May 16, 2017

Meet Teresa Giannini of Draft Bar Chicago in Northwest side

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Teresa Giannini.

Teresa, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
This is the 2nd bar that my fiancé and I have opened. We own LiveWire Lounge in the Avondale neighborhood and have owned it for about 10 years. 2 1/2 years ago the location where Draft Bar is located became available for sale and we jumped on it. We were ready to open our 2nd place, but wanted something in our neighborhood. We both have lived on the Northwest side our whole lives (44 and 50 years). We know so many people and now have had the pleasure of becoming friends with the new generation- all of our friends’ children who are now of legal drinking age. It’s been a great 2+ years reuniting with so many people that we grew up with, went to school with, and have met along the way. We renovated every inch of Draft Bar. It’s a beautiful space with a downtown feel. The staff is great. We get excellent reviews constantly about our bartenders, the service, the atmosphere and the great music we provide every weekend. It has been a great ride so far and we plan on many more successful years and memories to be made!

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
We have been very blessed. We have not had any problems. There is always the occasional employee who calls in sick or a disagreement between guests that we immediately diffuse, but not many at all. All in all, it has been very smooth because of the exceptional staff that has become like family to us!

Please tell us about Draft Bar Chicago.
We are a neighborhood meeting place. It’s a bar that people come to socialize, watch a sporting event, come listen to live music or a dj. There is always something going on at Draft. We have Bingo on Sunday nights and Trivia on Monday nights. We do Paint Nites, throw fundraisers, had pub crawls. You name it we have done it.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Started a lot sooner!

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