The Exchange - More Serious Cocktails in Wicker Park

Apparently, Wicker Park needs not one, but two, serious cocktail bars. The Exchange recently opened on "Lower" Milwaukee Avenue, in a rather desolate stretch across from the cavernous strip mall/office building adjacent to the Jewel parking lot. The Exchange recently has been written up in Tasting Table, and Time Out Chicago.

I was pretty impressed by the cocktails at this place, which has decor that is -- keep with me here -- slightly more spartan and spiffier than Bar DeVille, but much more casual than The Violet Hour. For me, The Exchange's draw is that Peter Vestinos (who launched Sepia to cocktail fame), crafted the cocktail menu. For those who remember his drinks at Sepia, I think The Exchange's menu shows someone who is honing his craft and becoming more sophisticated -- the drinks at The Exchange have all the flourish and execution inherent in Sepia's serious craft cocktailing under Vestinos, but unlike Sepia (whose menu served as sort of Cocktailing 102, a step above the classics, so to speak), the cocktails at The Exchange push the boundaries more. (I do not mean this as a slight on Vestinos' tenure at Sepia -- but if you recall that he was there some two years ago, and craft cocktails were fairly new on the Chicago scene (back then, it was really only him and TVH), the cocktail game has definitely been upped in 2010.)

For example, the Smoke and Mirrors, which includes lapsong-souchong tea-infused tequila, lime and egg whites (the tea is supplied by noted tea slinger, Marcus Rodrick, aka Rare Tea Cellar), falls just on the pleasant side of smoky. "The 75," a riff on the French 75, includes Belgian ale and is refreshingly spritzy. Not as successful are the Negroni v. Negroni, two variations of the classic drink, one known as "The Champ," the other as "The Challenger." Neither includes the usual Campari. In fact, after just reading the ingredients (which I cannot now recall), neither looks like the usual Negroni on paper. After telling the bartender that I prefer a more bitter Negroni (heavy on the Campari), he steered me to The Challenger, which is "more robust" due to the inclusion of bitter-ish Cynar, an artichoke liqueur. I see where The Exchange is going with it, but if I blind-tasted this drink, I would not peg it as a Negroni. (Maybe I'm just a classicist at heart.)

Some might think it heresy that The Exchange has not one, but two, vodka drinks on the menu (The Exchange Cocktail uses Death's Door; none of them use Belvedere). But a Bulleit bourbon drink, as well as the creativity of the drink menu, should make up for what some might consider a misstep. I noticed a couple of punches on the menu, which looked interesting, and are served in vintage cut-glass bowls. My inner Charles Dickens is excited about the prospect of drinking punch; so I'll have to go back to sample them.

The Exchange serves only drinks (no food). I do not know what their policy is on bring food into the bar, but Tocca is right next door, and I would imagine that would make for a nice 1-2 punch. I haven't tried enough of the cocktails at The Exchange to predict where it will fall in the TVH-Bar DeVille-Whistler-Drawing Room pecking order, but, at this point, it seems promising.

The Exchange
1270 N. Milwaukee Ave
Chicago IL 60622
(773) 342-5282
http://www.theexchangebar.com

aschie30 wrote:Apparently, Wicker Park needs not one, but two, serious cocktail bars.

Personally I think it needs more, but that could be just be. I haven't gotten over to Exchange get, I've wanted to since I heard it was opening in the old Lava space, but my typical drinking buddy is out of the game for a while, and I've cut back quite a bit myself this year.

I'll probably get in there in the next week or two to check it out.


Thanks for the initial write up.

SSDD

Thanks to getting called into work this evening I stopped in here much sooner than I thought I would have. And I am thankful for that because I won't be wondering about it any more.

Starting with everything but the drinks, I just wasn't comfortable there. Didn't like the music, the space, or the bartenders. Nothing was particularly engaging, and the space is much more like a lounge than a bar, just not my thing I guess.

Now all of these things could be over looked if the cocktails were great, but to me they are not. I liked Sepia under Peter, but in the time since his cocktails have tended to become very fussy, and if not done exactly right, they aren't very good. To be fair, I have this problem with Adam Seger's cocktails as well, I know the guys can come up with great drinks, but the people they have mixing them just can't always execute.

I had two cocktails tonight:

The Stallion -- Rhum Clement, grapefruit juice, lime juice, and something I can't remember. Basically it tasted like citrus. Very easy to drink, but no complexity or depth at all.

The 75 -- Gin, lime juice, orange bitters, Flemish sour ale -- This was better, at least it had some different notes in it, but I wouldn't go running back for it.

I was pretty excited when I heard this place was opening, figuring that I could stop by and have a good cocktail and not deal with the crowds at the Hour or deVille. Well it isn't going to work for me, but hopefully it will pull some people away from those two places so I can start patronizing them again.

SSDD

headcase wrote:Thanks to getting called into work this evening I stopped in here much sooner than I thought I would have. And I am thankful for that because I won't be wondering about it any more.

Starting with everything but the drinks, I just wasn't comfortable there. Didn't like the music, the space, or the bartenders. Nothing was particularly engaging, and the space is much more like a lounge than a bar, just not my thing I guess.

Now all of these things could be over looked if the cocktails were great, but to me they are not. I liked Sepia under Peter, but in the time since his cocktails have tended to become very fussy, and if not done exactly right, they aren't very good. To be fair, I have this problem with Adam Seger's cocktails as well, I know the guys can come up with great drinks, but the people they have mixing them just can't always execute.

I was pretty excited when I heard this place was opening, figuring that I could stop by and have a good cocktail and not deal with the crowds at the Hour or deVille. Well it isn't going to work for me, but hopefully it will pull some people away from those two places so I can start patronizing them again.

headcase: you've captured exactly my sentiments about The Exchange. I stopped in on Friday after a long day at Family Farmed, and we had a few of the drinks mentioned upthread. My initial impression was that the space was a passable eclectic, but thinking back, I'll agree with one of my companions--it seems very confused. Between the lounge furniture in the front, where we were seated, and the DJ booth in back (which was empty just after 11pm on Friday), the honeycomb light fixtures above the bar and the brocade pattern of the back wall, I couldn't figure out where I was (and I only had one drink and a few tasting sips from others). The cocktail list seemed promising, but nothing I tasted moved me. Nothing was terrible, but I won't likely be back on my own choosing.

I don't know how this place is still open. Unfortunately, I've ended up at the Exchange a few times since my last post in this thread, when the Violet Hour and Big Star have been too busy, and I've needed alternative in that direction. I'll give the Exchange at least this: the space is reliably empty and just as unreliably conducive to conversation.

Every time I've been has felt like the first night they've been in business--empty, same cocktails, bar not fully stocked, DJ who's oblivious to the acoustics. A friend and I stopped in just after 9pm last night. He got a Headless Horseman, one of the night's specials, which he said, "started out like it was going to be pretty terrible and then wasn't that bad." I was hoping to try a new cocktail on the menu they finally updated, but they were out of Fernet. I ended up with an Old Fashioned that had pumpkin spice. It didn't taste overly sweet, but it felt excessively syrupy. I couldn't finish it.

My friend and I actually might have stayed longer, despite the drinks, just to talk except the music coming out of the DJ booth was painfully loud. Even our bartender, who saw us cringing at the volume, said the DJ had no idea about the acoustics of the space. As we were two of the four customers there, my friend to no avail tried to signal to the DJ to turn down the music. I like quiet spaces, but I can also enjoy places where the music is loud; this was just intolerable.

I may have finally learned my lesson. The Exchange is not for me.

Heard a rumor that this place closed/is on the verge of closing. Any locals care to confirm or deny?