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Not exactly "Our Town," but still one for the gang.

Friday Jun 03, 2005.     By Pete Beatty

Bars + Clubs Feed

Dress: Cowboy shirt and jeans, and don't bother with showering. If you really want to fit in, bring your dog and feed it beer.

Best way to get there: The Division bus to Winchester or the Damen bus to Thomas will get you one block away; the Divison or Damen Blue Line (O'Hare branch) stops are a decent (1/2 mile and 3/4 mile, respectively) walk but eminently do-able.

Vibe: Dingy, not especially clean, and all the better for it. The walls are covered with graven images of Elvis alongside a collection of flea market castoffs, and it's usually a few degrees warmer, or colder, than it should be. It makes the bar about as appealing as your grandmother's basement, but it works; you'll have to take that on faith.

Quick tour: The front room features a long, lopsided bar fixture crawling with junk-store merch across from a tiny stage that doubles as seating when not in use. The back room features a heavily used pool table (free, but you'll wait for your turn), a juke, some wobbly tables and the ATM. That about covers things.

Crowd: On weekend nights, the Inner Town is packed to the gills with younger, preservationist hipsters looking for cred and/or cheap beer, while weeknights are a bit quieter. The regular crowd is a bit older, a bit more grizzled, but friendlier than most, and the Inner Town is easier to take when you don't have to stand around waiting for a table.

Night to go: Mondays and Tuesdays feature $2 PBR drafts (which cost only neglibley more on non-special occasions), but Thursday's mythical open mic feature is what draws most people to the Inner Town. Some performers are talented, some aren't, and the audience is drinking, which is all you need to know.

Claim to fame: The bar is a half-century old. There's free pool, cheap drinks and an open mic. I know nobody likes reflexive definitions, but the Inner Town is its own claim to fame.

You'll feel like you're in: The inside of Nelson Algren's brain, if he had a minor Elvis fetish and was agoraphobic.

Music genre: A well-curated mixture of classic rock and newer indie fare, along with the hipster canon (Hank Williams, Bowie, etc.).

Beyond the barstool: Scribble your name on the chalkboard to get in on the free pool. The table isn't quite up to regulation, but it is a great place to meet people, cadge drinks and lose polite sums after a few too many cadged drinks. Golden Tee and a few other arcade games are wedged in the back room as well, should you get bored with staring at the TV (usually showing sports or re-runs of cop dramas).

On the shelves: Not the biggest selection in the world, but the beer is cold and cheap. Mainstay brews are cheap domestics. Call drinks are hilariously cheap as well, running $3-$5.

Inner Town at 1935 W. Thomas; (773) 465-5568. Open 3 p.m.-2 a.m. Sunday-Friday; 3 p.m.-3 a.m. Saturday. Bar time runs faster than usual, at least on some nights.