Why Kasey's Tavern matters.
Kasey's Tavern is a storied neighborhood tavern where Printers Row's industrial publishing heritage meets more than half a century of barroom continuity, an expansive beer program and the blue-collar culture once sustained by the presses surrounding South Dearborn Street.
Set along South Dearborn Street near Polk Street and just steps from Dearborn Station, the tavern occupies the southern reaches of Printers Row, where nineteenth-century printing buildings line long, narrow blocks south of the Loop and the former railroad terminal anchors the district near its transition into Dearborn Park. Tall storefront windows and dark wood preserve the physical language of an older Chicago bar inside a building created during the district's printing boom. The long bar concentrates drinking and conversation against a room shaped by its historic commercial shell, with televisions extending the present operation into Chicago sports culture. A broad selection of more than 130 beers gives the tavern another organizing feature, spanning Midwest craft brewing, established domestic labels and international producers. The result is a neighborhood tavern whose historic storefront, beer breadth and uninterrupted relationship with Printers Row preserve the social scale of the industrial district that once surrounded it.
What defines Kasey's Tavern.
Kasey's Tavern is best known for carrying an older South Dearborn drinking tradition into the present after Casmir “Kasey” Weglarz acquired Bernie's Lounge in 1974. Weglarz had previously operated Maple Lodge and Old Warsaw, then Chicago's largest nightclub, before seeking a smaller operation as he approached his sixtieth birthday. He cleaned up the tavern and developed a loyal daytime clientele drawn heavily from the surrounding printing industry, including pressmen, printers, salesmen and technicians whose work schedules shaped the bar's early hours. William White approached Weglarz about acquiring the business during the 1980s and secured controlling interest in 1986, entering precisely as Printers Row's industrial buildings were being converted into residences. Weglarz remained behind the bar during the day as White worked nights, allowing the established printing clientele and incoming residents to occupy different periods within the same room. White made incremental improvements without stripping away the tavern's older physical character, preserving continuity as the surrounding district shifted from production toward residential use. The tavern's setting deepens that connection: Printing House Row developed between 1883 and 1928 as printing and publishing firms clustered near Dearborn Station, with unusually narrow blocks admitting the natural light required for engraving and typesetting. Printing firms began leaving during the 1960s, and their factories subsequently entered commercial and residential reuse, leaving Kasey's as a surviving social institution from the working district that preceded contemporary Printers Row.
Beer now supplies the clearest continuation of Kasey's barroom character, with more than 130 selections extending across domestic standards, Midwest craft producers and imports. The rotating draft program gives smaller breweries substantial space beside established labels, and recent brewery nights have centered on Half Acre, Allagash, Art History Brewing, Hopewell, Great Lakes and Phase Three. Half Acre and Allagash shared a July 2026 takeover built around Evergreen Double West Coast and Daisy Cutter Crown IPA, and Art History followed with its Bauhaus Pilsner later that month. Chicago Cider Week has pushed the taps in another direction through producers including Right Bee Cider, ERIS Brewery & Cider House, 2 Towns Ciderhouse and 1911 Established, with barrel-aged, fruit-driven and semi-dry styles appearing together during dedicated events. Allagash White maintains a year-round draft position, linking temporary brewery programming with a permanent Belgian-style witbier presence. Bottles, cans, liquor, wine and nonalcoholic selections broaden the bar beyond draft beer, yet the continuing rotation of regional breweries keeps the tap system closely connected to contemporary Midwest brewing.
How Kasey's Tavern fits.
Kasey's Tavern works as the anchor for a Printers Row outing connecting the railroad infrastructure that accelerated the district's publishing economy, an early skyscraper demonstrating the transition between masonry and steel construction and the central library created during Chicago's late twentieth-century reinvestment in the South Loop.
Begin at Dearborn Station, the terminal whose 1885 opening supplied the transportation infrastructure around which Printers Row developed into a major printing and publishing center. The Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad terminal concentrated passenger and freight movement at the southern edge of downtown, giving nearby firms access to transportation for workers, raw inputs and finished printed goods; the surrounding district subsequently filled with specialized industrial buildings constructed between the 1880s and 1920s. Continue to Monadnock Building, whose two construction phases capture a decisive structural transition in Chicago architecture. John Wellborn Root designed the north half with load-bearing brick walls reaching six feet thick at ground level, producing one of the tallest buildings dependent primarily on masonry walls, and Holabird & Roche developed the later south portion as construction moved toward steel framing. Completed by 1893, the complex stood as the world's largest office building and divided internally into four independently operating sections named Monadnock, Kearsarge, Katahdin and Wachusett. Conclude at Harold Washington Library Center, created after Mayor Harold Washington and the City Council authorized a design competition and $144 million bond issue in 1987. An 11-member jury selected Thomas Beeby and Hammond, Beeby & Babka's proposal in June 1988, construction began that October and the building opened in October 1991. Its postmodern exterior draws Chicago architectural references into brick, granite and ornament, with enormous rooftop owls symbolizing wisdom above an interior containing 70 miles of shelving. The progression moves from the railroad terminal that supported Printers Row's industrial expansion through a skyscraper marking Chicago's transition from load-bearing masonry toward steel construction and culminates in the library whose 1991 opening helped reposition the South Loop around civic, residential and educational uses.
Where your story begins.
Foresyte Travel reveals places that feel extraordinary long before you arrive.
Enjoy editorial crafted for luxury travelers.
Foresyte may earn a commission when you book.
