Justin B.
Yelp
Came in for drinks last night. I'll share my only beef first--our seating location happened to be below a vent so cold one of us kept their jackets ON. (Management eventually turned off what felt like A/C for about an hour of our 90-minute visit.)
The drinks? Fantastic. I personally tried the mezcal drink (I believe called Almost Rich, Almost Famous) and a sidecar, both of which were mixed well, not too sweet, and boozy. As someone who drinks at a city bar a couple times a week, I am shocked nowadays when I both pay for alcohol and get alcohol in my cocktails.
No, I'm not kidding. I have raised this with management at a lot of establishments around Chicago. Prices keep rising, but it feels like I have my normal two- or three-drink run and leave without even a buzz. This is why I gravitate more and more towards spots like Queen Mary; I'll give you $17 for a drink, BUT PUT SOME FREAKIN' BOOZE IN IT! (Why are N/A cocktails priced the same way? I'll attack this one in another review.)
I like the space at Bisous, but the street presence is quite poor. In fact, both my group and another group walked past Bisous before turning around and going in, which was really funny because I had Google Maps open when I was walking towards the front door. It just looks plain from the outside, and even though there was plenty of space inside, the way the bouncer made us wait or look for our party from the outside of the bar to find them (???) wasn't exactly the warm and fuzzy people will look for.
Some of this will be smoothed out over time, since Bisous just opened. I'm excited to start or finish nights here when it warms up a bit.