Three Dots and a Dash, Chicago, IL (bar)

then why call it a mai tai if it does not taste like one ? call it something else to avoid confusion.

Several of the Yelp reviews described how the bartender refused to take individual drink orders for a small group and would only make them a single $75 communal drink instead, which if course was a disappointment. You have to blame the management for a policy that lame. Either train more bartenders or limit admission to the number of guests you can serve properly. I hope Three Dots succeeds but they need to up their game to earn loyal clientele for the long run.

so basically, if you go there with a group, everyone has to order a different drink otherwise they gang you up together in one bowl if 2 or more of you order the same thing ? is that correct ? seems it will save the bartender time but i don't know that i want to share every other drink with someone else.

Yes, I think they are still coming to terms with "crowd management," i.e. how do you deal with enormous success from the very beginning? The issue with tropical drinks specifically is that they're really designed to be consumed while sitting down; the vessels are unwieldy to begin with, and then when you add 3-4 garnishes on top ... And shared drinks especially, you just can't walk around/pass around a big glass skull. So, in short, when the place is really packed there are just too many people standing around with nowhere to go. If you're in a big group like that you just need to wait until you can get a table. Regardless, 3 Dots should definitely take a page from the Violet Hour playbook and strictly limit how many people they let in at one time.

The way I read the Yelp reviews, they were asked by the bartender to stand with a giant glass bowl with four straws (in a crowded bar) because they flatly refused to make 6 different drinks for a small group, and that instead they could "only" make communal drinks... which is completely insane.

I will say on our visit, we had 8 people and it wasn't super-smashed crowded yet while we were there, but the manager still came over twice, and was fairly emphatic that we "should really just order a bowl first or it's going to take a long time" to which we politely refused (and the drink turnaround was pretty quick at that point...) Personally, I don't like getting the hard sell on anything, especially considering (a.) we know what we like (we've been at this Tiki thing awhile), (b.) the amount of money we were putting down for a couple of drinks was considerable, and (c.) we wanted to try a lot of different things... you drop $75-$100 on a bowl for 2-4 people, that's a HEAVY commitment to a drink you may or may not dig too much.

Rob-

You hit the nail on the head with crowd control; to KillDevil's point, when I see a line outside of a new bar (which, with the craft cocktail scene in Chicago being as extensive as it is is only expected) I have no problem with waiting in a line if I've decided to go check a place out- I don't even have a problem with waiting for a table once inside if there's an appropriate place to wait. What bothered me on our first visit to 3 Dots is that, having been to places like the Violet Hour or the Whistler (or, hell, Kuma's Corner or Hot Doug's), is when I see that line outside, that tells me that the crowd levels are being kept in check for a specific purpose once you're inside. When I see a line (especially one staffed by four...five? security guards) I expect that once I've paid my dues and waited in it, I will get a proper, managed experience. That was not the case. Making people wait 10 minutes only to wait another 40 minutes inside is stupid, especially when the organization for that 40 minute wait is horribly chaotic and jumbled and no one seems to know what's going on. I understand they're trying to turn as many tips as possible, which is good for business, but TERRIBLE for a relaxed Tiki-escape vibe.

I did think the staff seemed exceedingly harried on both visits... understandable, and I understand they're getting their sea legs yet and there are plenty of bugs to work out, but yes... I agree 100%, they've gotta keep levels somewhere where their staff isn't completely overwhelmed. Tiki, at the most basic level, is about leaving crazy-hectic-crowded behind, and about escapism and relaxing a bit. You can't do that with 9 Axe body spray club bros yelling and bumping into your elbos while you try to enjoy your expensive drink.

I dunno... they're doing a lot of stuff right (that Rum River Mystic is fuggin' outstanding) so I have faith they'll get some of these bugs worked out.

But I've been to a --LOT-- of tiki bars all over the country (new, old, still open, closed) and I've been to most all the hip craft cocktail joints in Chicago (and a few in other cities) and I guess my feeling is that to blindly love this place and overlook all of it's fairly clear-cut issues at the present is silly. I think Chicago proper has been SO starved for Tiki (and well-crafted Tiki DRINKS specifically) we all really want everything to be perfect and REALLY want to love everything about this place immediately,
which is a kind of blind Tiki love.

