The Boundary is the perfect spot for the changing face of Wicker Park. It's part sports bar, part late-night hang, sort of like most places you'd find in Lincoln Park, except with great decor and a hip feel more suited for the 60622 zip in which it resides.

Housed in the former space of a foreign auto imports shop, the Boundary (from the folks behind Trace in Lincoln Park) is now a large bar with exposed bricks and dark wood. Sports nuts will immediately be drawn to the high-quality flat screen TVs that line the walls, while others will most likely notice the barrel roof with exposed ducts, wood beams and unique wooden light fixtures that hang down to the center of the room. Cream-colored mesh insets also accent the walls and do double duty as dividers for the deep caramel leather booths that line the left side of the bar, giving patrons plenty of privacy to throw back a few with friends or get their grub on.

The food here doesn't veer much from tried-and-true bar fare like quesadillas ($7.50), chicken wings ($8.95) and a variety of burgers and salads. The drink menu is much more adventurous, with a large selection of fancy beers (most are around $6 a bottle), domestic and import brews, all types of reasonably priced liquor ($5-$8 a drink) and even a few wines by the glass.

This place gets packed quickly on the weekends (on a recent Friday at 7 p.m., there was an hour wait for a table and absolutely no room to squeeze up to the bar), so if you're looking to enjoy the decor, catch the game or challenge a few friends to a round of shuffleboard (there's a table in the back of the bar), come during the week.

Centerstage Reviewer: Maya Henderson