Where to drink near (but not too near) the Chicago Pride Parade

Of all the neighborhood bars trying to make rambling Ashland Avenue feel more homey, this gem is among the homiest. Art Deco touches abound and the mood is consistently upbeat, chatty and sociable. The twenty/thirtysomething regulars live on the cusp—they’re not quite Lakeview and not quite Ravenswood, which suits us just fine.

With a claim to being the oldest bar in Wrigleyville, this dive is now under new ownership, but the dartboards, pool table, jukebox and regulars are still a blast from decades past.

This huge beer garden turns into a laid-back college reunion on weekend nights in summer, with baseball-capped dudes and spaghetti-strapped chicks flanking the outdoor bar. In colder months, the attention turns to the more sophisticated picks on the beer list and the slabs of ribs that go a long way toward warming the belly.

The front bar at Schubas is open starting at 9am on parade day, and is a comfortable hang year-round whether or not you're seeing a show in the music room. Just don't show up expecting to order brunch at the Harmony Grill—the venue's restaurant was recently demolished to make way for a new taproom.

The shiny awning and glittery old-Hollywood sign outside may draw us into this Lakeview bar, but the photo booth keeps us staying much later than planned. The ’50s diner ambiance is swanky, the food is decent and the bar boasts a friendly crowd—so friendly that you may get back your photo strip and spot an unknown face.

You might expect a place that has a 70 percent vegetarian menu and was completely nonsmoking before it had to be to serve boring dishes made with soy milk and flaxseeds. But this coffee shop/bar/restaurant/performance space will surprise you. During brunch, the winners keep coming: The huevos rancheros are gooey, cheesy and substitute black-bean cakes for tortillas. The dinner hour brings Jeff Buckley tributes and enough surprisingly good cocktails to get through them.

The best Wrigleyville bar for the meathead-avoider, Gman has a solid jukebox and plenty of places to sit down and enjoy a beer. In the back, you might catch an impromptu set from a local musician or an artist warming up for their set at Metro (which is directly next door).

One of the city’s best spots for rock & roll doesn’t even have a stage. Instead, this Lincoln Park favorite has one of the best jukeboxes in town for the main room (so you can play DJ Fridays and Saturdays) and hires DJs for Sunday through Thursday who know their Buzzcocks from their Bullocks. Add an insane whiskey selection, more than 300 beers (Belgian, microbrews, seasonals) and frequent free movie nights, and you have a bar to call home.

The twentysomethings in the back room playing board games are missing out. The real action is at the bar, where silver-haired ladies flirt with ex-frat boys and the occasional indie-rock couple. It’s tough to find a place in Wrigleyville where worlds collide and all are welcome for a mildly drunken kumbaya vibe, but that’s exactly what this is.

Let other bars emulate the experience of drinking in Belgium; Northdown has rolled into town to evoke the Midwest. It may not seem this way from the onset—the place doesn’t look particularly Midwestern (it’s generically, pleasantly cozy), and the menu, with its housemade pickles and Growing Power vegetables, suggests not Midwesterness but trendiness. But the heartland is found in the details: the Wisconsin beef in the burger. The Midwestern cheeses that come with the bread. The fact that it’s perfectly normal for you to sit here, drink from the always-evolving craft beer list and eat nothing more than some mashed potatoes with gravy.

Escape to the great outdoors Wisconsin-style with your Leinenkugel, Point or Sprecher and shoot the breeze under the watchful eye of the giant moose that stands sentry. Friends meet at picnic tables, tunes float out from the jukebox (Phish and fowl with "Free Bird" represented) and the occasional neighborhood Labrador mingles with the regulars.

What do you get when you put a sign on your door stating that nobody under the age of 23 can enter? A lot of college kids pissed off that they can’t hang out on the mod furniture under the faux stars, listening to the sing along–friendly soundtrack of Prince and Lenny Kravitz.

The original Replay on Halsted will be as overcrowded as any other joint on the parade route on Sunday, but the arcade bar’s Sheffield outpost (formerly the original Headquarters) is likely to offer a little more room to maneuver while you’re busting heads on Mortal Kombat.