Stardust Pinbar
The least-secret speakeasy in town sits behind a faux freezer door at Ziggy’s Magic Pizza Shop. One hard yank and you’re in Stardust: glowing dance floor, pinball machines, a disco ball and a full bar where you get 20% off your tab for singing karaoke on Wednesday nights. On weekend nights the dance floor fills up with a hodge-podge of partiers — 20-somethings up through people their parents’ age — singing in English and Spanish to adrenalized dance hits. But truly, any night of the week might go big here. The bar is a chip shot from the Van Buren, guaranteeing a regular 11 p.m. influx of whatever stripe of music fan is in the neighborhood that night. Burners, goths, Disney adults, indie kids, latter-day hipsters — they all find their way here eventually, amped up on their favorite touring band, ready to keep the night poppin’.
Benjamin Leatherman