Name: Green Door Tavern
Address: 678 N Orleans St, Chicago, IL, 60654
Telephone: (312) 664-5496
Price range: $$

Green Door Tavern

Iconic/NotableRiver North · American Community-sourced, unverified

📍 678 N Orleans St, Chicago, IL 60654

Green Door Tavern calls itself Chicago's oldest tavern, and the building has the paperwork.

The Malört shot wheel is a real Chicago tradition — spin it, take what you get, and understand that's the whole point.

Engineer James McCole put up this two-story balloon-frame wood structure in 1872, right after the Great Chicago Fire and just before the city banned wooden commercial buildings downtown, and 678 N. Orleans is one of the few frame buildings from before that ordinance still standing. It started out as a grocery. It also started leaning shortly after it settled and has kept leaning for more than a century, which is either charming or a metaphor depending on your night. Vito Giacomo opened a restaurant on the first floor in 1921, and many of the bar fixtures installed in the '20s are still in use. Inside, it's wall-to-wall vintage advertising memorabilia, with a classic photo booth tucked in the back room.

The kitchen does modern tavern food, and the move is the GDT Chicago Poutine: fries under Italian beef gravy, cheese curds and giardiniera, a fan favorite at Chicago's Poutinefest. Burgers are a half-pound of USDA Choice beef, and The Feature (pepper jack, house guacamole, crispy tortilla strips) has had its turn on WGN's Chicago's Best. Happy hour brings discounted drinks and appetizers from 4 to 6PM, Tuesday through Friday (Monday doors open at 5). Downstairs is The Drifter, which bills itself as the last surviving Prohibition-era speakeasy room, with a tarot-card cocktail menu and burlesque and variety shows (21 and over, Wednesday through Saturday). Neither floor takes reservations; upstairs, the wait is usually short, and kids are welcome.

Hours

Mon5-10PM

Tue4PM-12AM

Wed-Thu4PM-2AM

Fri11:30AM-2AM

Sat11:30AM-3AM

Sun11:30AM-9PM

🥡 Takeout available 📞 (312) 664-5496 ✉️ Email

Amenities & accessibility

🥡Takeout available

❔Wheelchair access: unverified

🙂Kid-friendly

🚇Near the CTA Brown/Purple Line (Chicago)

Location

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Green Door Tavern

Green Door Tavern calls itself Chicago's oldest tavern, and the building has the paperwork.

Specials at Green Door Tavern