Lulu was a real person. Marie Louise "Lulu" White ran one of the most famous establishments on Storyville's red light district in New Orleans in the late 1800s and early 1900s. She openly defied segregation laws, promoted performers of color, and became a legendary figure in the city's underground culture. The bar named after her, tucked in the lower level of Storyville Chicago on N Clark Street, carries that spirit forward.

Getting there means going through the main restaurant and heading down the stairs. The room is deliberately small: four tables, four bar seats. That's the whole thing. It forces a kind of intimacy that most bars are too large to achieve.

Live music, DJs, and variety shows rotate through the programming. The frozen Hurricane gets mentioned often in reviews. The crowd is mixed and the vibe is unpretentious, which given the setting is something of an achievement.