Underground?

After the KazBar, we followed the Bassist to an after-hours bar called Underground Wonder Bar on 10 East Walton Street (www.undergroundwonderbar.com).

Established in 1989, this tiny venue is open 365 days a year. Lonie Walker, who founded the place, still plays there and played for us.

Believe it or not, the bar is actually underground -- not completely, but enough to give the bar an appropriately subterranean feel. The Christmas lights, the martini glasses hanging upside down from the ceiling and the hostess drinking wine and smoking her cigarettes gave this bar a very comfortable, open feeling.

And this is definitely a bar, not a club. The sign read that the seating capacity is only 57, which is barely enough room for a jukebox...much less a live band. Yet, tucked away in the very back, right in front of the restrooms, is a small stage. Two rows of tables line the walls with a few more tablessituated in the front. The environment is intimate, if not cramped. We loved the music, and we were thrilled to meet and get elbowed by strangers.