If, someday, I can wait patiently in line at 3 Dots and KNOW, without a doubt, I will enter to a calm, relaxing environment playing appropriate music at an appropriate volume, and have a high quality, high-octane craft Tiki cocktail served with care, then that will be a magnificent thing, and I'll be coming back more frequently. It will be worth the time invested waiting in that line. Spending time waiting for a hectic, frazzled club-y loud jumble ain't my thing (it IS a lot of other peoples' things out in the non-TC world, tho, so I'm in the minority there.)

For now, my experience has been mixed, but I think they're barking up the right tree, so hopefully once those few wrinkles are ironed out we'll have a (consistently) decent Tiki joint downtown for post-work imbibery. Finding the balance between relaxing-classic-tiki and average high-end-modern-drink-lounge-person is tough. I wish 'em the best with it!

--Pete

I'd agree that 3 Dots should take a cue from Violet Hour (a great lounge, btw)and intstall a cut-off attendance-wise. That'd help the vibe bigtime.

First post here... I have felt compelled to toss my feelings out there since I have had very different experiences at Three Dots and a Dash.

First off I have been there about 10 times since they opened... In other words I have really enjoyed all aspects of it and unlike any other bar I can recall I have really enjoyed going back often.
When I read about these crazy packed nights and bartenders refusing orders and obnoxious bouncers and so on it is so different from my personal experiences that I am really shocked.

I agree that those experiences sound horrible but again, they are not what I have ever encountered.

I tend to try and go early in both the night and the week... this avoids all of those issues. If you go anytime Monday you will find a totally relaxed, incredibly friendly lounge that is perfectly designed and lit, makes incredible drinks, serves the drinks is great (and sometimes custom) mugs and plays exactly the lounge tiki music you want. It's as laid back and fun as you can get.

It sounds like a Jekyl and Hyde experience where if you go at the "right" time you get an awesome tiki bar and if you go at the "wrong" time yoy get an annoying club. The problem is unlike Violet Hour or The Aviary they are located in an area toursist frequent and they are owned by Lettuce and therefore are very well known. So you have a lot of people who don't really know or understand what Tiki is poudning the place on th weekends.

I have been there during after work happy hour and it was much more crowded than "normal" (for me) but we waited 20 minutes... got a table and then all was great.

The key is truly going at the right time and waiting for a table is a MUST. Forget the large bowls or individual drinks... if you don't have a table you don't want to deal with drinking anything.
Another issue is that the back bar makes the drinks for tables while the main bar has to deal with everyone jammed around it... this is why they cannot keep up with orders when they are jammed.

I agree that perhaps they just need to cut off people entering the bar MUCH sooner. Maybe they need to allow it is remian comfortable inside and let people queue outside longer. But they have this notion that being a club with a DJ at late night is a good idea. Maybe they are concerned that the average non tiki person will wait 45 minutes to get in expecting an energetic club only to find a low key lounge and get thrown for a loop and turned off?

Certainly you never have this going on at The Aviary so there are some people looking for low key.

Regardless I can tell you that if you go early enough in the night you will have a WONDERFUL experience. The wait staff are great, the managers are very friendly and helpful and the drinks are great. Even the food fits the bill and is enjoyable with the drinks. I LOVE the physical menu... they just NAILED it in paying homage to the great tiki bars of the 60's with that (only drinks are $13 not .85 cents).

Anyway... if you are on the fence about it or had a bad experience try it but go early... think of it as a place to hang out before dinner. I was there on Monday, we got there at 5:30 thinking we would stay for 1-2 drinks... we left at 11:30.... had a blast... it never got crowded and was great time... ALL of my experiences there have been similar.

Since I haven't seen a mention yet, here's a picture of their new mug.

I believe it's the first exclusive in their lineup, although I don't see many of the others on Tiki Farm's website. Also, it's only sold retail -- they don't use it as the standard mug for any of their drinks.

I bought one during the release party. GREAT mug.
The glaze job is perfect.

They will serve drinks in them but you need to request it AND buy a mug which is a little odd.
I'm sure it's for fear if theft which I know is a big issue for them.

That thing's killer.

That's a cool mug. I would like to have one of those.

If you need a chortle, seek out the yelp reviews by the Melanies...Melanie H. and Melanie B.

