Hombre de Acero wrote:Ronnie, between your LOVE
for Yusho's- The Whistler, and now Scofflaw....
my question is-
when are you renting a Pied-à-Terre in Logan Square?
ronnie_suburban wrote:While Scofflaw is actually in Humboldt Park and Yusho is actually in Avondale, I do love spending time in and around Logan Square.
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Jamieson22 wrote:ronnie_suburban wrote:While Scofflaw is actually in Humboldt Park and Yusho is actually in Avondale, I do love spending time in and around Logan Square.
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Scofflaw is actually in Logan Square. The southern cutoff is Bloomingdale at 1800N.
Jamie
ronnie_suburban wrote:Jamieson22 wrote:ronnie_suburban wrote:While Scofflaw is actually in Humboldt Park and Yusho is actually in Avondale, I do love spending time in and around Logan Square.
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Scofflaw is actually in Logan Square. The southern cutoff is Bloomingdale at 1800N.
Jamie
Thanks. Since the owners told me it was in Humboldt Park, I just assumed they were correct.
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ronnie_suburban wrote:She spends the first 9 of her 14 paragraphs on everything but Scofflaw and then dismisses the place entirely -- on the grounds that they don't exclusively serve gin-based cocktails -- without ever mentioning a single cocktail that they do serve.
ronnie_suburban wrote:Lauren Viera has an absolutely laughable "review" of Scofflaw in this week's Reader. She spends the first 9 of her 14 paragraphs on everything but Scofflaw and then dismisses the place entirely -- on the grounds that they don't exclusively serve gin-based cocktails -- without ever mentioning a single cocktail that they do serve. Instead of reviewing it for what it is, she rails on it for what it isn't, and because it isn't what she -- in her predictably loathesome, NYC-wannabe mindset -- wants it to be. In her myopic, style-over-substance world, exclusivity (her term, not mine) matters more than the drinks that are actually in the glass. Sad, very sad.
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Khaopaat wrote:ronnie_suburban wrote:Lauren Viera has an absolutely laughable "review" of Scofflaw in this week's Reader. She spends the first 9 of her 14 paragraphs on everything but Scofflaw and then dismisses the place entirely -- on the grounds that they don't exclusively serve gin-based cocktails -- without ever mentioning a single cocktail that they do serve. Instead of reviewing it for what it is, she rails on it for what it isn't, and because it isn't what she -- in her predictably loathesome, NYC-wannabe mindset -- wants it to be. In her myopic, style-over-substance world, exclusivity (her term, not mine) matters more than the drinks that are actually in the glass. Sad, very sad.
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I made it five whole paragraphs into that piece of crap, but had to stop - I felt like I was stuck at a bar listening to some smarmy d-bag in skinny jeans, a keffiyeh repurposed as a scarf, and pink-framed Ray Bans pontificate about how "New York's 'scene' is so much better than Chicago's". This Lauren Viera person is an idiot. Even if she does eventually eye-roll and condescend her way to a point by paragraph 10, I don't care to read it - based on the first five paragraphs, even a ringing endorsement from her would automatically turn me off to a place.
ronnie_suburban wrote:Yes, the silver lining is that if you go to Scofflaw, chances seem quite slim that you'll run into her there. She'll, no doubt, be off on one of the coasts drinking a $16 cocktail that someone else told her was great.
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danimalarkey wrote:I don't recall seeing her byline on other articles. I suspect she accomplished what she set out to do - generate page views. It's possible, too, that this article may just be a commentary on the cocktail scene, in general, and not really a review of Scofflaw. Here's hoping, anyway - I always look forward to pieces by Sula and Thiel (and now I can look forward to ignoring anything else Viera writes!).
danimalarkey wrote:And for a counterpoint, TOC put together a response here with comments from several of the city's top bartenders: http://timeoutchicago.com/restaurants-b ... rs-respond
laurenviera wrote:Hello, all. Just to be clear: This was not a review; this was an essay. It was originally assigned to run in the Reader's Bars Issue (the prior week) and got held as the editor wanted to run it on its own. Carry on.
laurenviera wrote:This was not a review; this was an essay.
kl1191 wrote:Stopped by briefly on Saturday. Drinks were being executed at a high level and service was terrific. Loved the vibe/decor. I'll be back.
Choey wrote:The Scofflaw Contretemps has given me nothing if not renewed clarity of purpose. I had planned to open a Fernet Branca-centric bar (in the New York sense of serving only Fernet Branca based cocktails and then only to a clientele desiring to wait on-line for an hour to enter my boîte) in a condemned two-flat in Back of the Yards, but after reading Ms Viera's brave (in the Josh Noel sense) argument for the narrowest possible conception in hospitality, I've reevaluated and am forced to conclude that the ne plus ultra of customer-eccentricity would be a Malört-centric bar. (I intend to name my grand venture "Salon Peripeteia.") I base this conclusion on the crystalline purity of Viera's vision of postmodern posturing, and am counting on her to be the solitary customer during the weeklong run-up to my ineluctable bankruptcy. When I'm gone, you'll all remember that for a single, white phosphorous hot moment, I was the darling of the feuilletons. And that's ultimately what this is all about. What? It isn't?
Khaopaat wrote:Choey wrote:The Scofflaw Contretemps has given me nothing if not renewed clarity of purpose. I had planned to open a Fernet Branca-centric bar (in the New York sense of serving only Fernet Branca based cocktails and then only to a clientele desiring to wait on-line for an hour to enter my boîte) in a condemned two-flat in Back of the Yards, but after reading Ms Viera's brave (in the Josh Noel sense) argument for the narrowest possible conception in hospitality, I've reevaluated and am forced to conclude that the ne plus ultra of customer-eccentricity would be a Malört-centric bar. (I intend to name my grand venture "Salon Peripeteia.") I base this conclusion on the crystalline purity of Viera's vision of postmodern posturing, and am counting on her to be the solitary customer during the weeklong run-up to my ineluctable bankruptcy. When I'm gone, you'll all remember that for a single, white phosphorous hot moment, I was the darling of the feuilletons. And that's ultimately what this is all about. What? It isn't?
There is much brilliance in this post.
Also, holy crap, earlier today I was thinking about making a joke about an exclusively-Malört bar being the only way Chicago could one-up New York (thus rescuing Chicago's cocktail scene from its impending doom). Well played.
Sweetbread wrote:Scofflaw serves their water in old Malort bottles.