Buddy Guy's Legends

There are famous blues clubs, and then there is a blues club owned and still watched over by one of the greatest living blues guitarists on earth. Buddy Guy's Legends has anchored Chicago's South Loop since 1989, keeping the city's defining music alive exactly as its owner promised Muddy Waters he would. It describes itself as "a museum, if museums would let you drink and dance", which is about right.

At 700 South Wabash Avenue, in an 11,000-square-foot room spread over two levels, Legends does something few venues on our list can: it combines a working blues club, a full Louisiana kitchen, a proper bar and a genuine museum of American music, all under the ownership of an artist who might himself be at the bar on any given night. That rare completeness, legend as proprietor, deep nightly programming, real food and drink, is why we rank it fourth among the best live music bars in the world.

A promise to Muddy Waters

Buddy Guy, born George Guy in Louisiana in 1936, opened Legends in June 1989, having earlier co-owned the storied Checkerboard Lounge on Chicago's South Side. The club, he has said, fulfils a promise he made to Muddy Waters, who before his death in 1983 told Guy to "keep the blues alive." Legends is Guy's answer: a place dedicated, night after night, to the electric Chicago blues that Waters and his peers built, and to booking blues and only blues. The club is explicit about that policy, it books blues artists, full stop, which in an era of genre-blurring venues is its own kind of statement.

The room has moved once. The original club stood a block south, near Wabash and 8th Street; in June 2010 it relocated to its current, larger home at Wabash and Balbo, more than doubling in size. Directly behind the Hilton Chicago, it has become a fixture of the South Loop and a near-mandatory stop for any music lover passing through the city.

A stage with a staggering guest list

For a club of its size, Legends' history reads like a hall-of-fame ballot. The club's own history cites appearances by Willie Dixon, Koko Taylor, Otis Rush, Albert Collins, B.B. King, Hubert Sumlin, Johnny Winter, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Dr. John and Junior Wells, alongside rock royalty who came to pay respects, Bo Diddley, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, ZZ Top, Gregg Allman and Slash, and pop names from John Mayer to Sheila E. and the Pointer Sisters. One night in November 1994, Eric Clapton played three sold-out shows here and called Otis Rush up to jam while the Who's Pete Townshend watched from the crowd. That is the kind of thing that can happen in a room this size when its owner is Buddy Guy.

The January residency

The club's crown jewel is Buddy Guy's own annual January residency, roughly sixteen shows across the month that sell out year after year, drawing fans who camp overnight in the brutal Chicago winter for front-row seats. It is one of the great standing events in American blues, a chance to see a titan of the genre play an intimate club rather than a festival stage, in the room that bears his name. If you can time a visit to Chicago for January and get a ticket, few live-music experiences anywhere compare.

Part club, part museum

Legends earns its "museum you can drink in" tagline honestly. The walls hold Buddy's Grammys and Blues Music Awards, his Kennedy Center Honors, his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame statue, and the guitar Keith Richards gave him during the filming of Scorsese's Shine a Light. There's Muhammad Ali's gloves and Jimi Hendrix's shoes and scarf. Behind the bar hangs a collection of guitars gifted by B.B. King, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan. You could spend an hour reading the walls before the first band even plays, and unlike a real museum, you can do it with a beer in hand.

The food and the full bar

This is a genuine restaurant as well as a club. The kitchen turns out Louisiana-style Cajun and Southern soul food, gumbo, jambalaya, chicken and ribs, catfish po'boys, plus burgers and salads, with the kitchen running late into the night. The full bar includes Buddy's own "Buddy Brew" beer, poured from a polka-dot Stratocaster tap handle in a nod to his famous guitar. It all means you can arrive hungry, eat well, drink properly and stay for the music without leaving the building, a complete night out rather than a ticketed show you slot into your evening.

Why we rank it No. 4

Legends sits at four for a combination almost no other venue can match: a working, world-famous artist as owner; a deep, genre-faithful booking policy; a real kitchen and bar; and a history that runs from Koko Taylor to the Rolling Stones. It is, alongside Antone's, the most complete blues night out in America, and the fact that Buddy Guy himself is often on the premises gives it a living authenticity that money cannot buy.

It ranks just behind Antone's largely on the weight of institutional history: Antone's fifty years and its role in launching an entire generation of players give it a slightly longer shadow. But that is a fine distinction between two of the great American blues clubs, and on the night of a Buddy Guy residency, Legends is arguably the best blues experience on the continent.

