The Original Mother’s

The Original Mother’s opened on West Division Street in 1968 and has been working continuously since — making it one of the longest-running bars on the strip that the Gold Coast calls the Viagra Triangle. The bar is a basement: stairs down from street level, low ceilings, two long bars, a small dance floor at the back, screens everywhere. The room scaled the Chicago after-work-to-late-night format before that was a format.

Famous mostly for two things outside Chicago. The bar appeared in About Last Night (1986, Rob Lowe and Demi Moore), and the scenes filmed at the front bar are the version of the room most non-Chicagoans know. And it inducts into the Chicago Bar Hall of Fame for its uninterrupted operation, which is rare for a Division Street venue. The crowd has changed every decade but the room has not: dark wood, neon, scuffed brass, the same booth layout since the seventies.

It works as a sports bar because the screens are everywhere and the management treats every Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks and Cubs day as a working event — opens earlier on game day, runs drink specials, brings extra staff in. It works as a late-night bar because the 4am close (5am on Saturday) gives it the longest opening hours in the Gold Coast. The room is not subtle. It is what Division Street is. Walk-ins; arrive before 9pm on a game day for a seat.