Next Wave Awards Food & Beverage Program of the Year: Gus’ Sip & Dip

Stepping into Gus’ Sip & Dip from the bustle of Hubbard Street in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, one could be forgiven for thinking the place has been here for years. Maybe it’s the hug of the wraparound, Brunswick-style wood bar and white oak-paneled walls, or the soft clink of shakers by bartenders in crisp white jackets while trays of pert burgers and $12 — yes, $12 — Martinis circulate as if on an infinite loop. Or maybe this transient neighborhood, whose overarching bar identity historically leaned more clubby than come-as-you-are, just really needed a joint like this.

“The original intent was to create a cocktail bar that was kind of missing in this neighborhood, which felt like a mixture very rooted in tradition and quality, but also the idea of a neighborhood spot,” says Gus’ bar manager Scott Kitsmiller, who’s also the lead bartender at nearby tiki mainstay Three Dots and a Dash.

Gus’ opened in November 2024, with the formidable weight of juggernaut restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You behind it. The vibe is classed-up but approachable: Work-wearied bottoms sink into buttery leather booths for Peyrat Cognac and 7-Up Brandy Old Fashioneds, and the humble dipped sandwich teeters on ethereal, via feathery smoked ham ribbons heaped on crackly-edged pan de cristal from Spain alongside tangy mustard jus.

Credit: Jeff Marini

Beverage director Kevin Beary, who also helms the beverage programs at Three Dots and a Dash and rum-focused sibling The Bamboo Room, meticulously oversaw each design detail with timeless appeal and comfortability in mind for staff and drinkers alike. This meant no cumbersome swinging door to the bar. It meant splitting hairs over the correct footrail height, and scouring eBay and vintage shops for a pink sink, toilet, and decorative rotary phone to complete the pink “granny bathroom” that’s become a selfie magnet. Don’t get Beary started on the fussy, custom padded leather elbow rest edging the bar — a nod to a disappearing feature of Chicago’s venerable third places.

“There’s something about making a place,” he says, citing legendary influences like McSorley’s Old Ale House in New York, the American Bar at The Savoy Hotel in London, and the stalwart packaged goods joint Rossi’s around the corner. “I remember my dad taking me to classic bars in Philly when I was first going to bars. People had a sense of pride in what they did. That mentality and the opportunities to work in places like that are fewer and further between.”

Credit: Jeff Marini

RPM Restaurants chef Bob Broskey helms the menu of grown-up drinking food, like ice-cold shrimp cocktail with head-clearing cocktail sauce, crunchy artichoke fritters with herby béarnaise, and lemon sole fish and chips with fried pickles. The kitchen stays open until midnight or 1 a.m. all week, one of few spots in the area serving “real food on real plates with real silverware” for hospitality workers needing some post-shift TLC. After all, it’s what Beary and Kitsmiller would want.

In a city in which middling $18 cocktails became the norm, at a time when everyone under 30 drinks more RTD seltzers than craft cocktails, the pair felt a responsibility to reintroduce classic cocktails done right — and price them accessibly enough to attract a wide swath of drinkers. The solution? Trim the backbar down to one high-quality, generalist spirit from each category, buy at the highest bulk level, and pass those savings onto the customer.

While tasting through every major spirit brand, Beary and Kitsmiller whittled down a few hundred highlight-reel cocktails to 30. The duo, who’ve worked together for almost a decade, had more than a few spirited arguments, er “discussions,” Kitsmiller demures — hence the two-gins compromise: Tanqueray No. Ten for Martinis and Tanqueray London Dry gin for Clover Clubs with fresh raspberry syrup and absinthe- and lime cordial-tinged Gimlets.

“We’re taking the ethos of the classics and really amplifying the well-known flavors,” which helps bridge the gap to younger generations of drinkers, Kitsmiller says.

Credit: Jeff Marini

Consider the Dirty Martini, in which Spanish Gordal olives are added to a saline solution with distilled white vinegar, malic and citric acid, and MSG, blended into a slurry, then clarified into a “crystal clear, intensely flavorful brine” that’s stirred with dry vermouth and vodka, and frozen till bone cold — made more so by a few floating ice chips from the Kakigori shaved ice maker.

Indeed, despite vibing like an old-school establishment, Gus’ isn’t just haunted by old timers and middle-aged drinkers — as evidenced by the top-three sellers: the Dirty Martini, Margarita, and Cosmopolitan. Just shy of a year in, not only does vodka “reign supreme” here — in brown-and-stirred-loving Chicago, no less — but Gus’ is one of the hottest barstools in town with all the makings of a classic like the 100-year-old joints these two bartending vets love to visit and hope to emulate.

“It’s, like, the impossible goal,” Beary says. “Think how good those places have to be to stay around that long. It’s much more impressive than a cocktail bar that’s cool for two years that everybody’s been to.”

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