Old Town Ale House

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Open since 1958, the Ale House has had plenty of time to develop character. It looks like the living room of an old woman who's cross-addicted to antiques and books. Japanese masks hang behind the bar and on the back wall is a giant papier-mache face that once graced the front of Figaro's, a defunct local bar. There's also a mural of regular customers, painted in the 1970s, and the ''Old Town Ale House Book Sharing Library,'' a case of paperbacks that patrons can borrow. ''You don't have to buy a drink,'' said a bartender named Sharon recently. ''You don't have to leave a book. Some guy came in here yesterday to leave a bunch of books. He said, 'I always take some.' People read everywhere in here. Nobody bothers you. It's not a meat market.'' The Ale House has the endorsement of the actor who played the most famous barfly in television history, George Wendt, who drank here . . . and the Ale House has his picture to prove it. (Wendt is second only to Jim Belushi in number of pictures displayed in Chicago bars and restaurants.)

Old Town Ale House is located at 219 W. North Ave. in Chicago