If either of the Melanies are members of TC, I mean no offense. :)

The net used to be a great place to find out the real deal on things/places but
then someone got the idea that you could stack the deck and give fake glowing reviews.
It's kinda seams like this may be going on for this place.

"I bought one during the release party. GREAT mug."
Quote Teevtee and Teevtee gave the place a good review so if you got into the release
party does this mean you know the owners or could anybody get in?

I had this problem here in Ohio when the Tropical Bistro opened up and folks here
were going "IT"S AWESOME!" but it really was not awesome.
I did grow to love it because I knew and liked the owners but still I tried not to
tell people the place was great! Good not great.

So what would you do if you knew the owners or your group was in close with the owners.
You may even work for or get free promotion for you interests from this place.
Would you sell your soul and help keep the tiki place alive plus help those who help you.
Or would you tell the truth and save a fellow tiki peep a long trip only to wait hours
for a $75.00 bowl of ?

Very cool mug I must say.

I find Yelp about as trustful & reliable as Congress......

Hi tikiskip:

No, the "release party" was open to anyone and everyone.... I do not know any person involved with Three Dots and a Dash on ANY level... not freinds of friends... nothing.
I'm just a guy who went there and really enjoyed it... and now have gone back often.

I know that no one knows anyone on the web and so fraud is very easy but that does not discount the times when people are NOT lying. I have no idea what YOU personally enjoy so I cannot say if YOU will liek Three Dots or not but I can tell you that I really do. They have always treated me very nicely, the atmosphere is GREAT and the drinks are very well made versions of tiki drinks. I just don't see anything to not like about it (save perhaps the cost of the food and the group drinks... both seem a little high to me while $13 for the "normal" drinks is OK for what you get in my opinion).

I have read literally every Yelp review and the mass majority are VERY positive... I think you can start to trust that critical mass. Of the negative reviews I see one very common complaint... and they are ALL from people going on crowded weekend nights.

I am the first to say that I would NOT go to Three Dots and a Dash on a Saturday night unless you arrive very early... I have been there when it is crowded and it is not the same place as when it is early in the night and very chill and lounge like. If you avoid Friday and Saturday late or Thursday and Friday happy hour all others times are great.

But that's just my opinion... and I am a real person, not some Yelp robot or anything!

BTW... the "mug release party" was basically nothing... just a normal Monday (Labor day actually) where they revelaed the mug. I actually just stoipped by to purchase the mug... I did not even have a drink that night.

Also as an aside why seek out the (mostly) negative reviews of the "Melanies" when there are far, far, far more glowing reviews?

Is the logic that good reviews must be fake whiel negative ones must be true?

There are currently 36 5 star reviews and 5 one star reviews... so more than seven times the number of raves as there are the number of bashes.
I have no reason to believe tht they are not all perfectly valid. Some people had fun and some did not but the odds seem pretty decent that most people WILL have fun.
Now factor in that some of the negative reviews clearly state that they do not understand or care about Tiki culture... it seems that those who frequent this forum woudl be predisposed to enjoy it more than anyone.

Thank you for your response.
I for one don't like crowds, or the "in" place to be.
Used to like the Red Head Saloon till it became one of the hot spots.

The reason I asked about fake good reviews is in Ohio we have Kahiki foods.
The frozen food they make is not that good even two of the guys who used to work
there did not think so much of it.
BUT... there are some who will tell you that it's great and they love it, what
they don't tell you is Kahiki foods sponsor some tiki things to the advantage of the folks
saying hey the frozen Kahiki food is great!

It is cool that Kahiki foods throws money the way of tiki.

When I tell people something is great that's the way I see it.
If I have a vested interest in a place and think this will slant my review
this I will let you know as well.

For me I would just as well go to one of the MANY cool low key spots in Chicago or elsewhere for
that matter than fight/wait for a seat in a over crowded over priced "HOT" spot any day.
$75.00 bucks for a bowl of booze? that's two bottles of Lemon Hart!
But then there is all that "hand crafting" going on.
I wish I only knew how to put ice in a shaker and make a drink myself, It's sooo tricky.:)

Will check it out when it dies down.

make sure you let me know when you are in town, skipper, to check the place out.

I totally understand your adversion to crowded "hot" places. I think Three Dots can be like that but when I go (for example last night) it is mellow, easy to get a table and very laid back.
I think many of the negative reviews come from people who hit it during peak times and those experiences sound VERY different from my own.

