CHICAGO — What's Chicago's booziest street?
A recent DNAinfo story about how a duo walked all of Western Avenue and drank at all 64 bars along the city's longest street had us thinking which street had the most bars.
We looked at three types of business licenses active as of Jan. 11 in Chicago to find out our answer. Here's the map:
The "Tavern" licenses are issued to businesses whose main focus is selling drinks.
"Late hour" spots are the only places that can serve alcohol until 4 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
"Consumption on premise" licenses allow businesses of all types to sell drinks. This license is used by varying types of businesses, from Wicker Park's popular taqueria Big Star to Mariano's grocery stores to Starbucks locations across the city that sell wine alongside capuccinos.
Far and away the street with the most places to grab a drink in Chicago is Clark Street. The 12-mile-long street that stretches from Rogers Park to Chinatown has 203 places that serve alcohol, about 17 per mile.
Or to put it another way, you can go drinking every night for nearly seven months along Clark Street and never stop in the same place twice.
North Milwaukee Avenue, which goes from the Northwest Side to West Town, comes in second place with 136 places to grab a drink.
Lincoln Avenue comes in at third with 128. City-spanning Halsted has one less at 127 — with most concentrated in Boystown and Lincoln Park. Rounding out the top five is Michigan Avenue, with most of its 123 places to drink concentrated around Downtown.
Based on our measurement, Western comes in at sixth with 96, more than the impressive list of 64 bars Steve Mosqueda and Sean Benjamin stopped in on their odyssey.
We'd be really impressed if they took on Clark Street's 203 spots next.
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