“Entry into the Cork is through a forbidding wooden door that looks like it leads into someone’s house in Des Plaines.” So begins a newly updated review of the Cork Lounge, 1822 W Addison St, in Roscoe Village, by Sean Parnell. Parnell’s Chicago Bar Project, created by “drinkers with writing problems,” is one of the most entertaining do-it-yourself Web sites ever to offer a slice of Chicago. The occupation of choice in the bar is counting the numerous miniature Budweiser clydesdales in the room, Parnell says, the same hobby that engaged the current regulars’ ancestors back in 1936, when the Cork Lounge opened.
Other new or recently updated reviews on the site include write-ups for Matilda, Tavern 33 , O’Rourke’s and Goose Island Brew Pub. Two of our favorite Chicago bar names also are represented: Tuman’s Alcohol Abuse Center and Rich’s First One Today. Now, you’ll have to excuse us. All this writing is thirsty work.