Welcome to the Bluebird!

The culmination of several years of brainstorming along with many months of dirty work, this wine bar meets ale house meets bistro meets neighborhood watering hole opened in July of 2007.

ABOUT OUR BEER & WINE
Our wine and beer selections are relatively small and yet at the same time rather diverse, covering a wider range of styles and geographical origins than many larger lists. The sole factors governing our selections are quality and individuality – you won’t see many recognizable names on our list simply because mass appeal and quality are almost always incongruent.

Biodynamic wines
To define it rather simply, biodynamic wines are made under strict guidelines emphasizing the avoidance of the use of foreign and non-natural materials in the vineyard and winery. Whereas even organic wine making focuses on what NOT to do in a vineyard, biodynamics focus on what to do in a natural way. Think of bio-D wines, as we call them, as a much bigger step than organic production toward producing all natural, unadulterated wines.

Why does this matter? Not only is the production of these wines not harmful to the environment, as is much conventional grape production, but perhaps more importantly biodynamic wines attain the greatest possible individual expression of a particular piece of property (the vineyard). These wines are the ultimate expression of “terroir”. Every conventional means of manipulation, such as the use of pesticides, fertilizers, foreign yeast cultures, etc., affect the ultimate character of the grapes and likewise the taste of the wines, either by artificially adding flavors or, via chemically sanitizing the vineyard, by robbing the wines of character. Either way, all such wines edge closer to the realm of becoming generic and homogenous. And there are enough places in Chicago serving that.

One thing we can assure you: bio-D or not, all of the wines on our list are unique and say something very clearly about the place where they were produced. You can taste it in the glass. There is no “McWine” on this list. So forgive us if you can’t find your favorite brand name, but if you are willing to try something new, we think you won’t disappointed.

ABOUT OUR FOOD
Our food menu is the product of our drive for quality and tradition. The majority of our dishes are classic, simple items that have long been produced by everyday people from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Baltic and from the Atlantic to the Euphrates. The unifying factor amongst such diversity is a tried-and-true affinity with a good glass of wine or beer (and occasionally a spirit). To many items we’ve added a slight American twist necessary to incorporate fresh, local ingredients, yet we aim to do so without compromising the traditional character of the dish.

ABOUT THE SPACE
Our décor indirectly incorporates the feel and warmth of many favorite bars and small restaurants from throughout Europe while using American materials. The barnwood siding on the walls and overhead lighting soffit came from a century-old barn in northern Wisconsin. The bar top and table tops were made from 100-year old Douglas fir timber reclaimed from old pickle and wine vats from northern Wisconsin. The bar lights once lit up the stage of the Philadelphia convention center and have now returned to their home town where they were fabricated nearly 90 years ago – these lights once shone upon the likes of FDR, Nelson Mandela, Pope John Paul II and The Beatles. The metal light shades hanging from the ceilings in the bathrooms and the waiter station were made at the same Chicago lighting factory around the same time and once helped light up the stage of a small theater in Iowa. A small Illinois school house provided us with the century old pine flooring in the front room, and our restroom doors once hung as classroom doors in a now long-demolished Catholic school in Chicago. And the old wooden cart that now acts as our hostess stand was used as a workbench for over 70 years by the men who produced metal stamped electrical components in this very space.

We hope you appreciate and support our pursuit to provide high quality, unique, and delicious food and drinks in a comfortable, unpretentious atmosphere.