This June, Chicago will be blessed with a new gastro pub-arcade hybrid that has reincarnated your childhood arcade experience but with good food, a DJ booth and, most importantly, some very adult drinks. FTW (For The Win) Chicago is exactly the place you want to be on a Friday night when a frat party feels way too freshman year but going out to a club is not within your college student budget.
Hidden inside AMC Movie Theater, FTW contains 4 private rooms, a 6-hole mini golf course, a full arcade with jumbo sized games to make you feel like you’re a kid again and a full bar to make you feel like a sophisticated adult. Starting at 8pm, the DJ gets on the turntables and the party keeps on going until 2am, or until you run out of game tokens (note: must be 21 to enter after 8 pm!).
Photo by Kirby Barth
The mini golf course is designed to be a mini walking tour of Chicago. Each hole represents different parts of Chicago. Each hole has an interactive element to it that makes the players feel like they’re giants walking through the streets of Chicago. The arcade’s creator added a scavenger hunt to this already visually pleasing mini-golf course: 17 Easter eggs are hidden throughout the course. Can you find them all? (I couldn’t even find one…)
Photo by Kirby Barth
You can find almost any arcade game that you played as a kid and even two $200,000 demolition games that are two of only ten in existence. A full prize room offers traditional prizes like slinkies and giant pixie sticks as well as practical prizes like fancy water bottles and lava lamps (lava lamps are much more practical than you think).
Photo by Kirby Barth
But okay enough about the entertainment – let’s move over to the bar side of this arcade. FTW offers over 28 beers on tap as well as wine and delicious cocktails. We tasted a peach gin fizz, a vodka and merlot cocktail served with raspberries and blackberries, and (my personal favorite) “The Deep Lady”: Deep Eddy Vodka, Lillet Rose, St. Germain and fresh lemon juice.
FTW takes bar food to the next level, serving up creations like meatball loaf Parmesan, Portobello mushroom “fries” and tasty desserts like blueberry and ricotta pudding cake.
Photo by Kirby Barth
Needless to say, FTW Chicago is definitely a place we’ll be coming back to visit and a place you need to hit up too.
Photo by Kirby Barth