There are a TON of great places in Chicago but there are not many Tiki places. I was just happy to see someone bringing tiki to Chicago and then doing what I feel is a really nice job.

But you know some people really want like crazy cluttered tacky kind of things out of a tiki bar and this is not that either... so obviously its all subjective.

To me the biggest ding I have against them is the cost... even if you can justify the drink prices they are still really high and the group drink prices are frankly too high to justify.
The food is also expensive for what it is... but putting costs aside I think everything else is on point... it's worth you at least checking it out I would imagine.

On 2013-09-21 16:07, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:
I find Yelp about as trustful & reliable as Congress......

Actually they are far worse. Yelp IMO is the most ruthless company out there. They are preying on and destroying small buisnesses, the life blood of the US. They are hurting the economy worse than any government could do. Yelp filters out all of your positive reviews and only leaves negative, unless you pay them for all positive reviews. I know this to be fact from personal experience. They have been sued for extortion multiple times in the short life of their evil empire. Google yelp extortion and read the thousands of pages of unhappy small businesses and decide for yourself. Sorry, not trying to derail the thread, I try to not rant about it.

I am excited to visit this bar. I have a brother in law that lives in Chicago, hopefully I can go visit soon. I hope that they can tame the crowds or figure out a better way to deal with them.

[ Edited by: lunavideogames 2013-09-25 11:44 ]

I had the pleasure of visiting Three Dots and a Dash while on tour a few weeks ago. Nobody in my band wanted to venture downtown, so I went on a solitary mission.

I had to call to find the place, as it is down an alley behind the physical address. I walked through the cavernous hallway to a wall of skulls. Once downstairs, the bar opened up like some sort of speakeasy. The place wasn't that crowded. I sat at the bar, oreded a Mai Tai, and had a wonderful conversation with one of the bartenders about what they used in their Mai Tai (the strange ingredient in the eyedropper was macadamia nut extract). Next I had a Three Dots and a Dash. Both drinks were ok, but I figured the price would have warranted a great drink. The decor was a little more modern than I would have expected (the granite countertops at the bar). When I left, sea urchin mug in tow, I looked in the bag to find that the bartender had thrown in some swizzles as well. Overall, I had a very pleasant experience. If I find myself in Chicago again, I'll definitely head back.

Three Dots opens at 4 on Fridays now, and since that's usually about when I get off work it's a pretty sweet development. And it's always been calm enough to chat with the bartenders while I sip my drink. Mondays are still my favorite nights I think.

Yeah, $13 isn't exactly pocket change; but on the other hand it's a darn good incentive to drink more slowly and thoughtfully. I just think that's the kind of establishment it is. Or, as Trader Vic put it, "Dedicated to those merry souls who make drinking a pleasure; who achieve contentedness long before capacity; and who, whenever they drink, prove able to carry it, enjoy it and remain ladies and gentlemen."

On 2013-09-25 04:57, Tipsy McStagger wrote:
make sure you let me know when you are in town, skipper, to check the place out.

Will do David.

Three visits to Three Dots and a Dash. All have been very impressive.
I highly recommend a visit, as you can get some of the best cocktails in all of Chicago here & the atmosphere really is a nice example of modern tiki, which brings in a respectable degree of old-style tiki.

I have finished the menu of all of their single-serve cocktails - both the Classics & Modern drinks.
No change to try the drink bowls, yet - they are in my future, though, I am sure :)

My favorites from the menu (in no particular order):

• Jungle Bird (but, if not made right, can be too Campari-forward, which is a problem - 1 I ordered was like that & I had her re-do it)
• Three Dots & a Dash
• Jet Pilot
• Saturn
• Rum River Mystic
• Poipu Beach Boogie Board
• Painkiller #3
• MaiTai (Not traditional, but an excellent cocktail. If you don't like Agricole Rums, though, you will not likely care for it)

So, if you're going for a visit & wondering where you might want to start, one of those would be my suggestion. Then, go wherever the menu takes you :D

Some pictures to make you thirsty & maybe a bit hungry:

& I was remiss in posting pictures from my last visit, so here's some more yumminess:

& here's a shot of the launch menu. They are using a slightly modified version, now, btw - though the cocktails are the same.

