Bar DeVille

LE DIVE “The intent was to leave it with duct tape everywhere, keep it a dive bar.” So says man-about-town Matt Eisler about the new bar he’s opening with designer-about-town Kevin Heisner. The two have collaborated on projects in the past (Eisler is a partner in Empire Liquors and Angels & Kings, which Heisner worked on), but Bar DeVille was supposed to be different. They bought the bar, just a few blocks from both guys’ homes, as a pet project, a place they’d actually like to hang out in. What they didn’t expect was this pet project would take two years, which turned out to be enough time for them to restore a vintage photo booth for the place, outfit it with a free pool table, develop a specialty cocktail list and basically tweak the design enough so it doesn’t resemble any dive bar we’ve seen. “It looks like a typical dive bar,” Eisler contends, “for maybe somewhere in Paris.” We rest our case. 701 N Damen Ave at Huron St (312-929-2349).

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