Let’s just start with this:  they have a penguin mascot costume that anyone can wear.  Does this bar not already sound like the best place ever?

Hidden a couple doors down from City Tavern and above Dr. Bell’s, all you can see from the street is the door and a sign that reads, “NO COVER, PENGUIN FREE”.  Simply navigate the needless ropes that govern the nonexistent line, ascend the stairs, and you’ve arrived.  The walls are “industrial chic” and the bar is commandingly large for the space with corrugated steel paneling on the front and nets on the ceiling strewn with bras and starfish.  There is just enough patio to sit comfortably with a few friends and watch the madness of downtown below.  There is a pool table, plenty of flatscreen TVs, video games, and a basketball hoop above the bar.

Tim, the “Emperor” as dubbed by his business card, lives up to the name; he’s badass!  This guy knows how to make a bar fun and keep it real (yes, cliche, but it fits here) – he even played “one eyed basketball” with us … and provided the eye patch!  Just don’t ask him where he got the bar’s name.

Their bar specials are the things fun nights are made of: a shot and a big boy for $10.  We had an Irish whiskey that was pretty darn smooth followed up with a Shiner for me and then my usual poison, a vodka water.

Still to come is a full menu of what Tim promises to be great food – I can’t wait to try it!  This bar has so much potential and I’m greatly looking forward to spending more time at the penguin.

Drink strength: 4 Overall: 4.5

O.E. Penguin 
@oepengiun
1404 1/2 Main St. 
(214)744-1393

Specials: 
Monday-Saturday (until 11 p.m.) & Sunday (all day) | $3 wells, domestic bottles, and select drafts

ALWAYS AVAILABLE:  $10 waddles: a tall boy (25 oz. draft beer – all but Blue Moon) and shot (Crown and down) – pictured on right with Cody from Surf’s Up, the bar’s alcoholic of a stuffed animal