The food look very inviting.

Great pics! I love the variety of mugs they use for the drinks. Not just for "show" on the menu. Those swizzle look amazing! I wish I had a trip comign to Chi-town sometime soon so I could enjoy Three Dots in-person.

The decor and drinks look really cool! I sure would like to have this bar by my house. I hope I can make it out there soon.

So we made another voyage to Three Dots, in the hopes of finally having the fantastical experience we keep hearing
other people talk about having. There's so much promise there, we had to keep swingin' til we hit something.

I chronicled our first two attempts here previously. The first trip was horrible, second was OK with some weird service issues but vastly more promising and we actually got a drink... since then (probably a month ago), my wife had gone back after a work function downtown, and it was, again, a terrible 90's dance party fit for Jersey Shore. Granted, that was on a Friday (which we already knew would be Kryptonite to any kind of relaxing Tiki atmosphere...) but we decided to try again...

FINALLY! The experience we'd been hoping for!

We went on a Monday around 8:30-9, sat at the bar, and the owner himself made our drinks. He's an incredibly nice guy with a great love of the fancy booze arts.. he loves Tiki and was totally stoked showing us all the new Tiki Farm mugs they'd gotten in.

The drinks were fantastic... I had a Rum River Mystic, which I'd tasted on an earlier trip, and it was well worth the trip back to have a whole one all to myself. What a fabulous, boozy drink! I would probably make 'em at home if I knew what the hell was in it (a new cocktail mystery to solve!) For the next round, I had the Lonely Island in a Foggy Sea (or.. the "Lonely Island Lost in the Middle of a Foggy Sea" as the menu states) which was absolutely incredible. It reminded me very much of the much beloved Mutiny at the Mai Kai... cold brewed coffee, fruit juices, just enough Black Strap to give it punch without tasting like waffles... so incredibly good!

My wife had a Three Dots & A Dash which was great... every bit as good as I make 'em at home, and the best quality version of that drink we've ever had in a public setting. To follow up, she had the Painkiller which was also really good... There ain't much to making a Painkiller, to be honest, but they snazzed it up a bit with passion fruit juice which gave it a little something extra than the standard Pusser's recipe. It tasted more well-balanced and tropical and less like dessert than the standard recipe.

So... great drinks, great service... the music was at a perfect volume and a perfect mix. As a severe music nerd I'm pretty persnickety about music in a bar (especially a Tiki bar)... I was hearing plenty of obscure-o tracks I would never have expected (Takeshi Terauchi and the Bunnies, anybody? Preston Epps the Bongo Man?) Mr. McGee told us they took great pains to go through hours and hours of music from a service based in LA to cull just the right tracks that had just the right feel to 'em... and they did a really good job, 'cuz it was great. That DOES beg the question as to why they were blasting Ace of Base on our first visit, but....

So they're doing a bang-up job in every respect, depending on when you go. If you're coming in from out of town, please check this place out, but for the love of God... go on a Sunday or Monday evening and sit at the bar. It's great watching their bartenders work, everyone is friendly, it doesn't get too crowded, and you can ACTUALLY relax...

IN RIVER NORTH!!

It's a damn miracle...

We will absolutely be back, many times... but only on Sunday or Monday. The dance party atmosphere at 3 Dots on weekends exists because it has to exist in order for them to stay competitive with all the other bars they're competing with in that "neighborhood" on weekends.

For those who don't live in Chicago, there is nothing even remotely enjoyable or local or interesting about River North... people who actually live in Chicago (honest, hard working blue collar folks) don't go there unless they work somewhere down there. It is the nexus of the Clark street tourist hell hole (see: Hard Rock Cafe, Rainforest Cafe, and Rock & Roll McDonald's all located a block away) and the ultra uber-rich stock market traders and trixies and cougars who live in that neighborhood and rarely leave it (see the streams of double-parked BMW and Lexus and Mercedes on weekends.) That area is pure poison... so for a lot of the complaints on Yelp about horrible crowds showing up on Thurs/Fri/Sat (including the experience we had shortly after they opened)... those horrible crowds exist because of the unequivocally terrible, not-at-all-local location. And for the complaints about occasionally surly service on weekends... I can't imagine how often they must have to break up fights between douche bag hair gel dudes or get snapped at by demanding wanna-be Kardashians on the weekends, so I get they're probably a little on edge.

