20+ years of being anything but empty.
In 1992 the Empty Bottle started out as a cat-ridden hole-in-the-wall bar in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village .
You could get any one of nine beers for a buck-fifty or less, play pool for 50 cents, and find everything from Monster Magnet to Bill Monroe on the jukebox.
On Halloween of 1993, we moved two blocks up the street and threw open the doors to our new, sound-equipped, slightly larger hole with three nights of great shows, culminating with a SCRAWL performance that could have been a scene out of “Carrie.”
We’ve done a bunch of shows since then; in fact, we’ve been anything but empty these last 20 or so years, thanks to the same low prices, lack of attitude, and dedicated regulars that made the original bar such a success.
Empty Bottle Presents, or EBP for short, is the production and curatorial arm of Empty Bottle that handles any of our events that take place outside of the four walls of the venue. Examples of EBP happenings range from street festivals to pop-up concerts to partnerships with internationally recognized organizations.
Press
The Empty Bottle has an important cat update
-Chicago Reader
Jack White Rocks The Empty Bottle in Chicago -Spin
The Best Dog-Friendly Restaurants and Bars in Chicago
-Eater Chicago
The Empty Bottle Makes Room at the Top -Chicago Reader
Empty Bottle History with Bruce Finkelman
-Time Out Chicago
An Oral History of the Empty Bottle -Chicago Reader
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