Name: The California Clipper
Address: 1002 N California Ave, Chicago, IL, 60622
Price range: $$

The California Clipper

Humboldt Park · Cocktails Community-sourced, unverified

📍 1002 N California Ave, Chicago, IL 60622

The California Clipper has been Humboldt Park's anchor bar since 1937, operating inside a building whose own history runs even deeper — it opened in 1912 as the L.L. Freeman Theater, closed after a flu epidemic near the end of World War I, and sat dormant until the Clipper Tavern opened there after Prohibition.

The Lil Clip, a hidden speakeasy back room hosting late-night dancing Fri/Sat, inside an 89-year-old neighborhood bar

A 1999 sale and renovation gave it the California Clipper name it carries today, and a pandemic-era closure was later reversed by Orbit Group, the hospitality team behind Brendan Sodikoff's restaurant empire, who brought it back with a proper cocktail program, a shaved ice machine, and even an in-house tobacco shop. The decor alone is worth the visit — red leather booths, vintage red light fixtures that cast the whole room in a darkroom glow, and Tannoy speakers, the same model used at Abbey Road Studios. Music runs the room nightly, with a genuinely deep and varied calendar spanning jazz, Latin jazz, house, disco, techno, and live bands most nights of the week, much of it just $5 cover.

The Lil Clip, a hidden speakeasy-style room at the back, runs its own late-night dancing program on Fridays and Saturdays, spotlighting up-and-coming and independent artists. The happy hour itself is fully itemized and genuinely good value — $8 martinis, $5 Chicago Handshakes, $3 domestic beers, Tuesday through Sunday from 6 to 8pm. No food is served, so this is a drinks-and-music destination through and through.

Hours

Sat6pm-3am

Sun/Tue-Fri 6pm-2am

🥡 Takeout unconfirmed

Amenities & accessibility

❔Takeout: unverified

❔Wheelchair access: unverified

Location

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