With an ownership lineage that includes the founder and subsequent family operation comes protection for an interior that has seen an update or two but largely remains true to its deep, beer-soaked, polka-loving roots. Chicago-born polka legend L’il Wally is said to have played at Archie’s during the 1950s, a fact that comes as no surprise given the resemblance of Archie’s interior space to a great aunt’s living room (in the best possible way).
Outside, Archie’s gets away with dive bar sacrilege in the presence of actual windows, though they’re bordered by opaque glass blocks. Beer signs sit in each window, providing an uncustomary glimpse of the outside world at a neighborhood dive bar. The brick façade matches the city blocks that surround the pub, stonework closer to the street giving way to the bar’s main door just under a wall-mounted air conditioning unit. In a twist to Archie’s amenities, dogs are allowed to walk through that same corner door, the presence of a dig or two a common sight within.
The vibe inside is neighborhood common room, a unified, single space that includes a long bar along one wall, a pool table in the middle of the space and some mismatched seating throughout. And these aren’t typical bar chairs and tables but rather the kinds of dining sets you would see in a grandparent’s kitchen nook, all of it adding to the community feeling inside of Archie’s. Though some of the clutter has been rearranged inside, the classics remain, including the aforementioned marlin above the bar and a handful of framed photos depicting Archie himself and some of the coverage of the bar over the years.
