Cans Bar & Canteen

It’s closed now

It’s too bad Cans is closing next week. My hubby and I came here last week for Trivia with Dan (since we missed our regular Sunday) and we enjoyed ourselves. The beer on Tuesdays is cheap ($ 3 Miller Lite pints and other specials) and they offer half-​price appetizers. Awesome, if you ask me. Even more awesome if we had eaten anything.
The menu looked pretty good, I’ve heard the food is yummy. There’s ample seating and it was pretty busy on a Tuesday, but not terribly so. There was room to walk around and tables for everyone.
Again, too bad this place is closing. It’s a great spot for cheap beer, sports and — of course — awesome trivia.

I never thought I would say this but the wings here might be as good as the wings @ Wings Around The World. Not as many flavors as WATW, but just as good!
Me and some buddies decided this was where we would watch the Bears get smacked by the 49ers this past Monday. one of my buddies is a fixture here so we were treated with the utmost respect when we stepped inside. They also let us group together a bunch of tables for our party of 12. All of the peeps that worked here were very cool and personable especially our waitress Sydney. She really took care of us and made sure we were showered with beer and shots. The PBR was on deck as well as some other beer I cant remember the name of… golden something that Sydney recommended.
Back to the wings…
BBQ, Thai, Chinese, Root Beer, Buffalo… they all blew me the fuck away as I could not stop eating them… Its safe to say that I was in wing heaven!
The bar is very cool and seemed very live… I wouldn’t mind watching all Monday night games here. They were so cool, they turned the music down once my favorite pregame segment came on; C’mon Man.
Awesome sports bar in Bucktown!

Well… besides the convenience of the place… you aren’t missing much.
I came here for trivia on Tuesday and found the place to be filled with a lot of intense trivia people… I want to go somewhere where it’s relaxing and people are playing for fun, not where they get stressed about winning! For those of you who are trivia junkies, this will be a great trivia spot for you.
Cans is usually out of half of their drinks so dont be surprised when you end up with your fifth choice beer. On the upside, their staff is pretty friendly which slightly makes up for you getting some rando beer.
By the way, trivia runs until almost 11!!! That is crazy to me that it goes on forever on a Tuesday night. There’s got to be a better option!
I haven’t eaten the food here, but the appetizers are half off on Tuesday and they looked might tasty.

I went to this place awhile ago for trivia and I remember it being super fun! The beer list was nice too. I’m still wanting to try out their food and see how it is on a non-​trivia night, so… more to come from me!

This place has a great beer list. I’m not a huge fan in most of them coming in cans (I get it, its the name) when I know they bottle the same beer — but they gave me a glass so it was all good.
The downside is that service is somewhat lethargic, even when they aren’t too busy. Also, I think this is more of a 1AM bar then a dinner or pre-​game spot. We came in a little early on a Friday and I think even the staff was surprised to see us.
There was nothing terrible about the experience, but I think you can find something more interesting or unique in the neighborhood.

Oh Cans, how I haven’t missed thee. When I first moved to Bucktown a few years ago, Cans was fun but… the experience has dimmed.
It’s still fun for trivia night, game time, etc. but it really misses the mark for me when I see older men wearing weird overalls and randoms being all swarmy.

I come here on the reg because the staff is super attentive and nice — great bartenders! There are so many options for beer… it’s incredible. Also, they just updated their menu and have some pretty delicious new things on it. The mac and cheese is one of the best I’ve ever had. Try the poutine too… yum!!!
I should add that Cans is a great place for sports — tons of TV’s around the bar. It’s also a University of Michigan bar for all of you Wolverine fans out there…

WING LOVERS UNITE!
Ok, even I can’t believe I’m giving Cans 5 stars but this is based solely on their wings.
I love buffalo wings. I love them so much that if anyone orders them in a restaurant and their delicious aroma hits my nose, I start drooling. Mmmmm… wings.
Also, let me preface that I am not a huge fan of different flavored wings. I was (key word «was») strictly a buffalo type of girl. Not anymore!
Cans won best wing in WingFest 2012 for their Chinese spicy sweet wing. Once you take a bite, you’ll know why. They are ridiculously good with a crispy outside and perfect sweet asian sauce with extra left over on the plate for more dipping. It was a table fave! Order it as the «cans cut» which is butterflied and pulled to the top of the bone. Oh so easy to eat and delish!
The buffalo were pretty damn good too. And I really enjoyed the green tabasco wings cooked crispy.
Monday night = 50 cent wings. Score!
As for the bar itself, it’s your standard «let’s get druuuuunk» kinda place that reminds you of college. The bathrooms need a good cleaning… well actually the entire bar probably does but nonetheless if you love wings, GO HERE!

