After we finished up brunch at Twisted Spoke we were headed to the Blue Line which is—shock!—right under the Blue Line at the Damen stop. Getting there may have been more fun than actually being there…not that we didn’t have fun there…

Anyway, the 6 of us lovely ladies piled into Ms. Hedda’s Volvo for the ride over to Wicker Park. Kate requested the hardest rap we could find on the radio (which is pretty soft without satellite radio, truthfully) but we did our best to blare beats out the windows. Once we parked (scored a sweet spot!) the red heads (Hedda, Hillary and Jen) walked in front of us and we realized with them all in green coats we had a small gaggle of leprechauns on our hands (albeit super hot ones!). Friendly jibing ensued.

Then we ran into Hill’s good-looking friend John- our rap-filled ride and morning of Bloodies made us all a bit punchy- I’m pretty sure we looked like asses. Sad.

To the Blue Line! We grabbed a few areas with tables, booths and stools in the “train car” looking interior. It’s got kind of a 1930s feel to it (though it claims to be ’50s). I liked the ambiance well enough- and it was a good place for a group- at least during the day- because we could pull up a bunch of velvet stools around the tables to accommodate people as they arrived. 

Onto the important part. Everyone seemed to have about the same reaction to the Bloodies across the board: 1) Whoa, this is sweet!?, and 2) Why!?. There was a strange, unnameable sweetness that no one seemed to be able to source. Trevor, Melissa C., Hil, Dan and I all took note of the sweetness on our score cards and then most of us went on to say that is started sweet and ended spicy. I thought that the only time it was any good was when you noticed the kicky, spice aftertaste. No one could figure these ones out and the result was that it was kind of like each sip tasted like 2 different drinks: one weirdly sweet and the other with a decent spice but not nearly enough of it. It came garnished with a piece of celery and two olives and Kate and I noticed that a lot of people were getting celery with the leafy foliage still attached- the furry part. Both of us hoped for a non-furry piece. (It’s prettier but eww.) All in all with no draft beers and lackluster Bloodies- Jen had the right idea on her scorecard: “Stick to martini’s at Blue Line”.

Average Star Rating:  1/3

Blue Line Lounge and Grill

1548 North Damen
Chicago, Illinois 60622
Neighborhoods: Bucktown/Wicker Park

773.395.3700
http://bluelineloungeandgrill.com/