Opened at a time when a competing bar was also named ‘Oakwood,’ founding owner Gus Gzamouranis appended his preferred bar name of ‘Oakwood’ with its opening year of 1983. Gzamouranis emigrated from Aetos, Greece, in 1960 and opened a Chicago-area restaurant named Le Sabre Restaurant in 1961. As the restaurant thrived, Gzamouranis expanded his real estate portfolio to eventually include most of the southeast corner of the Montrose Avenue & Damen Avenue intersection. Though Le Sabre closed in 2010, Oakwood 83 persists, offering late-night food and equally late-night crowds.

Dive bar signage is a language all its own and the sign atop Lincoln Square dive bar Oakwood 83 communicates many of the bar’s most alluring attributes in straightforward fashion. Surrounded by a marquee-studded arrow pointing to the front door, the sign includes a martini glass (naturally), a pair of kabob skewers (hinting at Oakwood 83’s extensive food menu) and the phrase ‘Oppa’ (a nod to the bar’s Greek heritage thanks to Gzamouranis).

Given the Greek tradition inherent to Oakwood 83, the presence of items like saganaki and spanakopita on the bar’s food menu are unsurprising. Maybe less obvious is the sheer volume of food available, spanning steak, ribs, paninis, burgers and more. The bar is open until 4 AM most nights and 5 AM on Saturday while the kitchen is available from 6 PM to a situationally-life-saving 1:30 AM most nights. As the night goes on, the crowd gets denser, drawn by the attractiveness of the kitchen’s operating hours.

Thanks to the bar’s late hours, there are two Oakwood 83’s, the first a sometimes sleepy, corner bar filled with a thin crew of regulars, the second a hopping, late-night food destination attractive for those in the food service industry working similarly late hours. First-timers entering Oakwood 83 sometime before 10 PM would be forgiven for thinking the bar was on its last legs, though the relative tranquility of the experience offers its own allure.

The Oakwood 83 floorplan twists and turns across what is a deceptively large space, the main bar found in one room with a more dining-focused experience found throughout the balance of the structure. A curved, polished bar offers straightforward seating flanked by a pair of small televisions more likely to be tuned to a cable television movie than the random sporting event more typical of a dive bar.

A handful of hightop tables can be found in the main bar area, but most of the bar’s dining-friendly seating is distributed across a pair of rooms separated by an ivy-laden trellis. Low tables, booths and even a large bench area for a larger group can be found here, balancing out Oakwood 83’s appeal as both sleepy dive bar and crucial late night food haunt. Occasional events like live comedy and even bring-your-own-craft nights fill in portions of the bar’s weekly schedule.