NORTH CENTER — It took a trio of attorneys the better part of a year to navigate the zoning, licensing and permits required for the Victor Bar, which is aiming to debut next week.
Good thing the legal advice was free. The Victor's owners, siblings John, Karl and Graeme Fehr, are all partners in the boutique firm Fehr Law Group. (Yep, they're brothers in law.)
The Fehr brothers: Karl, Graeme and John. [DNAinfo/Patty Wetli]
But the guys started dreaming of owning a bar way before any of them passed the bar.
According to Graeme, who at 31 is the baby of the family, Mom and Pop Fehr passed down a love of hospitality, hosting the kinds of parties that made an impression not only their guests, but their sons.
"We want to take that to the next level," said the youngest Fehr.
The results at the Victor, 4011 N. Damen Ave., are a blend of comfort and attention to detail that play off both the Fehrs' Midwestern roots and European travels.
The cocktails
To develop their first cocktail menu, the Fehrs turned to mixology pros Revae Schneider and Lisa Selman, who run the cocktail consulting business, Femme du Coupe.
"We wanted to hit a number of different flavors and textures. It was a tall order," said Karl Fehr, 34, the middle brother.
The dozen drinks include an Old-Fashioned dubbed "Victor's Variations" that can be ordered with rye, mezcal, rum or brandy.
Though the Fehrs are loath to label any of the cocktails the Victor's "signature" drink — customers will make that call, they said — they do have a collective personal favorite.
As soon as they tasted Schneider and Selman's pineapple rum-based concoction, they knew they had to name it the Optimo, a nod to Optimo Hats, one of their law firm's neighbors in the Monadnock Building.
"It's a subtle way of saying, 'The owners consider it the best,'" said Karl.
Optimo Hats, a neighboring business of the Fehrs' law firm, inspired the name of a Victor cocktail. [Flickr/Andrew Pritchett]
The spirits list skews heavily toward whiskey — nearly 40 and growing — with an emphasis on familiar brands.
"I just bought three more exotic — something you can't just get at Binny's — and we went with some small batch but most are ones we know people like to drink," said Graeme.
A small wine list — just eight varietals across a wide range — and rotating draft beers exclusively from nearby Begyle Brewing round out the beverage side menu.
"We really want to be known for our cocktails," Karl said.
There's no kitchen at the Victor, so food is limited to small bites — four styles of chips, along with handmade caramels and whiskey truffles from Amy's Candy Bar, just up the road on Damen.
"This is before-dinner, after-dinner or instead of dinner — you're not going to get any sustenance here," said John Fehr, 37, the oldest sibling, but not the first to earn a law degree.
That honor goes to Karl, who was rooming with John while studying at DePaul.
"I was working on a Ph.D. in philosophy and saw the light," John said. "Some of my friends are still working on their dissertations."
The bar
Though billed as a Parisian-style cocktail bar, the Victor's decor is less Toulouse-Lautrec, more Ralph Lauren, where all the Fehrs worked during law school.
The bar is wrapped in sheets of zinc and studded with brass nail heads, a design feature repeated in the Victor's tables. Stools and a long banquette are covered in caramel-colored leather and a lone copper pipe has been left exposed behind the bar because the Victor's plumbing is beautiful and no one can see it, Karl said.
European influences come into play with the size of the 700-square-foot, 30-seat Victor — reminiscent of the small bars Graeme frequented during summers spent in Spain — and its layout.
The Victor's banquette, tables and bar stools all face in the same direction, with just a few exceptions.
"That is Parisian, where the seating is side by side," said Karl.
A heavy drape covers the Victor's sole window and will be pulled shut when darkness falls.
"When people go to a bar, they're not just buying a cocktail," said John. "We want to get that world [outside] out of people's heads."
The Victor Bar, 4011 N. Damen Ave. [DNAinfo/Patty Wetli]
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