location: 1854 W. North Ave., Chicago
phone number: 773.342.0910
hours: Mon - Fri 12pm - 10pm; Sat 11am - 10pm; Sun 12pm - 6pm
payment methods:
directions: (Near the Damen Blue Line Stop, a block or two east of the Damen/North/Milwaukee intersection, on the North side of North Avenue)

Despite being located amidst a growing number of wine and cigar bars, Quimby’s remains a destination in Wicker Park/the greater Chicagoland area. There, you can browse an assortment of printed materials that you would be hard pressed to find elsewhere, including, but not limited to, a wide variety of merchandise such as graphic novels, zines, comics, fashion magazines (soon to include Worn), as well as sex/erotica/fetish stuff, “lowbrow” art, and “mayhem” (whatever that may be). Basically, they carry anything that can give you any sort of hipster cred in some circle or another. There is also a fairly substantial wall of free stuff, where you can feel free to put your very own, copied-at-work manifesto, or flyer advertising some anarchist punk show. You can spend hours browsing, learning about the many fascinating ways to do XY and Z, the pending revolution, or just trying to verify if that long-lost friend of yours actually got her short-story published in McSweeney’s. The staff isn’t nearly as intimidating as they look, and in my experience, has cheerfully answered the questions I have asked them. They’re online too, at www.quimbys.com.
Emily Bernstein