Smokin' Chokin' and Chowing with the King: December 2025

Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Chicago Sweatlodge

-Grubbing in Chicago
Sauna Food in Portage Park

Today’s post is a bit out of the ordinary, even for this blog. But I’ve been out of the country the last couple weeks thus I haven’t been eating out a ton in Chicago with the exception of a couple spots I hit up before we left for South America. One of which is a place that no food publication has gone before - the Chicago Sweatlodge. Now there's a good reason for this in that the Sweatlodge is a sauna that happens to have a grill but the the main reason for our visit was to spend some time sweating but we also ended up eating dinner there and this is how it all went down, albeit in a rather reluctant way.

(SORRY NO PICS)

The idea to go here came from my friend who took me and a few others one day after work. It wasn't the worst idea as it was one of the first colder days of the Fall with both rain and wind in the picture. That said I wasn't sure what to expect going to one of these spots as the closest I've come to visiting a sauna was the locker room at Lakeshore Athletic Club where you could never get too comfortable with a bunch of old guys trancing around eating apples with their stuff hanging out. So I didn't really have high hopes but I'm always down for an adventure. We pulled up to what looks like it could be a Portage park corner tavern and it kind of is but this isn't your typical neighborhood tavern as there's a cover charge to enter. You pay and trade your license for a key to a locker plus towels and sandals if needed. We paid and made our way into the locker room which was quite small and full of Eastern Europeans. After wiggling and waggling my way into my swimsuit and managing to get all of my belongings stuffed inside my locker I hit up the wet and dry saunas for about 45 minutes but decided to skip the cold plunge which consists of a bunch of naked guys jumping in and out of what's basically a full body bath. Not for me so I took a shower, put on my clothes, and made my way to the bar.

Rehydrate in the Chicago Sweatlodge

The bar / restaurant is called Rehydrate which sounds like a place you would visit in Boystown, not that there's anything wrong with that! There's about 8-10 sets of tables and most of the people there are joined by a few friends, some are playing card games and others are eating, none of them have anything on except a towel covering their torso and everything directly below it. I'm not going to lie the first thing I wondered was whether or not this place was up to health code standards as far as none of the customers having shoes or socks or even shirts on but I didn't think about it much past that. I ordered a can of Sapporo and then another plus a Chebureki which is a deep fried turnover stuffed with minced meat and onions. It's a popular street snack in former Soviet aligned counties. The version here is made with both pork and beef and comes served with sour cream. I enjoyed it for what it was which is basically an Eastern European empanada. I was tasked with doing most of the ordering and I had to explain to our group that Eastern European food is unique but maybe not for the reasons you want it to be. There's not a ton of spicing used when it comes to this type of food but I still ordered pretty well starting with a salami salad. Nothing to fancy but this was fresh and filling and a good start for a group. I also got us a plate of the homestyle potatoes made with sliced and fried potatoes tossed with mushrooms, onions and sour cream. I suggest adding some steak sauce too.

Appetizers at Chicago Sweatlodge

Moving along my friend who brought us all there insisted on getting a couple soups which he claimed were great so we tried the chicken and the seafood soup and I wouldn't call them great but they were pretty good. My seafood soup had a nice tasting seafood broth going for it but was a bit light on the seafood and the seasoning. Even a few dashes of Old Bay would've gone a long way. The potato pierogi was pretty standard ns lacking the fragrant fried onions that all the good ones come with. A plate of chicken kebabs was most hurt by the lack of seasoning and it didn't help that it was breast meat either. The fried fish was tilapia which can be rather tasteless but it was well breaded and the lemon gave it some good flavor but again it needed some sort of seasoning or even better some mild sauce. I thing I really liked was how you could order pitchers of fresh squeezed juices which is rare enough that it stands out. Overall it was an interesting experience. I think it was a bit too crowded but I did enjoy both of the saunas about as comfortably as one can in a situation like that. The food wasn't bad but it's not the main reason most of the people are here - it serves a purpose rather than a plan.