Nisei Lounge

Top choice in Chicago


Sometimes the new, cocktail-laden Wrigleyville weighs on your soul and you yearn for the cheap-beer-splashed days of yore. Enter the Nisei, a neighborhood dive bar since 1951. It's a bit gussied up from its original incarnation, but for those craving a pool table, dartboards, regretful shots of liquor and a raucous post-Cubs-game scene, this is your place.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Chicago attractions

1. Wrigley Field

0.24 MILES

Built in 1914, Wrigley Field – aka the Friendly Confines – is the second-oldest baseball park in the major leagues. It’s home to the Chicago Cubs and…

2. Boystown

0.28 MILES

What the Castro is to San Francisco, Boystown is to the Windy City. The mecca of queer Chicago (especially for men), the streets of Boystown are full of…

3. Gallagher Way

0.29 MILES

It's impossible to get any closer to Wrigley Field without actually crossing the stadium's threshold, making this newly developed plaza (formerly a…

4. Center on Halsted

0.36 MILES

The mod, glassy Center on Halsted is the Midwest's largest LGBT community center. It's mostly a social service organization for locals, but visitors can…

5. Alta Vista Terrace

0.51 MILES

Chicago’s first designated historic district is worthy of the honor. Developer Samuel Eberly Gross re-created a block of London row houses on Alta Vista…

6. Graceland Cemetery

0.82 MILES

The final resting place for some of the biggest names in Chicago history, including architects Louis Sullivan and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and retail…

7. Hutchinson Street District

1 MILES

Homes here were built in the early 1900s and represent some of the best examples of Prairie School architecture in Chicago. Many residences – including…

8. Wrightwood 659

1.18 MILES

Fans of modern architecture shouldn't miss Chicago's newest gallery, designed by Pritzker Prize–winner Tadao Ando. Walk past the facade of the former…