I must be getting older or more mature because it used to be, when I splurged at a bar, I’d make the bartender reach a little higher for the whiskey bottle. Lately that’s been replaced with ordering expensive speakeasy-era cocktails that focus on craft.
That’s the deal at Weather Up, which opened in late February in Prospect Heights. Old-timey goodness with new-timey prices! But so refreshing. You can get an aviator for $15, the most expensive drink on the menu (most hit $11), which includes a small-print warning on the menu alluding to its mind-bending potency. I started with a Presbyterian, a refreshing rye and ginger cocktail in a skinny Collins glass that included a candied ginger garnish, a single, long cuboid ice cube and a long metal straw (with a spoon at the tip to aid stirring) that I bit before realizing its composition. If I wanted to buy it, there were unbitten models available for sale for $5, said the bartender, who apparently gets many such requests.
Depending on the drink, the ice is delivered in different forms: a popular form is hand-chiseled and I don’t think I’ve ever before seen a dandy bartender hack away at a chunk of ice with a bar-spoon as James the bartender did tonight. Some dude sitting nearby alleged he was getting hit by the chips.
Like its ilk (Pegu Club or Little Branch leap to mind), Weather Up is quiet and cozy, and but even smaller and more warm: boxed lights glow from the ceiling, and white, rectangular ceramic tiles arc from the walls across the ceiling, which reminded me not so much of New York City subway stations, but those of the Paris Metro.