EXACTLY The same as it was the day they opened the door! Fun/​Busy Joint. great place to start out the night!

Some time has passed and I’ve now been to cans plenty of times (as the b/​f loves this place). It grows on me more and more each time.
I like food before I drink, so a bar with good food and drinks specials is a bar I like to keep visiting. Cans has updated it’s menu and I am especially happy about their pretzel bites falafel, yes falafel and a bar (sooo goood). The pretzel bites are so darn good and cute, too! The cheese sauce that comes with it is amazing. Mustard and marinara come with it as well. Mustard makes sense of course, but don’t waste your time with marinara when there’s a cup of delicious cheese sauce instead. The spinach artichoke dip is pretty tasty and I like their wings a lot.
This is a good place for watching a sports game or for just grabbing some food and drinks on a week night.
The servers are great, I love all the girls we’ve had wait on us so far. The manager is a good guy too and takes care of his regulars.

So I went to college. I’ve done the college thing. I drank crappy beer and shouted the lyrics to «Don’t Stop Believin’» on more than one occasion, but at some point, we all have to grow up. We had our fun. That’s what Wrigleyville is for.
I’ll wander in to Cans on occasion when my friends try to convince me (again) that it has some redeeming qualities. For some reason, I never learn my lesson. They do have a ton of cans of beer (as the name would suggest) but they are grossly overpriced and the bartenders are generally very rude and unaccommodating when it starts getting crowded (which it usually is, like, all the time.)
Maybe I’m just bitter because of a few bad experiences, but I figure that I live around so many quality bars, why spend my money at a place that feels like a college party but, dare I say, isn’t as fun?
The only redeeming qualities are:
1. The doorman is usually the same guy and he is awesome. He will greet you as you walk past even if you aren’t going in to Cans and he’s super friendly. He should get a raise.
2. The Cans festival in the summer is usually pretty fun (assuming you’re amused with semi-​washed up bands that generally have one song everyone knows — case in point Wang Chung, Naughty By Nature and Vanilla Ice.)
3. There are some nice waitresses I’ve run in to on weeknights. If you go in here earlier in the night, the odds are you’ll have a friendly waitress and some pretty decent bar food.
All in all, this place has a lot of growing up to do. I honestly wish I could give it more stars because it’s a bar in my neighborhood (which I hold dear), but I can’t rightly do it.

I went to Cans every week for over a year and a half for their Trivia Night on Tuesdays. Let me start off by saying that the trivia host is AWESOME. He has a lot of personality and he’s just generally funny, in a very awkward (but good) way. He remembers people’s names and remembers teams, and is always friendly to everyone. My roommate moved to Russia for a year, came back to visit, and the trivia guy remembered his name and asked how he’d been. While trivia night does go a bit long near the final rounds (it really should end at 10:00 or 10:15 rather than 10:30 or even later on some occasions), it’s still overall very enjoyable as long as you have the endurance, and good company.
That said, the bartenders are about as rude as you can get, and the food is among the worst food I have ever had. One of the bartenders is either the owner or some sort of manager, and has been really mean to the trivia guy and many of my friends on multiple occasions, making wisecracks that are totally unnecessary and acting like a total jerk whenever any of my friends would ask him any questions about their drink selection. Definitely not endearing management.
I have recently started referring to Cans as «The Worst Bar in the World» to my friends because it generally has no redeeming qualities. The drinks are all terrible, the beer selection is awful, and I can’t emphasize enough how miserable the food is. I have never once eaten there and not gotten a stomach ache, so I don’t know if they use some kind of battery acid for cooking oil or what their deal is, but it legitimately is greasy to the point of causing illness. I’ve had everything on their menu (remember, I used to go for a year and a half for trivia), and NOTHING is good. It honestly is the worst food in Chicago, if not the world.
I will give Cans 2 stars for 2 reasons: 1) because the trivia host does SO much to help save the place from utter oblivion, and 2) to be honest, most of the waitresses are incredibly attractive, and generally pretty nice. I don’t know how they set the bar so high for sexy women working there, but they struck gold somehow, so if you don’t mind going to a bar with no decent food or drinks, then at least you can go and enjoy the view.

