Fathom Bars & Clubs in Chicago – GayOut Guide
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Fathom

Google (54) 4.5
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90
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GayOut Score
G4.5
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Address
1622 W Belmont Ave, Chicago, IL 60657

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About this place Fathom

Fathom brings a nautical-themed queer cocktail bar to Lakeview at 1622 West Belmont, in the former Flagship Tavern space. It opened in April 2026 from Whitney LaMora and Zoe Schor, the team behind Dorothy, and pairs inventive cocktails with a restored photo booth salvaged from the beloved Berlin nightclub. A garage-door front opens onto the street in warm weather, and the room pulls a mixed queer crowd after something more low-key than the Halsted dance floors.

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Features

Gay Mixed LGBTQ+ Chill / Relaxed Upscale Local favorite Cocktail bar Outdoor terrace Card payments accepted Walk-ins welcome Evening venue Late night (after midnight) Year-round

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Community Reviews

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Google Reviews

Verified by Google
4.5
★★★★★
54 reviews

Based on 54 Google reviews.

D. H.
D. H. Aug 2026
★★★★★

Good mocktails for sober and sober curious folks

Ana Rivera
Ana Rivera Aug 2026
★★★★★

Beautiful location. Lovely folks! Ordered an espresso martini, not the worst but also not good.

n rr
n rr Aug 2026
★★★★★

positives: - nice big space with a lot of room and nooks - generally nice design and comfortable seats/booths - good lighting, even with the open garage-door style front - area for darts - always great to see a queer bar pop up outside of the usual neighbourhoods negatives: - possibly the worst martini i've ever had: ordered the dirty martini (with gin, because it came with vodka) -- it was mostly olive brine with maybe a hint of gin. for an $18 cocktail, this is pretty not great. not only is this basically an unbalanced mixed drink, there's a reason why vermouth is usually in a martini. - service: a little too stand-offish and impersonal. and then you order at the bar (which is fine), but for an largely empty bar, it would have been nice to have our drinks brought to our table. so ultimately, don't really know where the 20% service fee went. - limited menu: 9 cocktails is okay, but about half of these are just fairly standard classics, so it would have been nice to have a wider selection unique to this spot. mostly i was disappointed in both drinks we ordered (the other was the daiquiri, as a Cuban, one of my fav. cocktails, so i have pretty high standards for this). ultimately, i'd rather make the trip up to Victor Bar in North Center, or hit up nicer spots with greater service and definitley better drinks (Meadowlark, Quality Time, etc.) i saw someone review this as a "dive bar" -- and this is definitely not something i would describe as a typical Chicago dive bar at all, for better or worse. just pointing that out.

Claire Sellers
Claire Sellers Aug 2026
★★★★★

Great queer friendly spot! So many cool pop up events, my girlfriend and I had a lot of fun at the drag race mexico watch party. Bosston the host was great!

Fletcher York
Fletcher York Jul 2026
★★★★★

Ultimately love this place and always have a great time with friends at Monday night trivia! The happy hour prices are pretty great especially the frozen Irish coffee drink! My only minor issues that I hope maybe can be helpful feedback for layout and training might be that the booths are not at all plus size accessible. Maybe if you’re medium size but it’s so bad my friends and I jokingly refer to them as Gigi/Bella Hadid booths. There is table and bar seating so it’s not a total bust but if you are with a larger group it sucks not being able to be altogether since the tables only seat about 4. I would really implore the folks behind this and Dorthys that if you are planning a new bar maybe think twice on if your seating is actually plus size friendly Chicago is not a thin city ❤️ The other thing is a minor kvetch but being an LGBTQ+ bar you're going to have trans patrons whose chosen name might not match whats on their cards so when someone is saying their last name to identify the tab maybe don’t yell out the first name for all to hear. I get thats industry standard so not the biggest deal but maybe you can inquire about tab items if theres multiple people of the last name or ask what first name they want the tab under to save some embarrassment and deadnaming. Still overall love this bar and will keep squeezing in for Sofonda Booze’s wonderful trivia night!

Chris Eyo
Chris Eyo Jul 2026
★★★★★

Went for a Vietnamese popup and enjoyed my time! Cannot wait to come back to try to the weekend happy hour.

Jake
Jake Jul 2026
★★★★★

Was excited to try this place but experienced very poor service from both bartenders. This alone makes me want to see out another bar to try in the area.

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Last updated on 5 October 2026

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