Nilda’s Place

Chicago, Illinois

Field Note

Nilda’s Place may be the most elusive dive bar in Chicago, the bright green awning above the front door a teasing, taunting beacon above a door that is open only occasionally and with often unpredictable certainty. Do not trust Google’s list of operating hours, do not trust that the bar will be open at the same time it was open on a prior list, don’t even trust the light that may or may not be emanating from the space inside. Trying the Nilda’s Place handle is a roulette spin that sometimes yields one of the more unique drinking experiences in the city.

As the name suggests, Nilda’s Place is operated by namesake Nilda, who emigrated to Chicago from Puerto Rico during the 1970s. In 1985, she opened Nilda’s Place on the ground floor of a building that also houses her second floor apartment. In many ways, there is little distinction between the living space above and the drinking space below, the Nilda’s Place floor plan filled with couches, kitchen chairs and an array of personal artifacts that make a drinking experience here feel like a visit to grandma’s kitchen.

The Nilda’s Place allure is heightened by a location quite literally off the beaten path. Ukrainian Village, East Village, Wicker Park, the general area is filled with some of the city’s best dive bars, but Nilda’s Place is not really ‘on the way’ to any of them. Visiting Nilda’s Place is an intentional act, one sometimes rewarded with a surprisingly locked door. The best bet to make it inside Nilda’s Place is a Friday or Saturday evening visit, though the doors sometimes open on Sunday and Thursday as well. Knocking on the door any evening has the potential to produce a welcoming Nilda.

Nilda’s Park is of course cash only and perpetually populated by at least one dog likely to patrol the bar counter inside. Long-time Nilda’s Bar dog Cosita sadly passed away some years ago, but fellow dive bar watchdog Frijolito can still be seen napping in one of the bar’s many darkened corners. Nilda has been known to keep parakeets in the bar and one never knows exactly the dynamic of the space on any given evening.

Always present is the Old Style illuminated sign attached to the Nilda’s Place building, this one reflecting Nilda’s Puerto Rican heritage through the phrase along the bottom of the sign reading “Cerveza Fria.” Small, square glass block windows provide the only glimpse of Nilda’s Place from the outside, the glow of light in each block no sure guarantee that Nilda’s is open. Though it doesn’t look it from the outside, Nilda’s Place can be a colorful environment inside, dance floor lighting mixing with string lights along the bar’s wall to create a more varied environment than the brick facade would suggest.

A short, updated bar curves through the space, terminating in the Nilda’s Place pool table wedged into the rear of the building and barely visible from the bar’s main seating area. Confines are cramped here, the door to the women’s restroom pulling double duty as backdrop to a dart board. Puerto Rican flags hang from the ceiling and a central television is paired with a smaller version exclusively used by Nilda for her own purposes while on the floor.

Huge visual density is packed into the snug Nilda’s Place space, including a faux fireplace, mirrored wall and a framed poster of a monkey eating a banana on a toilet. A small couch and accompanying table full of knickknacks sits below one of the bar windows, looking a bit like a dive bar seating area. The two most interesting bits of wall decoration may be the faded mural of a bar scene above the pool table and the now brown-tinged photo of Nilda surrounded by her family pinned behind the bar.