The PopCulteer
August 9, 2024

A little more than five years ago, your PopCulteer and his wife, Mel Larch, made our way to Chicago for a Summer soiree, and while there we stopped at a charming little bar in the Lincoln Park district called Replay.

Replay is a bar/arcade, with over 65 vintage pinball and videogame attractions, all set up so you can play them for free. It is very cool, and a slice of pop culture heaven, but as your humble blogger and his lovely bride are rather notorious non-drinkers, it takes just a little more than that to get us to go to a bar. Luckily, Replay also converts their bar space into a different pop culture theme every month, and five years ago they converted it into the Salty Spitoon, themed around Mel’s beloved SpongeBob Squarepants.  You can see my photo essay of our visit HERE.

Well, five years later we made a return early-anniversary trip to the city of wind, and Replay was once again saluting the little yellow angled fellow with The Bikini Bottom Bar.  We were tipped off when Replay teased it on their Facebook page, and since we were going to be in town during the event (which is supposed to wind up on August 25, but may be extended), we hopped the Brown Line to Diversey and dropped in for a return visit.

It was loads of fun. We were in town to see a play at Steppenwolf and another show that you may read about here later, but it was cool to go back and check out the Bikini Bottom vibes at Replay.

We’ve been on the road so many weekends this summer that I’m running behind with my photo essays, so I’m running this now, even though we got back nine or ten days ago. If you want to visit the Bikini Bottom Bar yourself, check the links in the paragraphs above, for special SpongeBob-themed events.

And now I’m ready for photos…

One block over from the L station, and then one more block, and we’re there.

The front door might give you a hint that this is not your average bar

A small sample of the free-play pinball and arcade games.

And more of them.

A lot of Marvel-themed games for the fans.

Plus some classics from my era.

On our way to the back, Patchy and Potty say “Howdy.”

There is one rule. You must firmly grasp it.

The promised land…under the sea

The picture I swiped from their Facebook page because it looked so good

Squidward and Patrick.

SpongeBob and his pineapply abode

You really shouldn’t laugh at The Flying Dutchman

The view from a booth

He’s not trying to get the Krabby Patty formula. He’s just hanging out. He didn’t even notice it was there.

Evildoers Beware!

Let me take you down, ’cause I’m going to Jellyfish Fields

Gary says “hi.” Actually he says “meow.”

They put a ton of detail work into the ship.

I think this is Conch Street.

Another view from the booth.

Nothing to Sea Bear here.

This little guy was just minding his own business.

We were having something, but I can’t remember what.

Someday I will learn to take a selfie that doesn’t make us both look certifiably insane.

One of the special events RePlay has coming up. Check the links above for more.

And with that, we bid farewell to Bikini Bottom and this week’s PopCulteer. Check back for fresh content every day, and all our regular features.

If I manage to pull it off, one of those regular features will be very special this weekend.