In this age of Yelp, it's hard not to sympathize with The Fixin' To (8218 N Lombard St., 477-4995, thefixinto.com), whose vintage-trailer logo and menu full of Ritz crackers and Ro-Tel seem to have confused neighborhood residents. "What exactly is this place trying to be, anyway?" reads a representative missive. Ironically, the Fixin' To's very success lies in its propensity to defy categorization. It's the kind of bar where a combination of shuffleboard, middle-aged men watching hockey, a sandwich called "Hail Seitan," and a framed photo of Bill Clinton wearing a Razorback "hog hat" somehow makes perfect sense. On a recent night, as if to drive home the point, an older man sitting at the bar unexpectedly produced a container of bubbles and began blowing them in the direction of a customer closing out her tab. "I had a vibe you were OK with bubbles," he said. He was right.
WWeek 2015