Delilah’s Has the Finest Spirits Collection of 2023

Mike Miller would be the proprietor of Chicago bar Delilah’s, “however my enterprise card says ‘whiskey fanatic,’ ” he says.

When the Lincoln Park establishment opened in 1993, it carried 150 whiskeys. Right this moment, greater than 1,000 bottlings line the cabinets, together with loads of uncommon restricted editions and customized bottles created completely for the bar. 

“We’ve been right here for 30 years,” says Miller. “After I began this journey, there was no such factor as a whiskey bar, no web…We have been the primary place to determine whiskeys in a extra analytical means.”

However don’t confuse “analytical” with “stuffy.” Somebody not acquainted with the expansive assortment of bottles on the cabinets may simply mistake Delilah’s for a sports activities bar, or an off-the-cuff dive higher identified for pinball and video games of pool. That’s simply high-quality with Miller.

“We’re a darkish rock ‘n’ roll bar,” he says. “We simply occur to have a whole lot of whiskeys.”

That’s a modest evaluation for a bar that’s recurrently named as among the best and most essential bars for whiskey in the US. The accolades began early: in 1995, the Louisville Courier-Journal raised hackles within the whiskey neighborhood by naming Delilah’s the perfect whiskey bar within the nation. Simply think about a reporter within the coronary heart of bourbon nation anointing a Chicago bar as the perfect. It absolutely helped put Delilah’s on the radar for whiskey lovers, and simply two years after the bar opened its doorways.

Whereas it’s potential to simply stroll in and luxuriate in a pour, Delilah’s additionally provides lessons and tastings, together with alternatives to fulfill the distillers who put the bar on their whistle-stop excursions. 

“It’s like booze college day-after-day,” says Miller.

Along with that world-class whiskey choice on the principle ground, Delilah’s additionally has a powerful beer listing with 300-plus choices, and a pair hundred agave spirits, the latter situated on the bar’s second ground.

A part of the attract of Delilah’s is that it’s about extra than simply whiskey. Miller describes it as “a punk-rock bar.” However the darkish, pleasant, quirky house additionally extends to a rotating artwork gallery on the partitions, and previous motion pictures on the TV screens—that’s, until there’s a Buffalo Payments sport on, during which case soccer trumps all, as Miller is an avid Payments fan.

“The drinks half is what you do when you spend time right here throughout Bowie night time,” says Miller. “That stated, folks come right here to attempt whiskeys, then they may become involved within the music.”

Simply don’t ask for the cocktail listing, as a result of there isn’t one. Whereas highballs or beer-and-a-shot combos are all the time out there, that is the place to order a straight pour. 

So what’s the perfect vendor at one of many greatest whiskey bars within the nation? Maker’s Mark bourbon. “Now we have a bottle counter on the wall,” says Miller. “Each 5,000 bottles, [CEO] Invoice Samuels from Maker’s Mark comes as much as have a good time. Final time they introduced a purple wax machine.” The Maker’s counter at Delilah’s stands at 17,989 bottles consumed, on the time of writing. By the point you learn this, it might be near breaking the 18,000 mark.

Whereas he readily acknowledges that the quirky ambiance “shouldn’t be for everybody,” the bar has a gentle group of regulars, together with some who’ve been coming nearly because it opened. So what’s the key to 3 many years of whiskey-soaked success? 

“My focus is to entertain folks,” says Miller. “It’s a celebration day-after-day. Uncommon spirits maintain it enjoyable.”