April 15 seems to creep up on us every year (for those extreme procrastinators out there, it's Wednesday, btw), but this time around we might actually have something to look forward to after mailing off our returns to the IRS. Several empathetic bars and restaurants around Chicago will be taking mercy on us and serving up Tax Day specials and discounts to take the sting out of paying Uncle Sam.
At River North's Zocalo, you can score a three-course dinner for $15 from 5-11PM on Wednesday, April 15. (Your accountant will be proud.) The Tax Day prix-fixe menu includes your choice of either guacamole, queso fundido or tortilla soup for your first course; three tacos with a variety of fillings, enchiladas with cheese and chicken or pan-seared tilapia for your entree; and vanilla bean flan with white chocolate for dessert. What's even better: half-priced bottles of vino.
Raise a glass and commiserate with friends at Cityscape Bar in the Holiday Inn Mart Plaza across from the Merchandise Mart on Tax Day. The fun after-work lounge will offer drink specials (domestic beers and house wines for $4) and complimentary appetizers (think Guinness barbecue chicken wings and jalapeno poppers) from 5-7PM. Clever cocktails will include the "Effen IRS" martini, with Effen vodka, lemonade and blue curacao, the "In the Red" bloody Mary, the "In the Black Russian" and a "Deduction Draft" of Sam Adams, all for $4.15.
Sing the Tax Day blues at Smoke Daddy in Wicker Park, where all Miller products will be priced at $2 and baskets of smoked barbecue wings will go for half price ($4) from 11:30AM-11PM. Live blues music courtesy of Sue Hughey starting at 9PM will help remind you that things could always be worse.
Ease the no-refund pain by heading to Nacional 27 in River North for $6 mojitos from 5-9:30PM. The concoctions, which are usually priced between $10 and $12, include such tasty combinations as the "Southern Hemisphere Southside," with passion fruit, gin and lemon; "The Chadwick," featuring Bacardi Limon, mint, lime, pomegranate, ginger and habanero pepper; and the "Mo-healthy-ito," a blend of VeeV Acai spirit, mint, lime and rosemary. Nacional 27 is rolling back the prices on its mojitos to when the restaurant first opened in 1999 in honor of Tax Day.
Glen Ellyn's Glen Prairie will offer a welcoming respite from the piles of receipts you just turned in. The restaurant is featuring Tax Day specials from 4-11PM, including "The 1040 EZ," a half-pound Dietzler Farms burger and a bottle of domestic beer for $10.40, along with appetizers for $4.15.