Historically, I would find any reason possible to NOT go to that neighborhood... but our last experience at Three Dots was so good, I'm already itching to go back.

It's the same dichotomy we found with Trader Vic's 2.0 located right at the crotch of the "Viagra Triangle" on State & Rush... that neighborhood, similarly, is absolutely terrible in every respect, but TV's was a nice little respite from the douche baggery transpiring outside the windows.

So... GO HERE!

--Pete

Glad to hear that you've actually had an experience similar to all of the times I have been there.

And, yes, all of the times I have been there have been weeknights, as I come to town for work - Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. So I can also vouch for those nights - great music exotica/tiki right up until midnight, at least, when I called it a night.

I'll be back the week before Christmas - this time with my husband in tow, too - can't wait!!

We were pretty darn glad about it, too!

Surprisingly, our other two crappy experiences at 3 Dots were also on weeknights (save for my wife's more recent excursion on
a Friday, which was mostly coerced by her co-workers, and which she new was gonna be rough.)

I think maybe they're realizing it doesn't need to be the C + C Music Factory after a certain time there EVERY night. Certainly, the first
couple times we were there weren't long after they'd opened, so I think they were still finding their sea legs.

Interestingly, I overheard Mr. McGee tell someone he only bartends on Sundays and Mondays, too... so, that should tell people something.

I'm not a big fan of his previous bar, The Whistler (which, similarly, has spectacular drinks, but it ain't really
my scene), but that place is at least laid back-ish (just waist-deep in ironic Hipstery mustachioed pretension.) I think the shock
on our first visit to 3 Dots (on a Thursday) was just HOW overwhelmingly noisy and clubby and dancey and douchey everyone drinking there was, and how totally incongruous and LOUD the music was.

If they can keep party time to Friday and Saturday nights, I think they'll find they have something really fantastic on their hands that
hasn't existed in Chicago in a very long time. And us locals will finally have a place to (consistently) find a fantastic Tiki drink in a chill environment off the Red Line... Hallelujah!

In all fairness, having worked in a number of bars off-and-on over my 15 years in Chicago, Fridays and Saturdays are pretty horrible
EVERYWHERE (even some of my most favorite bars... er... see Hala Kahiki for one example in the Tiki realm.) Sundays and Mondays are the nights people who WORK in the industry go out, because it's not choked with people everywhere you look.

So... I'm glad we cracked the nut (and props to Mr. Tipsy McStagger for the tip on when to go and where to sit...)

Congrats to Mr. McGee for Sundays and Mondays at this fine establishment! We'll be back for more soon...

--Pete

One other thing... this is a commuter kind of neighborhood;

It might ACTUALLY be busier right after they open on some weeknights (5PM-ish) with the happy hour office crowd.

LOTS of people work down that way; few people actually live there, so the odds of running into a lot
of business folks on a weeknight, earlier, are pretty good. We actually found 7-10 or so to be the sweet spot for low
crowds and laid back-ed-ness.

Also on a side note, if anybody's coming into town to go to 3 Dots and needs some advice on other non-tiki places to go (I think Chicago's
other classic Tiki joints in the 'burbs are excessively well documented at this point) or wants some company for a Rum River Mystic at the bar, throw me a PM.

--Pete

Another reason to return soon: they'll be rolling out a winter addendum to the main menu (with hot drinks!) I don't have a firm sense of exactly when, but my bet is mid-December. Can't wait to see what rejiggered classics are included ...

Good to know!

Any idea when the new mug design rolls out? They've told us "soon" the last two visits... I'm assuming that'll happen once
the Urchins run out.

I know turn-around time at Tiki Farm is pretty long these days (I understand they've been totally inundated with special orders)
so it might be awhile either way, but 3 Dots has been buying SO much Tiki Farm stuff, perhaps they'll get a boost in the chain
of production.

For those keeping score at home, they have these mold-branded and exclusive mugs currently:

--Sea Urchin
--Pineapple
--Clam shell bowl (raised lettering on the reverse)

And several others with the cold-paint decal logo lettering, including a coconut and a couple different Tikis.

--Pete

Nope, but I'll keep my ears open!

