Chicago’s top Malört bars spill how they sell so much of it

Malört has been testing Chicagoans’ creative limits for decades, with descriptions becoming more foul as the drink gets more popular.

The bitter wormwood-based Swedish schnapps has been compared to baby tears mixed with gasoline, wrung-out sweaty gym socks and bug spray.

The Tribune asked the bars that go through the most bottles of Malört annually what makes the concoction so loved and so hated. Chicago-based CH Distillery, the sole distributor of Malört, estimates that its top accounts sell upward of a quarter-million shots a year.

“Whether you like it or not, it is a Chicago staple,” said Ryanne Mainard, bartender and manager at Reggies, the top account, on the Near South Side. “You see it and you feel like it’s a taste from home.”

Mainard is known as the “Queen of Malört” at Reggies. It’s not just because she decided to exclusively drink Malört six years ago, but also because she’s persuaded numerous customers and Reggies employees to appreciate what she describes as Aqua Net hair spray mixed with grapefruit.

“I just swear by the drink. When I travel around the United States or around the world, I’ll bring Malört with me and introduce people to it,” she said. “Feel like it’s Chicago in a cup.”

On a recent weekday afternoon, Mainard was pouring a shot of the amber-colored concoction at the wooden bar as she poked fun at another employee about their love-hate relationship with the drink.

Rock music rang through the poster-lined, sticker-covered interior of the dive bar, a frequent stop for tourists because of its proximity to McCormick Place. And unaware tourists make great “Malört faces,” Mainard said. That’s the lip-scrunching expression and subsequent shudder someone might make when they try it for the first time.

Robby Glick, owner of Reggies, said he credits his staff for the sheer amount of Malört they go through, which ranges from six to 10cases a week. That’s about 70 to 100 bottles.

“I think we’re known as a bar that the staff loves Malört and pours Malört,” Glick said. It started as a gimmick, like giving a shot to a Packers fan coming in to watch the Bears game, then evolved into the staff shot of choice at the end of the night.

Malört is popular among bartenders, servers and cooks in general, said Patrick Odon, director of beer and baseball operations at Nisei Lounge in Lakeview.

“(Nisei Lounge is) one of the only places a lot of times open late on weekdays,” he said. “So they’ll come in and it’s their drink and since then, it’s gotten more and more famous and more notorious.”

Malört, a 70-proof liquor, also isn’t as strong as traditional spirits, making it a good option for bartenders who get asked to take shots with customers, Odon said.

At Nisei Lounge, the oldest bar in Wrigleyville, a sparkly assortment of party and holiday streamers adorn the ceiling, along with lights strung around pipes and the walls. A jar of baseballs soaked in Malört can be seen from the window — Odon said Cubs fans try to buy it off the bar all the time, or ask for a shot.

“Chicago has a strong sense of place and pride, from our hot dogs to fights over our pizza. So (Malört) fits in with it,” he said. Malört has been Nisei Lounge’s top-selling liquor for the past decade, he said.

A few times each year, you can find a “Malört wall” of 100 bottles stacked behind the bar. Cubs fans, tourists and locals coming into the dive bar often see it as a challenge to finish them off as quickly as possible. Odon said the whole wall is usually gone in about 40 days.

“It’s always like that, even if it’s offseason or not. Once people see the wall, they’re like, ‘Oh, let’s take that down,’ and they order more,” he said.

Nisei Lounge bartenders also serve Malört infusions made with peppermint, Red Vines candy or Sputnik coffee. There’s a garlic-infused mixture “that’ll change your life — but not in a good way,” Odon said.

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Archie’s Iowa Rockwell Tavern in West Town sold just over 13,000 shots of Malört in 2022, which is about 35 cases.

Like those at Reggies or Nisei Lounge, Archie’s owner Katrina Arthur said a “straight-up” shot is the only way to drink Malört. A lot of their regular customers work in the service industry and have developed a taste for it.

“For servers and bartenders, we really love what we do when we work and I think it’s a badge of honor to say, ‘Hey, we’re not part of the mainstream; we do it because we like it,’ ” Arthur said.

As for the rest of Chicago, Arthur said she thinks people here love to be different, and Malört is part of that identity.

“It’s a little good. It’s not really bad,” she said. “But there’s something that just sticks with you.”

vla@chicagotribune.com

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