Delilah’s Has the Greatest Spirits Choice of 2023

Mike Miller often is the proprietor of Chicago bar Delilah’s, “however my enterprise card says ‘whiskey fanatic,’ ” he says.

When the Lincoln Park establishment opened in 1993, it carried 150 whiskeys. As we speak, greater than 1,000 bottlings line the cabinets, together with loads of uncommon restricted editions and customized bottles created solely for the bar. 

“We’ve been right here for 30 years,” says Miller. “Once I began this journey, there was no such factor as a whiskey bar, no web…We had been the primary place to establish whiskeys in a extra analytical approach.”

However don’t confuse “analytical” with “stuffy.” Somebody not conversant in the expansive assortment of bottles on the cabinets would possibly simply mistake Delilah’s for a sports activities bar, or an off-the-cuff dive higher identified for pinball and video games of pool. That’s simply nice with Miller.

“We’re a darkish rock ‘n’ roll bar,” he says. “We simply occur to have numerous whiskeys.”

That’s a modest evaluation for a bar that’s recurrently named as probably the greatest and most vital bars for whiskey in the US. The accolades began early: in 1995, the Louisville Courier-Journal raised hackles within the whiskey group by naming Delilah’s the most effective whiskey bar within the nation. Simply think about a reporter within the coronary heart of bourbon nation anointing a Chicago bar as the most effective. It certainly helped put Delilah’s on the radar for whiskey lovers, and simply two years after the bar opened its doorways.

Whereas it’s potential to only stroll in and revel in a pour, Delilah’s additionally provides courses and tastings, together with alternatives to satisfy the distillers who put the bar on their whistle-stop excursions. 

“It’s like booze faculty day by day,” says Miller.

Along with that world-class whiskey choice on the primary flooring, Delilah’s additionally has a powerful beer listing with 300-plus choices, and a pair hundred agave spirits, the latter situated on the bar’s second flooring.

A part of the attract of Delilah’s is that it’s about extra than simply whiskey. Miller describes it as “a punk-rock bar.” However the darkish, pleasant, quirky house additionally extends to a rotating artwork gallery on the partitions, and outdated motion pictures on the TV screens—that’s, except there’s a Buffalo Payments recreation on, during which case soccer trumps all, as Miller is an avid Payments fan.

“The drinks half is what you do when you spend time right here throughout Bowie night time,” says Miller. “That stated, folks come right here to attempt whiskeys, then they could get entangled within the music.”

Simply don’t ask for the cocktail listing, as a result of there isn’t one. Whereas highballs or beer-and-a-shot combos are at all times out there, that is the place to order a straight pour. 

So what’s the most effective vendor at one of many largest whiskey bars within the nation? Maker’s Mark bourbon. “We have now a bottle counter on the wall,” says Miller. “Each 5,000 bottles, [CEO] Invoice Samuels from Maker’s Mark comes as much as rejoice. Final time they introduced a pink wax machine.” The Maker’s counter at Delilah’s stands at 17,989 bottles consumed, on the time of writing. By the point you learn this, it could be near breaking the 18,000 mark.

Whereas he readily acknowledges that the quirky environment “is just not for everybody,” the bar has a gentle group of regulars, together with some who’ve been coming virtually because it opened. So what’s the key to a few a long time of whiskey-soaked success? 

“My focus is to entertain folks,” says Miller. “It’s a celebration day by day. Uncommon spirits preserve it enjoyable.”