Full Tilt
Pilsen's New Funhouse

You don't get down to Pilsen as much as you'd like, save for the occasional taco craving. Maybe you've just been waiting for something spectacularly different to lure you in.

Good news: we've found it. Introducing Simone's, opening Thursday.

From the guys behind Danny's and Northside, Simone's is the spacious dive bar of your hipster dreams. Filled with a multitude of salvaged materials—most noticeably the pinball machine scraps at every turn—it's the sort of place Tommy might've gone to blow off some steam after a hard night of pinball wizardry.

While the booths are definitely worth exploring, some of them woven from old seatbelts (insert your own "buckle up" joke here), you'll want to start at the main bar. Cut from a bowling alley lane from Racine, Wisconsin, it's still smooth enough to send a craft brew or two (or even a PBR tallboy) sliding down.

There's food (Hot Wing Chicken Sandwich) and cleverly perched DJ booths too. And coming soon in "The Lab," a back room full of repurposed desks and test tubes from Westinghouse High, there'll be art exhibits and lectures on everything from marine biology to bike repair.

Consider it a bonus stage.