Chicago’s First Indoor Mini-Golf Bar And Lounge

It all started when best friends Nick Jenkins and Austin Delonge played mini golf as kids, since then, they have never stopped playing. Austin originally grew up in Vermont and Nick near Boston, but the dynamic duo met in college at the University of Vermont and have been best friends ever since. Nick eventually moved to Chicago in 2013 looking to get a job in business and Austin soon followed.
In 2019, they decided to quit their day jobs and started making plans to create Big Mini Putt Club. They designed and built each one of the nine holes in Nick’s garage. They started with a big notebook full of designs and from there, they started constructing and testing. Each hole went through a rigorous design, build, and test process before it came to life on the course. The course that they ultimately decided on was designed to be challenging yet fun for all skill levels. “When you’re a kid mini-golf is just this amazing thing that you get to do every summer with your family and friends and then you forget about it and so we’re trying to bring that back.” Despite the pandemic, they opened their doors in late March and people are coming.
This place is not just for the kids, Big Mini Putt Club also has a full bar featuring ten signature cocktails and ten draft beers available with a focus on local brewers. “It might help your golf game if you give it to someone else that you’re playing,” Nick jokes. They also collaborated with a local restaurant to offer players some eats. “We wanted it to be an entire night out. Not you go play mini-golf and then get a drink…you’re here, you’re enjoying mini-golf, you’re also at the bar and you’re kind of going back and forth.” Austin says.
They hope to invoke nostalgic memories and want people to have a good time. They plan to switch out some of the courses every 6 months to a year, in order to keep it fresh and give people a reason to come back over and over again.
A full round on the course will take you about 45 minutes and reservations must be made online via their website. Following COVID guidelines, the largest group size allowed is four people.
Big Mini Putt Club is located at 1302 N Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park. For more information on Big Mini Putt Club and how you can make a reservation, head to bigminiputtclub.com
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[@victorchen1650]

Cool place!! May I ask how big is your Mini-golf bar?