THE OLD TOWN ALE HOUSE

Located just across from the comedy club The Second City, old sketches of local characters adorn the walls of Chicago's best dive bar, as well as numerous paintings. It must be said that the bar owner, Bruce Elliott, is also a painter in his own time. He had his 15 minutes of fame in 2008 with his nude of Sarah Palin standing on a polar bear skin, gun in hand. This was followed by a series of "political porn paintings" still visible on the walls of the harbour. An institution in the north of the city opened in 1958. Not to be missed.