5 Chicago Bars Make Playboy's Best Bars In America Nominees

By Anthony Todd in Food on Aug 22, 2016 4:00PM

The interior of Sparrow (Photos by Nicholas James).

Chicago cocktails lovers know that the bar scene here is blowing up, but it's always nice when that awesomeness gets national attention. Playboy has released a list of the 50 best bars in America, which will be narrowed down to a list of the 10 best bars in America with your votes. Chicago made a great showing, with five bars on the list.

The five entries are Mezcaleria Las Flores, GreenRiver, Milk Bar, Moneygun and Sparrow. I'm not at all surprised by Milk Bar and GreenRiver, given their national acclaim, but the other three were a pleasant surprise. None are in the Loop and Moneygun and Mezcaleria las Flores aren't associated with big-name nationally-acclaimed bartenders (at least not yet), and that means they don't often end up on magazine best-of lists. Plus, there's no sign of The Aviary, Sable, Lost Lake or some of the other stand-out bars that tend to get more attention.

Vote for your favorite to narrow the list down to 10—let's make sure that some Chicago bars get represented on the final list!