Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, neighboring DePaul University, generally attracts a crowd of new residents or college students. It is home to a lot of bars that serve serviceable food that all feel pretty similar and cater to a younger demographic. The venues there can be crowded, and their accommodations might not always handle the crowds.
Prost is a lovely outlier. A German beer hall (that has a few choice non-German beer options), Prost is a large, spacious bar with high ceilings and long, welcoming wooden tables. Their staff is gracious and friendly – this is the kind of place where you can easily become one of the many regulars.
They’re also likely best known to locals for their insanely delicious (and giant) pretzels, served with various mustards and cheese spreads. The pretzel alone is worth a visit.
“It looks even bigger in person” – Something said by either me talking about this pretzel, or me failing to get a first date
Of course, consuming a pretzel with a roughly 18-inch diameter might cause some rumbling in one’s guts, at which point you’ll want to make your way to their bathroom.
The Bathroom Situation
Your humble writer was in a rush to take care of business while taking these pictures, so you’ll have to pardon the photo quality below.
Prost’s bathroom has four urinals and a single stall that is spacious, and mostly clean. The cleanliness of the bathroom in general falls into the realm of “serviceable, but not spotless.” They use Cintas-brand soap dispensers and urinals made by Mansfield.
The urinals are positioned in a two-to-a-wall configuration, which helps avoid the awkward “using the middle stall between two other people” conundrum. There’s only one toilet, but it’s not often in use, and has ample legroom. The two sinks are usually enough to handle the traffic – I’ve been going here for years, including incredibly busy nights, and have never had to wait in line for a number one, a number two, or the cursory sink rinse.
Prost provides bar trivia on Sundays, which gives out shots for the third place team, and is often packed. Free shots (within reason- no top shelf stuff) might lead you to think that your poopable space involves encountering…let’s call it “esophageal expulsions.” But thankfully, the bathroom is always vomit-free (or at least there are no instances of customers missing their mark, which is more than you can say for a lot of Lincoln Park bars).
Tales From Prost
I have spent a lot of time in this particular location, but you’ll have to check my Jammin’ With Jeff column to hear the full scoop of the time I almost got punched in the face there (as the other patrons thought I should have punched them in the face)
Is Prost Poopable?
It’s fairly poopable. It’s not the cleanest bathroom, but it’s not the dirtiest by a longshot. It can have huge crowds, but the bathroom is never crowded. You might feel comfortable sitting on the throne, but you’ll hear some footsteps as you sit there.