Like so many of Chicago’s great dive bars, Ola’s Liquors occupies an otherwise nondescript brick building on a stretch of city block populated predominantly with residential housing. The building is a slender one, fresh brick on its façade mixing with the obviously aged and maybe original brick that extends around the rest of the structure. In true city tradition, an Old Style-themed sign with the name of the bar underneath extends above the front door, the windows below featuring a limited set of beer signage that includes, of course, another dose of Old Style branding.
There are hybrid liquor stores and dive bars in Chicago and elsewhere that function mostly as bars but have the ability to sell to-go drinks. Ola’s Liquors is the opposite, a layout clearly meant to display the extensive liquor selection available for purchase with a counter thrown in for those that want to stay for a bit. Where the typical dive bar layout includes an ornate, aged bar back, Ola’s Liquors features long straight shelving the length of the space with every imaginable variety of liquor, liqueur and sometimes mixer represented.
In front of the extensive shelving sits a long red bar counter with a handful of stools providing the dive bar half of the Ola’s Liquors experience. As the bar extends toward the front window, the focus here is less on liquor bottles and more on lottery tickets, a terminal available for picking numbers and a handful of scratchers stocked for sale. In the midst of the convenience and liquor store amenities, a cash register breaks up the flow of bottles and a few TVs line the uppermost shelf, a dive bar nestled among other businesses.
