High Street,
Epsom,
London,
KT19 8DN
0871 971 6260
The ViewLondon Review
Sutton’s secret vice, Chicago Rock Cafe, is a mighty cheese powered pop palace for Chavs. Be prepared!The VenueChicago Rock Cafe occupies the entire length of a side street beside the retailer Wilkinsons. It’s a pretty large place, and the entrance looks surprisingly smart with stairs, glass doors, and even an outside seating/smoking terrace.
Inside, however, it’s a completely different story! The club is separated into two rooms. Room one, New York New York, is a dimly lit area with a central, 70’s style dance floor with space to mull around and sit down in large booths. A short walk through a hard to find corridor will bring you to room two: Chicagos. This area is more relaxed, better lit and full of American iconography. The carpeted room tends to exude a wafting smell of vomit late on weekend nights (and weeknights too for that matter). This room is pretty large and full of space to sit, tables to relax on and a large dancefloor for disco dancing to pop, RnB and cheese, and there certainly is a LOT of cheese!
The AtmosphereIt’s pretty hard to be turned away from the Chicago Rock Cafe. In fact, you’d have to try pretty hard not to get in. Some Friday and Saturday night events require gents to wear smart shoes and shirts, but get here early enough and you shouldn’t have too much bother. The nighttime patrons vary from very young cheeky school kids to locals celebrating various events after work to pub drinkers who’ve had one too many and are now intent on getting hammered. All ages are welcome here, and it is typical to see young and old getting along, sometimes a little too well. Anything goes here and most people are pretty relaxed, especially in the main Chicagos room. Staff are competent but can become sloppy as things get busy, particularly between the core 11pm–12:30am hours.
The FoodChicago Rock Cafe does serve food in the daytime. The lunchtime menu is pretty cheap but also pretty bad. On offer are burgers, chips and pasta bakes, none of which look particularly tempting. Service can also be slow and unprofessional. This is really a club after all, and staff are more experienced at controlling drunken rowdy teenagers than serving food with panache.
The DrinkChicago Rock Cafe is very expensive considering just how under par the venue is. Beer here is easily pricier than anywhere else in the area and spirits with mixers are over £5. Although there are better priced deals available, these tend to either be for Carling, or for multicoloured alcopops. The best things to buy are almost certainly bottled beers, such as Sol, Corona or Budweiser. These are expensive, but far better than the beers available on tap, and easier to keep cool than pints in the hot, sweaty environment of the club.
The Last WordAt the Chicago Rock Cafe, getting drunk is your only option if you want to get through a night of cheese and disco hits in a sweaty space full of over-sexed teenagers. It might cost you more than you bargained for, but with any luck you’ll have no memory of your time here, which is probably for the best!