Benchmark

The first Going Out listing in Old Town

Benchmark sits on Wells Street with a ground-floor bar, a patio and a roof deck, and the thing it leads with on its own site is a retractable roof — what it calls an indoor-outdoor experience. In a city where a dog-friendly patio is a six-month proposition, a roof that closes is worth knowing about.

Check when it opens, not when it closes

Benchmark does not open until 5pm Monday to Friday. At weekends it opens at 11am. For a dog walk that ends somewhere, this is a weekend place.

What Benchmark publishes, and what it does not

Its own website gives the address, the phone number and the hours, and says nothing about dogs anywhere.

The dog welcome here is do312's, whose dog-friendly patio guide says you can "roam the patio and roof deck with your buddy." That is a source this directory accepts for whether a venue welcomes dogs, and it is not the bar speaking. Two things are worth asking on the phone before a first visit: whether the roof deck is open that day, and whether a dog is welcome up there as well as on the patio.

There is a second reason to ask. The retractable roof is the bar's own description, and whether the space is open or closed on the day changes whether it functions as outdoor seating — which is the distinction Chicago's ordinance turns on. The Patios and Restaurants page explains the code: dogs in a designated outdoor area with its own street entrance, water yes, food no.

Lost dog? Chicago Animal Care and Control at 2741 S Western is the city's open-admission shelter and the first place to look.