for Folkart Management.
Folkart is the restaurant and bar group that owns Lucky Dorr, as well as nearby restaurant Mordecai and the cocktail bar Billy Sunday among others. (They also have an interest in Old Irving Brewing.) Biller first worked under chef Matthias Merges at Charlie Trotter’s as a part of the pastry team. She rejoined him on the management team when his first restaurant, Yusho, was still around and Billy Sunday was just about to open.
She helped open Lucky Dorr in July of 2017, hot on the heels of the Cubs World Series win. Many of the surrounding buildings, restaurants and the hotel surrounding Gallagher Way were all new, but there was one small space that no one knew what to do with — and that little area was a bit of a problem. “How do we take [a space] the size of a concession stand and turn it into something?” Biller said of the tiny area. “Before we had the name, our working title was ‘Beer Box.’”
The answer was to put a cooler and a bunch of draft lines in there — because that’s about all that’d fit. “There’s not a kitchen. There’s not a back room. There is a tiny little storage space [and] a walk-in cooler. It’s the tiniest little space ever,” Biller says. The natural pairing of beer and baseball just made sense, though, and so Lucky Dorr was born.
Today they offer hard seltzer, cider, some NA options and the new RTD cans from Maplewood — but the original focus was on having as many exclusive collaboration beers as possible, which they still stick to as much as possible. “We try to do as many collaborations as we can, but the business of the collaborations is hard. You never know how well a beer is going to be received, especially because we’re trying to have a diverse menu,“ noting that a heavier style may be great during Spring Training but not as big of a seller in the baseball-friendly heat of mid-July. (Per their Instagram account, expect collabs this year from OIB, Alarmist, Haymarket, and Maplewood among others.)
“We [have] opened up to [offering] some beers that are not collaborations so we could fill out our menu, but we do make sure it’s nothing that’s sold at Wrigley Field and it’s nothing that’s sold at Brickhouse,” Biller says, praising manager Kyle Hayes as being the one leading the collaboration efforts. Starting today, Biller tells me that they’ll be tapping their very first collab beer with Off Color, a pistachio cream ale called Beer For Bobby, aka Bobby Dorr, the longtime Cubs groundskeeper and namesake of the bar.
It’s also rare that a bar operates just eight months out of the year, but that’s roughly the length of Lucky Dorr’s season. They open up a little before the beginning of baseball season, stay open during fall and early winter while events like the Christkindl Market are taking place, and then go dark for basically a quarter of the year. “It’s just so tiny, and it gets so cold in there — and the neighborhood really hibernates during the winter,” says Biller. (This year, with the Winter Classic hockey game taking place, they plan to be open a little later than usual.)
Another thing they don’t really have? A plethora of overserved Wrigleyville patrons. “That’s one of the joys of being hidden — we don’t get the crowd you see up and down Clark Street on those drinking holidays,” Biller says. “Some of those different events like TBOX at all the bars … being hidden where we’re at, we don’t get that as much, and it’s kinda nice. It’s one of those things — we wish we weren’t as hidden, but then we don’t have to deal with some of that stuff.”
If you haven’t yet been to Lucky Dorr and want to swing by for a beer or four this season, they’re located on the third base side of the park, just a few steps south of the intersection at Seminary and Waveland Avenues. Look for the space that seems particularly dog-friendly … because you might have caught one of their Pups on the Patio events.
If you have been to Lucky Dorr and are thinking it’s time for a return visit, good news — you’ve got the rest of the year to make that happen. And by all means, grab one of those Beers for Bobby for me, please.
Went there the first year it was open and loved it. Thx for reminding me!
Ooh, I’ll definitely need to try one of these pistachio cream ales! Sounds so good.