Boiler Room Bar / Pizza Place / Restaurant

Logan Square, Chicago –

Nestled next to the train tracks and a short hop from Logan’s namesake public square, the Boiler Room is a neighborhood hangout featuring New York-style pizza, a diverse microbrew selection, and Jameson’s finest on tap.

Large windows along the black-painted brick façade showcase the cooks as they work their latest doughy masterpiece, although auto enthusiasts are probably more interested in the owner’s restored ’63 Ford that’s often parked out front.

As the name suggests, the place sports an industrial décor, with low-hanging iron light fixtures, booths fashioned out of old airplane seatbelts and cargo straps, and bathrooms styled after a New York City subway car.

When the evening sets in, the spacious room fills with PBR-drinking artsy types and whiskey-sipping students, as well as famished groups who crowd around the communal tables to indulge in twenty-two-inch pizzas or mounds of sausage.

Busy most nights of the week, the venue really gets going on Friday and Saturday nights, especially in the summer, when lively crowds of tattooed locals spill out onto the airy patio with their specialty drinks and mozzarella balls in hand, as solitary drinkers catch an old movie on the screens behind the bar.

Home to big pies and a host of seasonal specials, the Boiler Room attracts a vibrant young crowd in the mood for a quick meal or a long evening chatting over cocktails and cheese.