After 25 years of dormancy, the historic Belmont Tavern at 3405 W. Belmont Avenue is getting a new lease on life, thanks to veteran bartender Nick Kokonas. The IACP award-winning author and former Kumiko and Greenriver bartender fell in love with the space the moment he walked in.
"As soon as I walked in, I was like, 'Oh man, I'm opening a bar,'" Kokonas recalls. "I immediately fell in love with the aesthetic. The idea of taking something that's old and reviving it is very much up my alley."
Built in 1890, the building originally served as a butcher shop, grocery store, and saloon before becoming a beloved Polish dive bar in the 1930s. Kokonas spent over a year meticulously restoring the space, documenting his journey on Instagram and securing a community development grant from the city.
The restoration preserved the beautiful glass-brick bar, tin ceiling, and pegged wood floor while adding personal touches. Kokonas sourced vintage furniture and light fixtures from dozens of antique stores, repurposing everything from electrical line insulators as votives to his uncle's 1980s floor speakers.
Affordability is central to Kokonas's vision. All cocktails are priced at $12, and wine by the glass follows suit. "I want this to be a casual environment, but just because you're in a casual environment doesn't mean that you can't have extraordinary cocktails," he says.
The menu, titled "Everything Old Is New Again," features 26 cocktails spanning Kokonas's two decades in the industry. The Bus Tracker happy hour special—a nod to the bar's proximity to the Blue Line Belmont El stop—offers a six-ounce Old Style and a rotating shot for just $4.
A message from the founder's grandson, whose great-grandparents bought the building in 1937, provided old family photos that now inform the bar's storytelling. "Everything here has a story to it and that's what bars and drinking culture is supposed to be about," says Kokonas.
Belmont Tavern opens Saturday, February 7, at 3 p.m., operating daily until 1 a.m.