Places we love: Revolution

Well, I wish I wrote this one sooner. With the news that the Revolution Brewing taproom on Milwaukee Avenue is closing I wanted to take a second to say how much we love them at the shop. 

Revolution has been around for a while. They’ve been in that Milwaukee Avenue location since 2010 -- not quite as long as the shop has been in the neighborhood, but not a bad run for any business. 

Do you remember what the beer market was like 16 years ago? It wasn’t great! Revolution was one of the first local craft brewers that really helped revitalize beer as well as the neighborhood. 2010 was a bad time economically, too, and Revolution really helped anchor the area. 

It sucks that they are closing the taproom. They’ve always had a great lunch menu and even better beer and having them nearby has been great. Take it from a barber: having good beer so close to the shop is a blessing and a curse. It’s one less good watering hole that’s basically next door to the shop. All of us here will miss it. 

On the bright side, their Kedzie Avenue taproom will remain open. In the meantime, go visit the Milwaukee Avenue location after your next haircut. They close for good on December 14. 

Book your holiday haircut

The title pretty much says it all. If you want to look your best for the holidays — Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, or any holiday you celebrate — now is the best time to book. 

Not tomorrow. Not next week. Now. Why now? Isn’t it too early to worry about mid-November?

Well, as you can imagine, when everyone wants to look good for the holidays at the same exact time, the shop can get busy. Very busy. So busy, in fact, that we cannot guarantee you a haircut if you do not book it this far in advance. 

Now, if you procrastinate on your Christmas shopping I can’t help you. But booking a haircut is infinitely easier than shopping for your office white elephant gift exchange. As of today, October 31, there is plenty of availability remaining for everyone who wants a haircut for the holiday season. But as we approach Thanksgiving, and then Christmas, the shop will not have the capacity to take those last minute shoppers, if you know what I mean. 

So while you’re here, go ahead and book your next haircut. We’ll see you soon.

Guest barber alert

We don’t host a lot of guest barbers at the shop, but pretty soon we will have a very special one. 

For one day only — October 10 — guest barber Natalie Roybal will be in the shop for haircuts and beard trims. 

Natalie is a friend of the shop. She’s been in business for 16 years and is based out of Denver, Colorado. She helped open Dark Rose Club, one of the best and well known barber shops in Denver. This is a great opportunity to get a haircut by one of the best barbers I know.

Natalie will be here for only one day. Book your cuts now!

Places we love: the bob inn

Here is a new series we’re going to run at the shop: the barbers will recommend places for our clientele. I cannot tell you how many times I have been asked by a customer “what’s a good place to grab lunch?” or “where can I get a drink around here?”

So, starting here, I am going to recommend places that we all love at the shop and believe that you will love, too. 

Why can you trust us? Well, we see a lot of different people in the shop. We talk to them and we know where they prefer to eat, drink, and have a good time. We know our way around town, too, and we can recommend a spot for any occasion. 

Here is the first recommendation: the Bob Inn. 

We love the Bob Inn for a lot of reasons, but none more than this: it is about two feet from the shop. Never underestimate a bar that is so close to a barbershop. 

The Bob Inn opened in 1945 and has been a neighborhood fixture ever since. Now, don’t get me wrong, the Bob Inn is not a special bar. It is not even a particularly great bar. 

But it is the kind of bar that can only really exist in Logan Square at the corner of Rockwell and Fullerton. What I mean is that it is a neighborhood spot: everyone is friendly, and even if you don’t know names, you know faces. It is a cozy spot that is very lived in, and very authentic. If you’ve been searching for a quintessential Chicago dive bar, you’ve found your spot.

The Bob Inn is a welcoming watering hole where you can easily kill an afternoon or an evening (or even a whole day). And rarely for North Side bars, the Bob Inn is firmly a White Sox bar. 

So the next time you are in the shop for a cut, walk a few doors down and grab a cold one at the Bob Inn. Tell them Joe sent you — they’ll know who you mean. 

how to maintain your hair cut

One of the questions we get the most at the shop is how often guys should come in to maintain their cuts, and we always have the same recommendation: six weeks. Anything longer than six weeks and the cut that you left happy with last time will look like a mop, and anything shorter just isn’t worth it. Like a medium rare steak, six weeks between cuts is the sweet spot to stay on top of your game.

Hair grows faster than you think, no matter how much or how little of it you have. In barber school (and the internet), they emphasize that hair can grow as much as 1 / 8 of an inch per week, or half an inch per month. So in six weeks your hair is growing back almost one full inch — which is more noticeable than you think, too. And if you wait eight weeks to come back for a cut, almost two months, your hair will grow back at least a full inch or more. 

But it’s not just the hair on top of your head growing back. It’s your sideburns, neck line, taper, and part. Everything needs to be maintained regularly to look your best. 

We understand that Covid made a lot of guys lose the motivation to get regular cuts. After all, if you’re working at home most of the time why bother to see us more than you need to?

But at Joe’s Barbershop Chicago, our philosophy is one everyone can relate to: “look good, feel good.” And it’s true, isn’t it? Who doesn’t feel better walking out with a fresh, professional cut? 

Making a habit of maintaining your cut will help you look cleaner — and feel better in the process, too. 

In the next post, we’ll talk about how to communicate with your barber to make sure you get the cut you want — and avoid something you don’t. 

In the meantime, book your next haircut at Joe’s here.