Any idea when the new mug design rolls out? They've told us "soon" the last two visits... I'm assuming that'll happen once
the Urchins run out.

Looks like two new mugs on Monday.

Made by Tiki Farm. $20 each according to their Facebook post.

Happy Birthday, Trader Vic! Word is that starting this evening they'll be serving a brand new drink in his honor, the Frozen Tortuga. $10 tonight only.

The wife and I went to Chicago this past weekend and did have a chance to go to
Three Dots.
We got there at 6:00 on Sat to avoid the crowd, Not, the place was busy!
Stood at the bar like 6 feet away just kinda waiting to get a table or something
When a bartender “Tim” reached over to hand us a menu from the six feet away.
Most places I have been will not do this, heck I have been to places where the bartenders are
Right in front of you so busy entertaining each other that a paying customer is the last thing
On their minds.

We put in our names for a table but as luck would have it two seats opened up right in front of
Us at the bar with “Tim the bartender”
At the bar we talked with the folks around us (it was a youngish crowd) and the bar and
Bartender helped make this happen.
(some bars are built in a way that makes talking to others at the bar hard, and some bartenders
Don’t Know how to get these conversations going)
It is sad that newer bartenders don’t get this as getting your customers talking to one another
Keeps these people out of the bartenders hair happy, occupied and spending money.
This is how your business gets regulars.

We did eat as well and the food and drinks were very good.
Service was fast, and over all the place was great!
Cool upscale tiki décor, could use more lights but then I sell tiki lights so what did you think I would say.
The music was not what most would call tiki but we liked it, think tropical.
We did buy mugs as well, four mugs.(That sea Urchin mug is very cool!)
They did not give you that $hit I gotta get this a$$ a mug look when you asked for them.
We did drop over $200.00 at this place so it’s not cheap, but then it’s is Chicago so
Nothing is cheap.

So I say you must go to Three Dots.
It’s a great place.

-==--==--==--==-Google "Tiki bar lights" To find TIKISKIP-==--==--==--==-

¦:-·:''"":·.-:¦:-**-:¦:-·:''"":·.-:¦

On 2013-12-05 10:14, tikilongbeach wrote:
Made by Tiki Farm. $20 each according to their Facebook post.

Available as of December 9th, but neither has shown up on Ooga Mooga yet. I'm digging the Golden Bamboo mug, not a big fan of the McGee mug (but I'm more of a traditionalist).

They are all on sale now, my wife was just there. She purchased all of them and gave the gold mug to her brother. She brought back a couple of really cool swizzle sticks too.

She liked the decor and said the drinks were good. I talked to her that night so I can vouch that the drinks are also strong :)
I will be there in April so I will say what I like about it and post some pics soon.

Whoa! Jeff "Beachbum" Berry himself is coming to Three Dots and a Dash!

http://chicagoist.com/2014/02/26/three_dots_and_a_dash_hosts_potions.php

Cool!!! Hope I can make it and have the Bum sign my already battered copy.

Here's another reason why you should come to Jeff "Beachbum" Berry's book party on Sunday: yours truly will be the DJ! I've put together a solid 4-hour mix that'll help get you in that tropical island mood. Here's a taste--hope to see you there (and please introduce yourself!)

spoti.fi/1g5FBCe

So glad I stumbled on this!
I'll be in Chicago for one day only, Sunday!
Long story but it's a day full of: Robie House, Chef Shangri-La, Hale Kahiki, Sky Deck, Superdawg and Three Dots and a Dash!

Glad to hear you'll be around, Pauly, and they picked a good one for DJ-ing, Rob!

We're definitely planning to come out and hoping it won't be a mob scene.

Fortunately I think the typical crowd at Three Dots probably won't have much interest in this,
leaving plenty of room for the rest of us.

Plus Sundays there tend to be pretty low key.

Lookin' forward to it!

--Pete

Anybody here make the scene??? Hope it was well attended, I'd love to see the Bum come back sometime to guest bartend, that'd be awesome!

i made it out there sunday- got see the beach bum and company. good scene, not too crowded but full. had some great drinks off the new menu of drinks right outta the book. book is great, nice addition to the collection and good to see berry again. At one point he spoke for about 30 minutes on the book, the history of tiki drinks and vintage chicago tiki establishments. good stuff.

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2014-03-11 14:05 ]