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GuideUpdated July 16, 2026

3 Best Places for Espresso martini in Chicago

Where to find the best espresso martini in Chicago — each restaurant rated 4.0★ or higher. Top-rated at 9.6★. Spanning american and burgers kitchens. Curated by TastyPals.

The best places for espresso martini in Chicago are The VIG West Loop, The Wolfhound Bar and Kitchen, Labriola Ristorante - Chicago. Start with The VIG West Loop if you want the strongest overall first pick.

By James Whitfield•3 ranked picks•Published July 16, 2026•Updated July 16, 2026
Methodology•Editorial team
The VIG West LoopThe Wolfhound Bar and KitchenLabriola Ristorante - Chicago
3 Best Places for Espresso martini in Chicago
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Top picks at a glance

#1The VIG West LoopAmerican • West Loop • moderate#2The Wolfhound Bar and KitchenBurgers • Avondale • value#3Labriola Ristorante - ChicagoPizza • Chicago • value

Who this guide is for

This guide covers the highest-rated spots for espresso martini in Chicago. Whether you're a local hunting your next regular or visiting and want to eat well, these picks are sorted by quality and review depth.

Quick picks

The VIG West Loop
American • West Loop
The Vig West Loop occupies a specific and well-defined lane in the Fulton Market district: a 1950s-inspired sports parlor that takes its bar food seriously without pretending to be anything other t…
The Wolfhound Bar and Kitchen
Burgers • Avondale
The Wolfhound Bar and Kitchen opened in 2021 in a 130-year-old Avondale building — founded by a Chicago firefighter, which tells you something about the room before you even look at the menu.
Labriola Ristorante - Chicago
Pizza • Chicago
Labriola Ristorante is doing something that feels almost countercultural in Chicago's pizza scene: it's priced and positioned like it actually wants you back next week, not just for a special occas…
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Editorial details
Published: July 16, 2026
Last updated: July 16, 2026

On this page

  1. 1. The VIG West LoopView →
  2. 2. The Wolfhound Bar and KitchenView →
  3. 3. Labriola Ristorante - ChicagoView →

How the restaurants compare

The VIG West Loop
West Loop • American
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
moderate
Best for
West Loop dinner
Mood
West Loop
The Wolfhound Bar and Kitchen
Avondale • Burgers
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
value
Best for
Avondale
Mood
Avondale
Editorial restaurant image stand-in for Labriola Ristorante - Chicago
Google
Labriola Ristorante - Chicago
Chicago • Pizza
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
value
Best for
Deep dish
Mood
Casual

How we chose

We looked for restaurants that feel like a strong fit for the guide topic, not just the most obvious names in the city. The shortlist favors rooms with clear mood, dependable pacing, and enough distinction to help someone decide faster. Read our full methodology →

Room tone

Lighting, pace, and general energy all need to support the reason someone clicked this guide.

Food fit

We favored restaurants that feel best suited for the moment, not just restaurants with broad reputation.

Useful range

The final list tries to give readers enough variation in neighborhood, price, and style to compare real options.

