Kingston Mines

Open since 1968, Kingston Mines was the first blues joint to open on the North Side of racially segregated Chicago. The crowd here changes, depending on who’s playing, but with its proximity to DePaul University, you can count on an exuberant youthful crowd on the prowl for Bacardi bombs, Jäger shots, and cheap buckets of beer (all of which fill the “specials” board). The boozy juke joint has live music 7 nights a week on two separate stages, and you can hop from room to room, and take your pick of a seat (if you can find one) at long, old, thin wooden tables. Musicians here are reliably great, playing all forms of blues and hailing from Chicago or around the country. A touch of grit, combined with murals on the walls depicting the Mississippi Delta, really make it feel as though you’ve stepped into a little piece of New Orleans.