The night begins with some high rollers two young entrepreneurs who are moving towards what will likely be a multi-million dollar startup. One of them had turned 21 tonight so I decided to take them to my favorite bars and restaurants places I know would give us great service and the ability to chat about work and life.

We ran through the gamut of restaurants and bars: we started at Branch 27 (West Town) for mussels steak tartare and a 6-pack of cocktails made with Hum a Chicago-born botanical/herbal liqueur. My young business partners were impressed with both the service and the plentiful serving size of food.

We then jumped to the next bar/restaurant of the night: Red Canary on Milwaukee. While not too busy it was still warm enough to pull us through the door. We sat down at a table near the front of the huge restaurant and a lovely and customer-focused server took our orders: The Noble Experiment times three. Tequila espresso chocolate and whatever other magic was combined for a great set of cocktails. In Chicago we call it pre-gaming but for us it was a magnificent combination of easily-found parking great service and a wonderful concoction.

With plenty of time before midnight we decided to flounce to my next favorite a bar that was recently at the top of my list but now ends up below the acceptable rating and finds itself at the bottom of the barrel: Dave Roberts Late Bar near Belmont and Central Park.

I ve been bouncing into Late Bar since it opened. Dave Roberts (a long time DJ in the Chicago industrial scene and formerly of Club 950) turned this tiny 4am venue into the last vestige of industrial and goth in Chicago with seemingly great success. Borrowing from Laurie s Planet of Sound employees he seemed to get the perfect combination of reasonable drink prices and perfect service. I highly recommend finding bartenders Mikey and Melissa who proffer fast service and perfect serving aptitude. Dave Roberts lovely lady is one of the most customer-attentive people in the industry doing a fab job of smiling and making pleasantries even after 8 hours of DJing or serving drunks more drinks till 4am.

After many visits and heavy tipping I figured Late Bar would be a good final destination on a Tuesday night past midnight. I could not be more wrong. We parked right in front and after working our stray past the bouncer we found ourselves in a nearly empty bar. Late Bar is a cash bar meaning your Visa and Mastercard are not welcome. No problem I usually say as I work to wine and dine my future investors with some exceptional cocktails mixed by an unknown bartender.

Before ordering our drinks ($10 on the menu sitting in front of us) I go to the lonely ATM seated behind the cold door man. I swipe my ATM card knowing my 5 figure balance will kick out $100 with just a $3 fee (paid to the owners of Late Bar who obviously don t want to pay 1.4% to a merchant account). After waiting about 3 minutes the ATM spits out an error TCP/IP failure. With my background in Internet startups I know this isn t a denial: the ATM can t connect to the network.

I ask the doorman what the problem is and he tells me to try again. I do and wait another 3 minutes while my drink at the bar warms up. Again another TCP/IP failure appears. I back off the ATM and go and talk to the owner Dave Roberts. I ve known Dave off and on for around 10 years and a mutual friend from the bar scene who is talking to him lets me intrude. I tell him he has an issue with the ATM to which he neutrally responds give it some time. I tell him we re there to celebrate my investor s 21st birthday which brings almost no reply from the sole bar owner.

We get our drinks and the bartender says we own $33 (not $30 as the menu states). I tell him I m waiting for the ATM to work and he nods his head as if he knows this is a common problem. We start to drink our drinks while talking to the owner and his friend. Another set of customers young ladies who are new to the city attempt to jangle money out of the ATM to pay their tab but to no avail.

Another 45 minutes pass and I attempt again to withdraw money to pay my tab and order another set of drinks. Every time I have visited this dive in Avondale I have spent 3 figures on my friends with a hefty flip for the bar staff. Again the ATM issues a TCP/IP network error. I consult Dave the owner and he says that there s an ATM down the street so I walk down the street to an unknown bar and squander around looking for an ATM leaving my business clients behind.

As I expected the other bar doesn t have an ATM either they accept credit cards unlike the cheapskates at Late Bar. I leave the bar wandering back up Belmont to let the owner know he s wrong and I have a tab hanging.

I tell Dave Roberts that he s wrong to which he responds I didn t tell you to go there even though 5 customers near him agree that I was told to try the next bar over. I have a tab sitting (at the wrong amount mind you) and no way to get cash. Both of my technology investors decided to try to fix the ATM. They remove the wireless router reboot it try different positions and spend over 20 minutes working on it as I have a smoke outside.

When I return everyone (including the owner) are happy because my future partners have fixed the ATM by moving the wireless router into a new position where it gets a signal. I withdraw my $100 the other customers withdraw their money and I sit back with my clients to finish our drinks.

The owner of Late Bar comes back to talk to our mutual friend and I tell him that I am unhappy with the way he treated me. My clients could have charged him $200 for their time but they did it as a favor. The bar will make more money because their customers are able to withdraw cash but all the bar offers is 1 flee drink for one of my guests. Unbelievable.

The owner tells me that he couldn t help me. Note that this is the sole owner of a tiny establishment that I have dropped significant money in taking ware of not just the bartenders but the door men on previous visits. I told him he could run me a tab until the next day to which he said we can t do that. I wasn t asking for free drinks (although now that I think of it never once has this owner offered to buy me a shot or cover my first drink after many visits). I ve mentioned the bar to my thousand-or-so Chicago friends of Facebook obviously sending thousand of dollars of drink orders their way but it doesn t registered with this I am better than you owner.

Finally I tell him that he disrespected me to which he said Then don t come here anymore. At this point it is obvious that he doesn t care about anything but himself. If he cared about his bottom twine he d have happily told the bartender to cover my tab for a measly $30 ($7 in product cost) until the next day. If it was my bar and a customer helped fix my money spigot ATM you better believe their drink are on the house. No go he won t do business like a businessman should.

My business partners and I leave happy to go to another 4am bar a few miles away. There s an old adage in Chicago: if you have a 4am liquor license you ll make a killing but only if you take care of your regulars. Dave Roberts and Late Bar don t subscribe to this theory. I d love to go back they have a great and unique music focus with an affable crowd that is neutral and friendly. Still with the absolutely atrocious attitude by the sole owner I can do nothing but deny this bar as one of the most unfriendly bars in Chicago.

My investors fixed Late Bar s chief source of income with no thanks from the owner. The owner told me to walk blocks to another bar with an ATM only to find out he s wrong with no apology and drink on his tab. He never said to come back and pay the tab the next day (standard practice in Chicago at any bar) and he disparaged me in front of clients and friends.

Would you go to Late Bar? I d recommend not to. Underbar on Belmont and Western is open till 4am with a working ATM and a great staff and management team. Do as I do and take your business elsewhere. It was fun while it lasted but something like that should have never happened. I know the right thing for me to have done is to have shown up at the bar with cash on hand already but knowing there s an ATM means I generally will wait till I arrive. The right thing for a bar owner is to at least offer to cover your small tab until the next day that they re open but that s not how it went down and instead what seemed like a new regular blot for me and my friends business partners and clients is now awash in ugliness.