Gameday

Cork and Kerry at the Park

Want to see what a typical Chicago neighborhood bar looks like? You can do it here. Cork and Kerry has been here since 1988, which predates the current ballpark, and is a neighborhood staple. It’s just .3 miles from the gates to the ballpark, but half of that distance is the stadium parking lot. Outside is their street-side patio, and if the weather is nice, this is a great place to hang out and have a few drinks or some food. We’ve told you that the neighborhood around the ballpark isn’t great, but don’t worry about that here – it’s just fine.

Turtles Bar & Grill

If Cork and Kerry is a typical neighborhood bar, then next door Turtles is a typical neighborhood dive bar. And we mean that in the best possible way. It’s tiny, it’s intimate, and absolutely a local crowd. There’s some tables outside when the weather is nice, and it’s a perfectly fine place to grab a drink or some food.

Stix n Brix Pizza

Just across the street from Turtles is Stix n Brix, a neighborhood pizza shop. If you’re looking to eat before going into the ballpark, you are going to save a ton of money here. Large pizzas won’t run more than $25, and that is cheap compared to what you’ll pay inside the stadium. We don’t think the pizza is anything to write home about, but we’re recommending it as a value play, not a food recommendation. There aren’t a ton of tables, but it doesn’t usually get too crowded on game days, so if you head there early, you should be fine. The wood-fired pizzas only take a few minutes to bake, so you can even do this on a fairly tight timeline, since the stadium gates are just a 5-10 minute walk away.

ChiSox Bar & Grill

The ChiSox Bar and Grille is part of Guaranteed Rate Field, owned by the White Sox. But we have to say – this is a really good option for a pregame meal. The restaurant itself is huge (as long as they’ve opened the upstairs part, which depends on the game and crowd), so you can usually find a seat, especially if you show up early. And they also have a big outdoor patio. Sure, it lacks the charm of the neighborhood bars across the street, but if you’re looking strictly for convenience, you can’t beat it. And the prices on the food menu are incredibly reasonable. The drinks? Well… they’re a bit more expensive ($11-$14), so there’s no discounts there.

It opens two hours before first pitch, so you can hunker down here, eat, drink, and you’re just a five minute walk to your seat.

Leinenkugel’s Craft Lodge

Located in the outfield of the ballpark, underneath the Miller Lite Landing, is the Leinenkugel Craft Lodge. It’s a huge bar with plenty of tables, and an impressive selection of more than 75 different beers, seltzers, ciders, etc. You can’t see the game from the bar area, but the Sox put out new (general admission) Adirondack chairs behind the visitors bullpen that you can “sort of” see the game from (for an inning or two — it’s not someplace we’d watch the whole game from). But you can look directly out to the visitors’ bullpen, which is pretty cool.

One thing to know: getting to the Lodge is odd. From the concourse, you have to walk down the exterior ramps to get there, and that takes way more time than you would expect. You can walk out of the front of the bar and up the stairs to the Miller Lite Landing seats, but unless you’re sitting in those seats, you still have to walk to the top of the section to get onto the concourse. Which is all to say that we find it less convenient of a location to go back and forth to during the game.

Vizzy View Bar

As we discussed in the Seating chapter, the Vizzy View Bar isn’t just a bar – it’s also an SRO option. The bar itself is located up a flight of stairs from the concourse behind the outfield seats. Once you’re up there, it’s a bar. It’s a nice space, and the Sox renovated it during the 2023-24 offseason, so it looks great. There’s a couple of ping pong tables, and there’s usually a table where you can sit down and have a snack or cool down if it’s hot outside. 

If you walk onto the outside patio, there used to be general admission hi-top chairs, but the Sox removed those this past offseason, so now it’s just an SRO spot. To be honest, we think this is better — the seats and SRO didn’t combine well together, so this gives more people space to hang out. The patio is covered by the awning from the 300 Club Level, but, honestly, it’s a bit dark under there because the awning is so low.  But for an inning or two, it’s a decent place to watch the game if you’d like a little shade.

One thing to note: this is also the only spot in the general seating bowl where you can buy the White Sox’ new Campfire Milkshake. We had one, and … it was delicious. $15 isn’t cheap, but we didn’t mind the price so much after eating it.

This isn’t our first choice of pregame spots, but it’s convenient, especially if your seats are in the outfield or deep left field.

Miller Lite Landing Bar

At the top of the Miller Lite Landing between Sections 105 and 108 is the Landing bar, which is an old subway car. In front of that (facing the field) is a small porch where you can hang out and drink. It’s nothing special, but it’s a nice place to take in a view of the field from, and during a weekend game in the summer, there will be plenty of people milling around here.

Huntington Bank Stadium Club

We fully detailed this in the Seating chapter, but in terms of just pregaming, this is absolutely an option. You would need to purchase a separate ticket on a resale site for the Club (which are often less than $10), and then you could make your way up here for either drinks or the full buffet. Check our Seating chapter for a full write-up about this, but in short: $45 (plus tip, plus the Club ticket) for two hours of all-you-can-eat and drink (beer included) in the club.

The Chicago / Southside Signs

Set against the distant backdrop of the Chicago skyline, the Chicago sign on the 500 Level (Gate 5 ramp) and the Southside sign (on the Gate 3 ramp) are definitely worth walking up to for a picture. If you’re at a night game, be sure to do it when you arrive at the park so you can get the skyline in the background. It’s probably not necessary to visit both, and we think the Chicago script sign is the cooler picture.

The Xfinity Kids Zone and Mascot Pics

The Sox have a pretty good kids zone on the 300 Level, and you can get to it from every level of the ballpark. The mascot will be there during the 5th inning to “take photos and interact with park guests” according to the team website. But here’s an insider tip for those of you (like me) who love getting pictures with mascots: the ushers won’t let you into the kids area if you don’t have kids with you. While that’s a fairly good policy, the fact remains that this makes the mascot unavailable to those without kids, which kinda sucks. 

Oh, and one more thing about the mascot: in the 20 years I’ve been coming to this park, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the mascot wandering around after the 6th inning. I can’t prove it, but it seems like his night typically ends early. So if you want a picture, you’ll just have to find him somewhere on the lower level during the first four innings of the game.