LOGAN SQUARE — Remember your dingy college basem*nt hangout, or your grandmother’s patterned, brightly decorated home?
It’s come back to life in the form of the Basem*nt Bar, which opened last week at 2763 N. Milwaukee Ave. It’s an ode to the late ’90s and early 2000s suburban life, and is like entering a blissful time machine — or a Village Discount.
The Basem*nt Bar, which used to be Don Bucio’s Taqueria, features rooms fitted with hundreds of thrifted interiors and humorous paintings, menus with nostalgic and classic co*cktails and Midwestern food.
James Beard Award-nominated chef Rodolfo Cuadros, of Wicker Park’s Amaru and Bloom Plant Based Kitchen, is one of the people behind the bar and eatery. Cuadros opened Don Bucio’s in the spot last year, but the plant-based Mexican restaurant didn’t take off and closed early this year.
After taking time to regroup, Cuadros and his team — General Manager BrettLander and Executive Chef Gustavo Ocampo — decided to do a bar-focused concept with a simple philosophy: a basem*nt hang vibe where one can forget about responsibilities and be young again, Lander said.
At the Basem*nt, Cuadros said people can do just that — but with alcohol and yummy bites.
“The older you get, you kind of miss the days when you were a kid and didn’t have responsibilities and everything,” Lander said. “Looking back, I think for everyone, those are some the best days of your life and you would love to go back but obviously you can’t so we want to recreate that.”
Lander and Ocampo spent months scouring thrift shops and rummage sales in the Midwest to find hundreds of decorations for the space. From “dumb” funny paintings to sentimental items from their own childhood homes, the Basem*nt Bar has a nostalgic taste for everyone, the team said.
One can find an old painting from a striking scene of “Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls,” puzzle paintings of nature, sea bass fish plaques, popular paintings with a spin featuring positive affirmations and much more.
The bar’s menu and decoration aims to be inclusive for everyone; whether for a date or a close friends’ night out, there is enough on the walls to spark conversation and make people feel like they are in their grandma’s home, Cuadros said.
To keep that theme, the bar has non-alcoholic options, like a floral gin and tonic made with non-alcoholic gin. Alcoholic co*cktails, which are split on the menu into Signatures and Too Weird but Good, include a mai tai, a Drunken Cosmo with vodka, bourbon, fermented cranberry and orange curacao, a Ti Punch Martini with Haitian rum, dolin dry vermouth and falernum, and more, according to a menu release.
Too Weird but Good co*cktails include Fade-or-rade with Blue Gatorade, tra-kal and lime, and a Dirty Mountain Dew Mojito with spiced rum, Mountain Dew cordial, tarragon and soda — intentional ingredients chosen as a nod to the ’90s, Lander said.
Cuadros and Ocampo curated the menu for an easy going Midwestern feel, they said. Perogies, broccolini, a Dungeon Burger made with Slagel beef on a sesame brioche bun and steak fries are signature menu items, though the duo plan to rotate the menu often to give patrons new experiences, Cuadros said.
A Lucky Charms cookie with cereal is a temporary dessert on the menu made by one of the chefs in the kitchen, and will be heated up when ordered to keep the warm crunch all the way to the table, he told Block Club.
“I want people to come here for the co*cktails and to have a good time, but we’re going to really wow them with our food,” Cuadros said in a statement. “I’m going for a delicious American cuisine that I think complements how innovative our co*cktails are, so it’ll be a full circle dining experience.”
The Basem*nt is open 5 p.m.-12 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 5 p.m.-2 a.m. Friday and Saturday and 5-10 p.m. Sundays. The kitchen closes 10 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, and at 9 p.m. on Sundays.
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