Hugo's Frog Bar

-Grubbing in Chicago  
Happy Hour and Friday Fish Fry in the Gold Coast

Today we head to a lesser visited part of the city, for me anyway. For others the Gold Coast is a playground. It’s an area most tourists staying downtown likely visit during their stay. As one of the most affluent neighborhoods in the city there’s plenty of shopping with lots of food and drink options to boot. Though it’s not an area I visit too often I do find myself there from time to time and more times than not it’s due to a visit to Hugo’s Frog Bar - home to my favorite happy hour in the city.

Locals (and tourists) Favorite in the Gold Coast 

Hugo’s sits on a prime piece of real estate along Rush street directly next door to its sister restaurant Gibson’s Bar. I’ve never been a big Gibson’s guy but the steakhouse is one of the highest grossing restaurants in town so it has more than its fair share of fans. Hugo’s is the seafood forward sibling of Gibson’s and I prefer it because of that. Specifically because of the oyster happy hour which is no doubt the best in town. It’s only available on Sunday-Thursday (3-6p) and you can only get it in the bar area which means space is limited but it’s worth going early for $1 oysters and half off almost all bottles of champagne and wine. Not only are the oysters still just a buck each which is rare in of itself but you can choose from any of the bivalves they have on offer and the choices are always really well rounded with pristinely shucked selections from both coasts. We like to add an order of their fantastic fresh cut fries to the mix and with that you got my favorite happy hour experience in all of Chicago.

Happy Hour Oysters and Fries at Hugo's Frog Bar 

Another strength of Hugo’s aside from its overall charm as a nice spot for a night out is its Friday special lake perch. There's surprisingly few places where you can find lake perch on the menu in Chicago and with that there’s very few places to get a real deal Friday fish fry. There’s plenty of spots to get fish and chips but to me a real Great Lakes region Friday Fish Fry has to have some sort of lake fish on offer be it bluegill, walleye, or lake perch (my favorite of them all). Hugo’s serves a pan fried lake perch special for $32 on Fridays. It’s a bit steep as far as pricing goes compared to a fish fry in Northwest Indiana or Southeast Wisconsin but it’s much closer for those of us in the city plus lake pech isn't cheap out there either. It also comes with your choice of a soup or salad. If you go the soup route you can get a big bowl of above average clam chowder to start off your meal. After that comes six soft and tender pieces of lightly pan fried lake perch sitting in a puddle of lemon butter plus a basket of those fantastic fresh cut fries, some of the best in the city for sure. I like to dip the fries into their refreshing dill tartar sauce which comes out with coleslaw and ketchup. While they don’t call it a Friday fish fry it’s essentially that and it’s probably the best Friday fish fry in the city from a quality production standpoint and it’s also more filling than most of them. So in my opinion it’s well worth it.

Friday Special Lake Perch 

Hugo's Frog Bar
1024 N Rush St
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 640-0999
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