The Pub at Ida Noyes Hall

The story

Tucked into the basement of Ida Noyes Hall—a 1916 Tudor Gothic student center—The Pub has operated as an underground, semi-private watering hole since 1974. You won't find a street sign, a neon beer light, or an exterior door. To get in, you have to enter the academic hall, navigate down the basement stairs, and find the heavy door guarded by an attendant. Since the early 1980s, the space has been run by the Morsbach family, the same team behind Hyde Park dining staple Medici on 57th Street.

The room feels preserved in a amber-hued time warp, outfitted with heavy Wisconsin Oak booths and black-and-white archival prints lining the walls. You'll drink underneath historical photos of John D. Rockefeller, founding UChicago president William Rainey Harper, and a panoramic snapshot of a 1927 football game between Michigan and Chicago. Behind the bar, however, it is a serious beer destination, pouring from 32 taps and stocking over 100 bottled and canned brews, with a rotating selection of roughly 200 distinct craft offerings passing through each year based on customer requests.

Because the venue operates as a private club, you can't simply wander in off 59th Street for a drink. The door policy is unyielding: entry requires someone in your group to hold a University of Chicago ID (student, faculty, staff, or alumni) to buy a $12 annual membership, while non-affiliated guests must pay a $5 guest fee to enter as their +1. You didn't hear it from us, but befriending a graduate student in the lobby is usually the only key an outsider has to reaching the tap list.