You don't go to Brennan's for designer cocktails, and you don't go for a blurry stream of canned domestics and shots of paint-thinner-flavored brown liquor. The former cigar bar (you can still get that in the private lounge upstairs or the now-adjacent tobacconist) is a perfect middle ground, the one truly comfortable neighborhood bar in the generally aggressive Central West End scene. And at the heart of it is Adam Lough, there most nights and the single biggest contributor to the warm atmosphere of the place. If you came to make friends, he'll make the right introductions, and if you didn't, he'll leave you alone. He's equally capable on a night with two people sipping top-shelf Scotch as he is on a Friday with flavored-vodka mixed drinks flying across the bar en masse. Lough is also a frequent competitor and crowd favorite in the weekly debates hosted in Brennan's basement, and his wit is as useful there as it is in drafting the conversation-starting slogans he puts on the wall upstairs.
Dave Greteman at Elmwood
| Oct 2, 2019
Tony Saputo, Layla
| Sep 30, 2015
Miles Long
| Sep 25, 2014
Nate Kromat, The Scottish Arms
| Sep 26, 2013
34 Club
| Sep 22, 2011
Matt Seiter
| Sep 29, 2010
Nhat Nguyen
| Sep 30, 2009
Ted Kilgore
| Sep 24, 2008
Ted Kilgore
| Sep 24, 2008
Ryder Murphy
| Sep 26, 2007
Donna Wideman
| Sep 27, 2006
Jake Hafner
| Sep 29, 2005
Fred Friction
| Sep 29, 2004
Roxanna Ratossa
Modesto
| Sep 24, 2003
John Berg, Dressel's Pub
| Sep 25, 2002
John Berg, Dressel's Pub
| Sep 25, 2002