INSIDE: Slick's Lounge

Multi-culti club makes a comeback

By Ellen Fox

Slick's Lounge is back. A fire tore through the club last spring, but all the elements are back in order: the multi-culti crowd, the genre-crossing music and disparate design touches, including the cool metallic bar and warm wood dining area.

Slick's has all you need for a night of clubbing, which is good, since bar-hopping from this small, secluded oasis is all but impossible without a designated driver or a suitcase full of cash for taxis. Arrive early enough and it's a real lounge. Stick around for dinner, then work it off by dancing into the wee hours--when it should be about time for an appetizer or two.

Updates: The cube-like room is now warmed by swaths of cream-colored fabric and glowing blue panels. Vivid paintings of Miles Davis, Billie Holiday and Dizzy Gillespie jazz up the exposed-brick walls.

On the dance floor: Whether it's salsa, soul or downtempo, the roster of dedicated deejays gives credence to owner Howard Bailey's (who used to run Wicker Park's defunct Beat Parlor record shop) mission to mix it up every night.

At the bar: There are so many ads for Moet & Chandon champagne--large banners and an outdoor mural--that you'll feel like a lemming for
ordering bubbly. Stick to cocktails and beer.

On the menu: Top choices include tortilla-crusted red snapper and sesame chicken. The real high point, however, is the kitchen's late-night hours: 3 a.m. nightly, 4 a.m. on Saturday.

What to wear: Your slinkiest black clothes and your funkiest black hair; bald is good, but cloud-like afros are better.

Slick's Lounge
1115 N. North Branch St.
312-932-0006


Ellen Fox is a Chicago freelance writer.

Originally published Feb. 26, 2003.