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A stalwart of Chicago’s bar scene is striking out on her own. Bar Bambi’s name might conjure doe-eyed naivete, but owner Katie Renshaw has years of experience behind some of Chicago’s most admired bars. And the space at 1703 W. Chicago Ave. is anything but the pastoral of its namesake: It’s unabashedly urban and stylish, befitting its location in the increasingly hot restaurant scene along Chicago Avenue in West Town.
“I think this is just the right amount off the beaten path to be the next big strip of bars and restaurants, and there’s so many great independently owned spots around here,” says Renshaw. Independent and slightly unexpected but still heavy-hitting: The neighborhood is a good match to Renshaw’s ambitions for Bar Bambi.
There’s a carbonated section of the drink menu, featuring a favorite technique of Renshaw’s in which a cocktail is made in a batch, chilled, and then carbonated, making the entire thing bubbly instead of just gassing it with soda. That’s where you’ll find the Repeat Offender, with gin, vanilla-y tonka bean, Campari, apricot, and jasmine – a “super bubbly, super bright, aperitif-style cocktail,” Renshaw says.
A classic section features a “lychee martini meets a Vesper,” that’s served ice-cold from the freezer and also clarified. Several cocktails utilize specialty fruit vinegars made in limited quantities. And a wine list spotlights women winemakers.
“I do things with an approachable, classics-adjacent context,” Renshaw says. “I use a lot of modern techniques without making it too intimidating, and I think that’s the one niche that Chicago didn’t quite have.”
She would know. Renshaw has worked at a number of top bars, from The Aviary and GreenRiver –two places known for advanced techniques – to Moneygun and Billy Sunday, which still offer careful drinks but in a relaxed setting. Most recently, Renshaw was lead bartender at the British steakhouse import Hawksmoor, which is famous for an incredibly cold martini – another aspect of her experience that informs Bar Bambi.
“I came up in the Chicago industry and I remember the early glory days of craft cocktails in Chicago,” Renshaw says. “This was the city where it was all happening, and it feels like we’re having a renaissance right now.”
Since she has always “dreamed” of opening her own spot and the timing felt right, she decided to try to join that resurgence with Bar Bambi.
To accompany her cocktails with food, she brought on Nicklus Byrns from Chicago’s Elske and previously New York’s acclaimed Blue Hill at Stone Barns. The menu features cheffed-up bar snacks – “He calls it ‘sexy girl dinner,’” Renshaw says – like fried pickles, deviled eggs, Vietnamese-ish chicken wings with Alabama-style sauce, a salad with giardiniera, and chicken liver mousse with red currant jam, the currants a nod to the Bambi movie. (The bar’s name comes from a nickname for Renshaw, who is long-limbed, being slightly unsteady on her feet after going to bars in younger years.)
“Food is the original reason I fell in love with the industry,” says Renshaw, so the snacks were an important component. She especially delights in Byrns’ take on a fast food fish sandwich. “I think it’s definitely going to be the best fish sandwich in Chicago.”
The space, a realization of Renshaw’s vision by the mega architecture firm Gensler, includes a glass block bar and a tangled neon light installation that looks like the after-image of a headlight in a slow exposure photo. A literally cheeky mural in the bathroom is already drawing social media attention.
“My fever dream somehow ended up beautiful, and people are really responding to it,” Renshaw says.
Bar Bambi opened February 28 and is open starting at 5pm Thursday through Monday.