This place is a joke. I thought I might have been the only one to think this, but according to the other reviewer’s, this place really is a joke. The majority of the staff are extremely rude. The beers they offer are pretty crappy. The bathroom is so nasty. Ugh…
One of the female bartenders (not the asian looking one, but the tall white one) kept ignoring me even though she wasn’t serving anyone. I hope the fat tip I left for the male bartender doesn’t get shared with her at the end of the night.
Also, if we’re facing the door and our feet are moving towards the door, we are obviously leaving and you don’t have to remind us that it is closing time and that we «really need to get out of there.» We really WANTED to «get out of there.» Trust me. Not worth giving them your business.

For some reason, unbeknownst to me, my friends like coming here, so I find myself here more often than I care to think about.
Cans is hit or miss. Don’t let the cans of PBR available at the bar fool you. At Cans, it’s always Miller Time. Most of the time, the crowd is either a clusterfuck of college frat guys or (worse) late 20’s-early 30’s guys who still act like they’re in a college frat. I just don’t see why you’d go out of your way to come to Wicker Park to go to a place like Cans. If you wanted to go to Wrigleyville bar, go to Wrigleyville, brah.

Cans is where all of the Wrigleyville bros go when they get confused and jump on the Blue Line train whilst intoxicated. Or maybe that’s my empirical observation.
Alright, so they serve beer in cans (and it’s cheap). Cans touts 30+ beers in cans, but when 80% of your selection is some form of Budweiser or Coors and Brooklyn Lager is a «craft beer,» then Houston, we have a problem.
There are a few bar games (Buck Hunt, but no Erotic Photo Hunt) and an upstairs, but very little room to dance/​fist-​pump to all of the David Guetta, Lady Gaga, and Taio Cruz.
It was at Cans that I actually learned that the proper term for a mega-​sized can of beer is a «tall boy.» So at least my visit was educational.

I stopped in to cans on trivia night. Tuesday.
They had a great selection of beer and great food special.
I kind of wish there was an option that wasn’t deep fried but… i made do.
Our server was awesome. her name escapes me… but she had diamonds tattooed on her shoulder.
I cell phone was dying and she went out of her way to plug it in for me.
That’s great customer service.
Thanks hope to be back soon!

Maybe you’ve been chilling at a low-​key bar in Bucktown for a few hours and you need to turn it up a notch. Or maybe you’re leaving Wrigleyville after post-​Cubs game debauchery and want to go somewhere closer to home, but don’t want to just sit on your ass at a bar.
You need energy. You need dancing. You need loud music. You need Cans.
Cans is one of the only Bucktown bars I can think of that plays music that allows for some fist-​pumping and dancing reminiscent of my fraternity party days. There’s no lack of bodies in every square inch of this place on a weekend night, so unless you’re an evil troll, you shouldn’t have a difficult time finding SOMEONE to talk to/​dance with/​smooch (if you’re so inclined). And come on. You know you like Cans. Don’t deny it.
So yeah. Cans is pretty shameless. But that’s okay. You’re allowed to get drunk and dance to Bön Jovi sometimes.

This review is based on Trivia Night… I feel the need to preface because for a long time I avoided the hell out of this place for it’s frat like qualities.
I went this past Tuesday with some friends and the intention to rock out at trivia. We partook in their appetizer special… I want to say it made everything ½ price because it was all super cheap. We split the poppers, hummus, and fries and all were delicious. No joke, the fries were some of the best fries I’d had to date– totally fresh cut. I got the Bell’s Oberon to drink and everyone else got the $ 4 Miller Lite in a ‘souvenir’ Cans cup.
The bartender was awesome, attentive, friendly, and not creepy at all. The trivia was awesome and the trivia host, Dan, is a rock star and total smarty pants.
We ended up losing out on a bad wager on the last round (Damn JFK Jr!)but still got some shirts as a consolation prize.
I will defo be back and ready to rock this trivia hot spot again.

First, a word from… Paris? Or something.
«Oh can you do the Can Can?
If you can then I can
I can Can Can if you Can Can
Can you Can Can
Oh we can do the Can Can
Yes oui we we Can Can
We can Can Can
Yes oui we can Can!»
Beer in cans. Hmmm. Yeah, well I’m not much of a can person anyway… when I do drink beer. Luckily, they do have some stuff on draft. However, the novelty of a $ 2 can of Busch Light IS tempting once the night ticks on…
Waitress (Logan) was really on top of things. The elevated bar was taken over by us, and it worked well. Not crowded (THIS IS KEY to a good time here).
So throw back a can. Do the can can. Go to Cans. Just to say you did. :)