3 ranked picks

The VIG West Loop — The Vig West Loop occupies a specific and well-defined lane in the Fulton Market district: a 1950s-inspired sports parlor that takes its bar food seriously without pretending to be anything other than a high-energy room built for a game, a round of cocktails, or dinner that arrives somewhere between the two. What separates it from the standard sports bar proposition, based on consistent reporting from Chicago diners and local coverage, is a level of hospitality and menu ambition that the format doesn't strictly require. It runs late, it draws regulars, and it appears to earn them. The turkey burger is the dish that locals most reliably point to — reportedly a properly seasoned patty that outperforms the expectations of the genre, and the order most frequently cited when diners recommend the place to others. Sweet potato fries with a house dipping sauce are the standard companion, and by most accounts the pairing holds up as the menu's anchor combination. The Southern fried chicken sandwich rounds out the verified core of the menu and draws consistent favorable mention alongside the burger. On the cocktail side, the espresso martini is the drink regulars single out most often, and the bar program broadly is treated as a genuine part of the Vig's appeal rather than an afterthought. This is a casual group outing, a relaxed date night, or a game-day arrangement — not a special-occasion dinner, and it doesn't position itself as one. The room runs late into the evening, which makes it a practical option when other Fulton Market kitchens have closed. Come with the turkey burger and the espresso martini as your baseline order, and calibrate from there. View restaurant →
The Wolfhound Bar and Kitchen — The Wolfhound Bar and Kitchen opened in 2021 in a 130-year-old Avondale building — founded by a Chicago firefighter, which tells you something about the room before you even look at the menu. The space runs on a firehouse logic: tight, warm, organized around a front fireplace, with fiddlers and pipers taking over on Tuesdays and traditional sessions anchoring Thursday nights. The kitchen works with organic ingredients, which is not a marketing line so much as a quiet statement of intent. This is a neighborhood bar that happens to cook seriously, drawing the kind of crowd that actually lives in Avondale rather than passing through it — people looking for a real drink at a real price and food that doesn't taste like an afterthought. The menu centers on exactly the dishes Irish-American pub food is supposed to be and rarely is. The Shepherd's Pie is built around tender lamb and proper vegetables under mashed potatoes that diners consistently single out as the reason to come back. The Guinness Beef Stew is reported to be the slow-cooked, deeply savory thing you want when a Chicago winter reminds you what winters actually are. But the kitchen's most telling move is the Full Irish Breakfast, available all day and reportedly stacked with black and white pudding, rashers, sausages, and — the detail that separates the places that care from the ones that don't — house-made baked beans. On the cocktail side, the Irish 75 applies a modern bar sensibility to the bar's Irish identity, and the rotating slushie is the known call for anyone walking in from a July afternoon. Practical notes: live music nights fill fast, so Tuesday and Thursday evenings are not walk-in-at-8pm situations. The all-day breakfast means there's no bad hour to show up. At this price point, two rounds and a full meal is still a reasonable night out in 2025 — which, in Chicago right now, is the whole argument. View restaurant →
Labriola Ristorante - Chicago — Labriola Ristorante is doing something that feels almost countercultural in Chicago's pizza scene: it's priced and positioned like it actually wants you back next week, not just for a special occasion. In a city where a pizza dinner for two can quietly become a minor financial event, that restraint is its own kind of statement. The room reportedly draws a genuinely mixed crowd — first-daters alongside long-running regulars — which tends to be a reliable signal that a place has figured out hospitality without making it a production. This is not a spot auditioning for accolades it doesn't need. It knows what it is. The cocktail program is where the kitchen philosophy becomes clearest, and it's worth your attention before you even look at the food. The Barrel-Aged Manhattan is built around actual barrel time — the oak-forward character diners describe is the result of process, not just a menu buzzword. The Boss's Bitter reportedly leans into amaro with more backbone than most casual bars are willing to commit to, while the Amaro Bramble draws on blackberry and herbal bitterness in a way that nods to the Italian half of the restaurant's identity. The Watermelon Wave exists on the unapologetically fun end of the list — the kind of thing you should order without second-guessing yourself in summer. The Walnut St. Old Fashioned rounds out a program that has a discernible point of view rather than just coverage of every category. Practically speaking, the move is to arrive on the early side before the room fills, grab the bar or a two-top, and let the cocktail list do its work before the food lands. Start with the Walnut St. Old Fashioned; end with the Boss's Bitter. View restaurant →

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Save these spots to your Chicago list

Save these spots to your Chicago list in the TastyPals app, then explore similar restaurants when you want a tighter shortlist for the night.

Personalized city picksCleaner shortlistsBuilt for iPhone and Android
TastyPalsTonight
Your taste. Our picks.
Smarter follow-through after the guide: better restaurant context, quicker narrowing, less second-guessing.
For tonight
Date night spots with warm rooms and polished service
Next step
Keep exploring in the app when you want a tighter shortlist