Getting in: what to expect

Legends works on general admission, there are no reservations, and all seating is first come, first served. Cover charges are modest and vary by night (typically lower Sunday through Thursday and higher on weekends and for special events), and the club is all-ages before 8pm but strictly 21-and-over after. Early evenings often feature free acoustic dinner sets, with headliners taking the stage later; a Sunday jazz set and midweek blues jams round out the calendar. There's no club parking, but street parking and nearby garages serve the South Loop, and the venue sits directly behind the Hilton Chicago.

The move that pays off here is to come early, eat dinner during the free acoustic set, stake out a spot, and let the night build toward the headliner. Because the room runs several nights a week with a mix of local and touring acts, it rewards a look at the calendar, and a January visit rewards it most of all.

Drinks, food and money

Order the gumbo or jambalaya, pull a "Buddy Brew" or a whiskey, and settle in among the memorabilia. Our $$ rating reflects a moderate, night-dependent cover plus normal food and bar prices, an accessible night for the calibre of music and the sheer amount of history around you. There's no minimum-spend maze and no pretension; you pay the cover, then eat and drink as you like while the blues plays.

Who it's for

Legends is for blues lovers first, but its full kitchen, big room and museum walls make it welcoming to almost anyone, couples, groups, families in the early all-ages hours, and music tourists making a Chicago pilgrimage. It's more accommodating of a lively crowd than the listening rooms at the top of our list, and the food makes it easy to build a whole evening around. If you want to understand Chicago's blues, or simply want a great, unpretentious night of live music, this is the room.

Continue with our Live Music Bars in Chicago guide, compare it with fellow blues great Blind Willie's in Atlanta (No. 16), and see the full picture on our 25 best live music bars ranking. The Chicago Bar Guide covers the rest of the city.

Chicago blues, and Buddy Guy's place in it

To grasp why Legends matters, it helps to know what it is guarding. Chicago blues is the electrified, amplified music that Southern Black migrants built in the city's clubs from the 1940s onward, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon and their peers taking the Delta's acoustic blues and plugging it in. Buddy Guy is one of the last great living links to that founding generation: a guitarist whose ferocious, unpredictable style influenced Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and who spent his early Chicago years at clubs like the Checkerboard Lounge, which he co-owned before opening Legends. When he says the club exists to keep the blues alive, he is speaking as someone who learned the music directly from the men who invented its electric form.

That is what gives Legends its weight. It is not a themed bar trading on nostalgia; it is a working institution run by a foundational artist, booking blues and only blues in a city that has watched most of its historic clubs close. In a real sense, it is one of the last strongholds of a music Chicago gave the world.

Reading the walls

Give yourself time before the first band to take in the memorabilia, because Legends is a genuine collection as much as a club. On display are Buddy's Grammys and Blues Music Awards, his Kennedy Center Honors and his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame statue; the guitar Keith Richards handed him during the filming of Martin Scorsese's Rolling Stones concert film Shine a Light; Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves; and Jimi Hendrix's shoes and scarf. Behind the bar hangs a rack of guitars gifted by B.B. King, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan. It is, as the club likes to say, a museum that lets you drink and dance, and the artefacts are the real thing, not reproductions.

Frequently asked

Are there reservations? No, all seating is general admission, first come, first served. What's the cover? Modest and night-dependent, typically lower midweek and higher on weekends and for special events. Is there an age limit? All ages before 8pm, strictly 21-and-over after. Can I eat there? Yes, a full Louisiana-style kitchen (gumbo, jambalaya, ribs) runs late, with a full bar including Buddy's own "Buddy Brew." When does Buddy Guy play? He performs an annual January residency of around sixteen shows that sells out well ahead; if that's your goal, plan and book early. Might I see him otherwise? If he's in town, he can often be found at the bar.

The verdict

Buddy Guy's Legends is what happens when a living legend decides to keep his promise to a mentor and build a home for the music that made him. More than thirty-five years on, it still books the blues and only the blues, still feeds you Louisiana cooking, still hangs its owner's Grammys on the wall, and, in January, still puts one of the greatest guitarists alive on its own small stage. Few clubs on earth offer so much, and none offers quite this.

What to order

• 01

  A "Buddy Brew"

  Buddy Guy's own beer, poured from a polka-dot Stratocaster tap handle.

• 02

  Gumbo or jambalaya

  The kitchen's Louisiana staples, the right food for a blues night.

• 03

  A neat whiskey

  Order it, find a spot near the stage, and read the walls.